City of Westmount - Quebec
Remarkable Tree Enhancement Project – Dawn Redwood
Project Year: 2020
In the heart of a Westmount city park stands an extraordinary tree: a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). A true living fossil, this rare species deserves an enhancement that lives up to its exceptional history.
In an effort to highlight its natural heritage and enrich visitors' experience, the City of Westmount commissioned Signalisation Kalitec to design, manufacture, and install a custom interpretation structure, integrated directly into the tree's environment.
Signage that adapts to nature
The main challenge of the project was to design a circular sign that perfectly hugged the trunk's perimeter, without harming the tree's health or disturbing its root system. To achieve this organic shape, the structure was designed in four independent quarters, assembled to form a complete circle around the tree.
Each quarter required highly precise folding work, totaling nearly a hundred folds per section, or about 400 folds in total to recreate the circular shape. This approach allowed for a fluid and continuous curve, while respecting the mechanical and aesthetic constraints of the project. The structure needed to be robust, discreet, and durable, while harmoniously integrating into the natural landscape.
Signalisation Kalitec thus developed a self-supporting aluminum structure, resting on supports independent of the trunk. This design ensures the overall stability while allowing the tree to maintain its natural growth, without direct contact or stress on the bark or roots, illustrating a masterful balance between engineering and environmental respect.
Clear and elegant educational content
The interpretive sign presents bilingual informative content highlighting:
- the common and scientific name of the dawn redwood
- its origin and evolutionary history
- key temporal markers (including its appearance over 150 million years ago)
The graphic design, sober and refined, promotes fluid and intuitive reading. Natural colors and graphic lines evoke the plant world and reinforce the link between the signage and the element it highlights.
Turnkey manufacturing and installation
The entire project was carried out by the Kalitec team, including:
- technical design
- manufacturing of panels and metal structure
- surface finishing
- final on-site installation, with particular attention to precision and respect for the immediate environment
The result: a distinctive interpretive signage, both educational and aesthetic, that transforms the tree into a true point of interest and learning for citizens and visitors.
This project perfectly illustrates Signalisation Kalitec's expertise in enhancing natural heritage, by creating customized solutions where design, engineering, and environmental respect go hand in hand.
