Edifice Price

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Edifice Price
Edifice Price
Basic data
Place: Quebec , Canada
Opening: 1931
Status : built
Architectural style : Art deco
Architect : Ross and Macdonald
Use / legal
Usage : Office space, residence
Owner : City of Quebec
Client : Price Brothers Ltd.
Technical specifications
Height : 82 m
Rank (height) : 7th place (Québec)
Floors : 18th
Building material : Steel , limestone
address
Address: 65, rue Sainte-Anne

The Édifice Price (English Price Building ) is a skyscraper in the Canadian city ​​of Québec . The 18-story skyscraper on Rue Sainte-Anne reaches a height of 82 meters. It is the tallest building in the old town , and the seventh tallest in the city . It was built between 1929 and 1931 as the headquarters of the Price Brothers paper company . At the time, the Art Deco- style building met with fierce criticism because it was perceived as a disruptive interference with the historical structure of the old town; however, it is now a landmark. It is now owned by the city and is used by the administration of the state pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec . Since 2001, the 16th and 17th floors have served as the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Province of Québec .

history

John Herbert Price and Arthur Clifford Price inherited the thriving Price Brothers Ltd. in 1924 . after the death of her father Sir William Price III. In 1927 they decided to build a new corporate headquarters in the city of Québec. However, they did not find a suitable plot of land on Rue Saint-Pierre in the Lower City, which was then Québec's main shopping street. For this reason, they chose Rue Sainte-Anne in the upper town, in the vicinity of the Hôtel de Ville . Ross and Macdonald , a renowned architectural firm in Montreal, was awarded the contract to plan the building .

The city of Québec, which wanted to create a modern and progressive image, gave its approval to the project, although two historic buildings had to be demolished. This decision provoked severe criticism of the city administration, which is unable to preserve the architectural and historical integrity of the old town. The sources disagree on exactly when construction began. Some mention June 1929 to May 1930, while others report that the building permit was granted in December 1929 and work began in June 1930. Another source only mentions the years 1928 to 1930. The foundation stone bears the inscription: This stone was laid Oct. XXIX MCMXXIX (“This stone was laid on Oct. 29, 1929”). All sources agree that construction progressed rapidly and that the building was completed within a year. In 1931 it was available.

Although successfully completed, the building turned out to be a kind of extravagant coffin nail for the company. The Great Depression pushed Price Brothers to the brink of bankruptcy, and the family lost control of the company and most of their assets. Extensive restoration work was carried out in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly inside the building.

In 1983 the city acquired the building and used it mainly for construction management. She followed the example of the Municipal Building in New York City . Soon afterwards, the Édifice Price was placed under the management of Société Trans-immobilier du Québec (SITQ), the real estate division of the state pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP), with a long-term lease . Extensive renovations in 2000 and 2001 included the installation of two new floors inside, the construction of a terrace on the 16th floor and the installation of new elevators .

Since 2001, the 16th and 17th floors have been the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Province of Québec. Between 1997 and 2002 a luxury psychiatric clinic occupied the second and third floors of the building. The building management insisted that the temporal connection between the clinic's move and the renovation of the prime minister's residence was purely coincidental. On July 12, 2009, the tightrope walker Ramon Kelvink jr. 230 meters from the 13th floor of the Édifice Price to the 15th floor of the Château Frontenac , as part of the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the city of Québec.

Facade detail

The construction of the Édifice Price had been highly controversial in the 1920s. First, he manifested a disdain for Sir William Price's intention to relocate Price Brothers headquarters to Kénogami (now Jonquière ). Second, the monumental structure was perceived as completely exaggerated as it stood in the middle of a mixed commercial and residential zone, where few buildings were higher than four or five floors. Criticism continued after it was completed, and a few years later the city council passed an ordinance that limited the height of buildings in the Old Town to 65 feet (19.81 m) - a height only exceeded by one other building, the seven-story high Hôtel-Dieu de Quebec . Today, however, the building is considered an architectural monument and a characteristic element of the skyline.

architecture

Despite the original controversy, the Édifice Price is considered to be very well embedded in its surroundings and well adapted to a plot of land only 24 meters wide. Of the 18 floors, 15 will be used as office space, two will serve as the prime minister's residence and the top one will accommodate maintenance facilities and elevator motors. Two elevators - one passenger and one goods elevator - provide access to all floors.

entrance

The Édifice Price was created in the Art Deco style, which was popular at the time , like the neighboring Hôtel Clarendon , the extension of which had been completed a few years earlier. The design uses staggered floors to gradually reduce the floor area. This creates the typical elongated "wedding cake shape", which helps to reduce the load and visual impairment on the urban skyline. The upper staggered floors were later converted into balconies. Because the building is deeper than it is wide, it appears significantly more massive when viewed from the side. This is reminiscent of the buildings of the Finnish Art Nouveau architect Eliel Saarinen and is the stylistic opposite of other buildings in the city such as the Château Frontenac, whose cantilever structure widens with increasing height. Geometric motifs have been carved into the stone cladding of the Édifice Price, especially in the area of ​​the lower floors. The building is completed by a tapering roof clad with copper in the Châteauesque style (a variant of the neo-Renaissance influenced by Beaux Arts architecture ). The main elements of the facade decoration are pilasters with palm motifs , as well as pinacles and a large arched arch above the main entrance.

Near the floor and in the lobby, bas-reliefs depict the origins of the Price Brothers company . During the 1920s, John M. Lyle , an influential Beaux Arts architect, developed a unique Canadian fusion of French and British colonial styles. Ross and Macdonald transferred his ideas to the Édifice Price. Each floor is divided into two symmetrical halves by a central corridor, a projection at the end of the building is reminiscent of the bow of a ship.

The steel frame of the building was the first application of this construction method in the city. It was encased in gray limestone from Saint-Marc-des-Carrières and Queenston . Due to the rapid progress of construction, the quarry in Saint-Marc was unable to meet the demand for stone blocks on the construction site, so Queenston had to step in as an additional mining site. The Saint-Marc stone is pearly gray and changes to a pale beige with age, while the Queenston stone has pink calcite veins derived from Crinoidae fossils that take on a brownish-yellow chamois hue over time.

Price memorial

L'Homme-Rivière

Between the Édifice Price and the neighboring building to the right (row house at 67-71 rue Sainte-Anne), a monument was unveiled in 2002 that bears the name L'Homme-Rivière ("the river man"). The sculpture was commissioned by the CDP and the Virginia Parker Foundation and designed by Québec-based sculptors Lucienne Cornet and Catherine Sylvain.

L'Homme-Rivière depicts a raftsman at work. The tree trunks are considerably stylized, reduced to little more than cylinders. The raftsman and his hook, on the other hand, are shown as if they were turning into a wooden plant. The location, a narrow gap between two tall buildings, gives the impression that the sculpture is driving through a narrow gorge. L'Homme-Rivière looks extremely dynamic and almost seems to be washed onto the sidewalk. The raftsman is an important symbolic figure in the history and culture of Québec, in particular due to the novel Menaud, maître-draveur by Félix-Antoine Savard .

Prime Minister's Residence

An apartment on the 16th and 17th floors has been the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Province of Québec since 2001. These two floors previously served as the boardroom for the CDP management. An attempt had already been made in 1994 to offer the Prime Minister an official residence. At that time, the Québec City Chamber of Commerce bought a large house at 1080 rue des Braves and made it available to the then Prime Minister Jacques Parizeau . However, there were concerns about safety and neighborly relations, whereupon his successor Lucien Bouchard decided not to use the house. Instead, he lived in a small apartment on the Colline parlementaire (Parliament Hill ) for most of his tenure .

The new Prime Minister Bernard Landry , who had previously lived in a three-room apartment, announced in May 2001 that he would accept SITQ's offer to make the apartment in the Édifice Price available to him. He moved there in November of the same year. There was criticism that the apartment was rather small and poorly lit; in addition, it does not offer enough space for a family (Landry was single after the death of his first wife). Some critics have suggested that the lieutenant governor's former residence at 1010 Chemin Saint-Louis, which had been sold for a fraction of its estimated value in 1996, would have been an excellent choice.

The renovation and refurbishment of the 260 m² apartment cost $ 195,000 . It contains a dining room for 14 people, two bedrooms and various adjoining rooms. The Prime Minister also has access to a reception hall on the 14th floor if the need arises. The apartment is decorated with parquet floors made of maple wood as well as granite and limestone. The furniture is in the traditional Québec style, and various paintings by local artists hang on the walls on loan from the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec . 2006 was again criticized because Prime Minister Jean Charest used the apartment little. He saw little point in moving away from Montreal with his entire family of five and living here.

Web links

Commons : Édifice Price  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Luc Noppen, Lucie K. Morisset: Québec de roc et de pierres: la capitale en architecture . MultiMondes, Sainte-Foy 1998, ISBN 2-921146-75-4 , pp. 107 .
  2. ^ A b Jean Benoit: Price, Sir William . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
  3. ↑ a b c Luc Noppen, Hélène Jobidon, Paul Trépanier: Québec monumental: 1890-1990 . Septentrion, Sillery 1990, ISBN 2-921114-42-9 , pp. 27 .
  4. ↑ a b c Jean-Marie Lebel, Alain Roy: Québec 1900–2000: Le Siècle d'une Capitale . MultiMondes, Sainte-Foy 1990, ISBN 2-89544-008-5 , pp. 41-42 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Jacques Lachapelle: Le fantasme métropolitain - les édifices à bureaux. Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 2001, accessed on October 1, 2014 (French).
  6. ^ A b Louis-Guy Lemieux: Grandeur et chute de la Maison Price: Après la chute, la renaissance . Le Soleil, June 21, 1998, p. B3.
  7. ↑ a b c Edifice Price. In: Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec. Ministère de culture et communications du Québec, 2013, accessed October 1, 2014 (French).
  8. ↑ a b Edifice Price. (PDF; 73 kB) (No longer available online.) RCAA, September 27, 2007, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; Retrieved October 1, 2014 (French).
  9. ^ A b Guy Benjamin: Toute une vue: Bienvenue dans l'appartement de Bernard Landry . Le Soleil, May 3, 2001, p. A3.
  10. ^ Gilbert Leduc: à la recherche de nouveau voisins pour Bernard Landry . Le Soleil, March 24, 2002, p. A1.
  11. ↑ Marc Allard: Kelvink Jr arrive sain et sauf au bout du fil. Le Soleil, July 13, 2009, accessed October 1, 2014 (French).
  12. ^ A b Arrêt 43: Edifice Price. In: À la découverte des pierres de construction et d'ornamentation du Vieux-Québec. Université Laval, accessed October 1, 2014 (French).
  13. ↑ a b c Ville de Québec (ed.): Regards sur l'architecture du Vieux-Québec . La Ville, Québec 1986, ISBN 2-920860-00-3 , pp. 109-110 .
  14. ↑ Édifice Price: guide du locataire. SITQ, accessed October 1, 2014 (French).
  15. ↑ Québec ville fortifiée: patrimoine géologique et historique. (PDF; 5 MB) Parks Canada , 2006, accessed October 1, 2014 (French).
  16. ^ A b Dany Quine: Le Mémorial Price . Le Soleil, June 22, 2002, p. C12.
  17. ↑ Plaque du monument L'Homme-Rivière. In: Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec. Ministère de culture et communications du Québec, 2013, accessed October 1, 2014 (French).
  18. ↑ a b c Gilbert Lavoie: Un bon investissement . Le Soleil, November 24, 2001, p. D4.
  19. ^ Bernard Landry aura un appartement de fonction à Québec. (No longer available online.) Le Canal Nouvelles, May 2, 2001, archived from the original on October 6, 2014 ; Retrieved October 1, 2014 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tvanouvelles.ca
  20. ↑ a b Le premier ministre emménage à l'édifice Price. (No longer available online.) Société immobilière du Québec, November 22, 2001, archived from the original on August 23, 2004 ; Retrieved October 1, 2014 (French).
  21. ↑ Une permanent residence pour le premier ministre? (No longer available online.) Le Canal Nouvelles, March 20, 2006, archived from the original on October 6, 2014 ; Retrieved October 1, 2014 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tvanouvelles.ca

Coordinates: 46 ° 48 ′ 46.8 "  N , 71 ° 12 ′ 29.3"  W.