Royal Bank Tower (Montreal)
The Royal Bank Tower is a skyscraper at 360 Saint-Jacques Street in Montreal, Quebec. The 22-storey 121 m (397 ft) neo-classical tower was designed by the firm of York and Sawyer with the bank's Chief Architect Sumner Godfrey Davenport of Montreal.[4] Upon completion in 1928,[5] it was the tallest building in the entire British Empire, the tallest structure in all of Canada and the first building in the city that was taller than Montréal's Notre-Dame Basilica built nearly a century before.
Royal Bank Tower | |
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Alternative names | Tour de la Banque Royale |
General information | |
Type | Office |
Location | 360 Saint-Jacques Street Montreal, Quebec |
Coordinates | 45.5019°N 73.5594°W |
Construction started | 1927 |
Completed | 1928 |
Height | |
Roof | 121 m (397 ft) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 22 |
Floor area | 344,400 sq ft (32,000 m2) |
Lifts/elevators | 8 |
Design and construction | |
Architect | York, Sawyer of New York and Sumner Godfrey Davenport of Montreal (as Chief Architect for the Royal Bank) |
References | |
[1][2][3] |
The bank's first official head office was at Hollis and George in Halifax in 1879.[6] In 1907 the Royal Bank of Canada moved its head office from Halifax to Montreal As the building at Saint-Jacques Street turned out to be too small, in 1926 the board of directors of the biggest bank in Canada hired New York architects York and Sawyer to build a prestigious new building a short distance westward on Saint-Jacques Street. Between 1920 and 1926 the bank had bought up all the property between Saint-Jacques, Saint-Pierre, Notre-Dame and Dollard Streets to demolish all the buildings there including the old Mechanics' Institute and the ten-storey Bank of Ottawa building in order to make space for the new 22-storey building.
In 1962, the Royal Bank moved its main office to another famous Montreal building, Place Ville-Marie, however kept a branch in the impressive main hall of the old building, situated in Old Montreal. That branch relocated to the nearby Tour de la Bourse in July 2012 [7].
- Saint-Jacques street with the Royal Bank building (the tallest), 1935
See also
- Bank of Montreal Head Office, Montreal
- Molson Bank Building, Montreal
- Tour CIBC
- Old Canadian Bank of Commerce Building, Montreal
- Royal Bank Plaza - RBC corporate offices in Toronto
References
External links
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