The industrial silhouette of a former sugar refinery in Montreal has gotten a pretty sweet makeover, being transformed into a fully-equipped climbing gym. Now, Allez-Up’s sky-high ceilings house faceted white walls studded with colourful holds, like bits of candy in a saccharine mine.
The whole thing has a Willy Wonka viba, with blue safety mats in place of chocolate rivers and fit folks scaling crazy-difficult facades instead of singing Oompa Loompas.
Smith Vigeant Architects completed the transformation, but it’s not clear from the images whether anything cool is happening inside the two silos themselves.
I found this creepy as fuck clip on YouTube of someone exploring one of the two abandoned towers a few years ago; it would be especially cool if the firm transformed those into nightmare factory climbing gyms, all dark and scary and a total switch from the bright goings-ons next door. Perhaps they could even start a whole new trend, of themed bouldering, the ultimate in face-your-fears indoor adventuring. [UR Design]