The Province of Quebec, Montreal’s Olympic Park, the Canadian Government, the City of Montreal and Rio Tinto Alcan jointly participated in the ground-breaking ceremony of the Montreal Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium.
According to Senior Vice President, Communications and External Relations, Erik Ryan of Rio Tinto Alcan, the planetarium project is a very special one and is devoted to the company’s dedication to continuous development.
The new building will conform to LEED specifications and will be a place of continual learning and enable young minds to understand the universe better and motivate them to explore this field more. It also desires that this project will help achieve further tourism and higher economic growth in Montreal.
The design for the new planetarium was selected from a large group of 61 proposals. The Cardin Ramirez Julien consortium of Montreal chose a design that was daring and innovative. The planetarium’s architecture and the experiences provided inside will help Montreal become a renowned place for learning Astronomy. The Executive Director of the Space for life, Charles-Mathieu Brunelle stated that Rio Tinto Alcan had been an active member of this project from 2003 and by receiving funds from them, it was possible to build a planetarium that will have approximately 300,000 visitors every year.
The headquarters of Rio Tinto Alcan is in downtown Montreal and was built nearly 80 years before. The Rio Tinto Alcan Canada Fund operates via Rio Tinto Alcan and the group’s support has been very useful to the city.
Source: http://www.riotintoalcan.com