Tour de la Banque Royale

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Tour de la Banque Royale
Tour de la Banque Royale
Basic data
Place: Montreal , Canada
Opening: 1928
Status : Built
Architectural style : Neoclassicism
Architect : York and Sawyer , S. G. Davenport
Use / legal
Usage : Office space
Technical specifications
Height : 121 m
Rank (height) : 23rd place (Montreal)
Floors : 22nd
Elevators : 8th
Floor area : 32,000 m²
Building material : Limestone , granite

The Tour de la Banque Royale (English Royal Bank Tower ) is a skyscraper in Montreal . It is located at 360 Rue Saint-Jacques in the southwest of the old town ( Vieux-Montréal ). The 121 meter high building with 22 floors was built in the neoclassical style. From opening in 1928 to 1962, it was the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada . The steel frame building is clad with gray limestone , which has taken on a yellow-brown color on the lower floors over the decades; granite was used for the base .

history

In 1907, the Royal Bank of Canada moved its headquarters from Halifax to Montreal. Their building on Rue Saint-Jacques soon proved too small for the growing company. After the height restriction in the city's building code had been relaxed, the bank engaged the renowned New York architecture firm York and Sawyer to plan a representative new building in 1926 . The architect S. G. Davenport, who specializes in bank buildings, was brought in as a partner.

Between 1920 and 1926, the Royal Bank had acquired all of the buildings on the intended site between Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue Notre-Dame and had them demolished. The foundation stone was laid in April 1927. After a year of construction, the new building was ready to move into. At the time of opening, the Tour de la Banque Royale was the tallest building in the British Empire and the first in the city to tower over the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica .

The Royal Bank used the bottom five floors for itself and rented the rest to other companies. In 1962, the bank relocated its headquarters again, this time to the Montreal skyscraper Place Ville-Marie . She continues to operate a branch in the main hall of the Tour de la Banque Royale. It is scheduled to close in 2012 and move to the nearby Tour de la Bourse .

Web links

Commons : Tour de la Banque Royale  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Banque Royale. In: Vieux-Montréal. City of Montreal and Province of Québec, accessed October 4, 2011 (French).
  2. RBC to vacate its cathedral of commerce in Old Montreal. The Globe and Mail, June 23, 2010, accessed June 23, 2010 .

Coordinates: 45 ° 30 ′ 6.8 ″  N , 73 ° 33 ′ 33.8 ″  W.