© Adrien Williams
Trois-Rivières is situated roughly 100 km north of Montreal at the confluence of the St Maurice and St Lawrence Rivers. In the past, it was an important location for the paper industry, and a paper mill once stood on the present site. In 2009, the municipal government decided to erect an open-air theatre on what had by then become industrial wasteland in a prominent position.
The design by Paul Laurendeau is a landmark structure. The huge steel pent roof, 80 × 90 m in area, has a structural depth of 6 m, tapering to only 2.5 cm at the edges. Clad on the underside with wine-red metal panels, it is borne by eight 26-metre-high composite steel-and-concrete columns 85 cm in diameter.
Seating is provided for an audience of 3,500, including 200 seats in boxes, with space for a further 5,200 people on the sloping grassed area to the rear. The site is closed off along the river by a roughly six-metre-high concrete wall, on which the name of the town is written in black-painted letters, consisting of laminated boarding.
The design by Paul Laurendeau is a landmark structure. The huge steel pent roof, 80 × 90 m in area, has a structural depth of 6 m, tapering to only 2.5 cm at the edges. Clad on the underside with wine-red metal panels, it is borne by eight 26-metre-high composite steel-and-concrete columns 85 cm in diameter.
Seating is provided for an audience of 3,500, including 200 seats in boxes, with space for a further 5,200 people on the sloping grassed area to the rear. The site is closed off along the river by a roughly six-metre-high concrete wall, on which the name of the town is written in black-painted letters, consisting of laminated boarding.