One of my favourite modern office towers is the IBM Marathon building between boulevard René-Lévesque and avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal next to the Bell Center.
Built in 1992, it’s currently the 2nd heighest building in Montreal (the tallest being Le 1000 de la Gauchetière) at 195m tall with 47 floors above ground.
The official name of the tower is simply the street address – 1250 René-Lévesque – but most people know it as the IBM Marathon building. An interesting piece of information that I gleaned off of the ‘go-to site’ for building info – Images Montréal – is that this is the only skyscraper in Montréal designed by an architectural company specializing in the design of skyscrapers, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Interestingly, this is the same company that designed the Deloitte Tower that is currently under construction and which I photographed yesterday. I’m not sure if we should be worried that all the other skyscrapers in Montréal were not designed by Skyscraper specialists 😉
While I was out shooting the construction sites around the Bell Center yesterday I stopped by the IBM building to take some vertical shots.
I found a nice shiny pillar to shoot upwards from that caught the reflection of the upper part of the building…I thought the clouds added a nice dimension to the image.
IBM Marathon tower
ISO 200 – 10mm – f5 – 1/2500 sec
IBM Marathon tower
ISO 200 – 10mm – f5 – 1/500 sec
Having started with the wide angle, I decided to switch over to the 85mm and zoom in on the upper part of the tower…
IBM Marathon tower – minimalist view
ISO 100 – 85mm – f16 – 1/50 sec
With it being quite windy I wanted to take some long shutter speed shots and attempt to get some clouds streaks. Not having my tripod with me necessitated lying it on its back and hoping I managed to point the camera in the right direction. I failed to get a nice composition for what I had in mind, but liked how this next one came out.
IBM Marathon tower – minimalist view
ISO 100 – 85mm – f5 – 10 secs
Spacing Montreal – Call for contributors
If anyone in Montreal is interested, Spacing Montreal is looking for contributors to submit articles on their blog site. If you love writing and are interested in volunteering, we are having a contributors meeting this Sunday at 2pm (near Beaubien Metro). Contact me if you are interested and I will put you in touch with the organiser who can provide more info on what they are looking for and details about the meeting.
Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.
– Martin
Montréal in Pictures
Your virtual guide in and around Montréal
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