A large mural to honor the late Montreal singer, songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen is expected to go up on Crescent St. by the end of the summer.
Mayor Denis Coderre confirmed that bit of news on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
"This magnificent wall in downtown will become, by next September, a magnificent 8500 square foot mural of Leonard Cohen," the mayor tweeted in French.
The mural will be painted on the north side of a 20-story highrise building on Crescent St., just north of Ste. Catherine St.
Coderre had promised that Cohen would receive an honor from the city after the world learned on Nov. 10 that he had died. Cohen actually died in Los Angeles three days earlier, on Nov. 7, and that his body had been flown back to Montreal to be buried before the news was made public.
The Leonard Cohen mural is part of a series of similar murals honoring Montreal's "cultural builders" — a group that includes jazz greats Oscar Peterson and Oliver Jones, and legendary writer Mordecai Richler.
The non-profit arts collective MU is behind the series.
Some who responded to Coderre's tweet applauded the honor, while others wondered why the mural wasn't someplace closer to his home near St. Laurent Blvd.
This superb wall will welcome one of our best ambassador in September.The great #LeonardCohen #Montreal #BatisseursCulturelsMtl #MuraleDeMU pic.twitter.com/daVrj4GpuR
— DenisCoderre (@DenisCoderre) April 11, 2017