Royal Bank Tower (Montreal)

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Royal Bank Tower
Royal Bank Tower 03.JPG
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Alternative namesTour de la Banque Royale
General information
TypeOffice
Location360 Saint-Jacques Street
Montreal, Quebec
Coordinates45°30′07″N 73°33′34″W / 45.5019°N 73.5594°W / 45.5019; -73.5594Coordinates: 45°30′07″N 73°33′34″W / 45.5019°N 73.5594°W / 45.5019; -73.5594
Construction started1927
Completed1928
Height
Roof121 m (397 ft)
Technical details
Floor count22
Floor area344,400 sq ft (32,000 m2)
Lifts/elevators8
Design and construction
ArchitectYork, Sawyer of New York and Sumner Godfrey Davenport of Montreal (as Chief Architect for the Royal Bank)
References
[1][2][3]

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.

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[]

  1. ^ Royal Bank Tower at Emporis
  2. ^ "Royal Bank Tower". SkyscraperPage.
  3. ^ Royal Bank Tower at Structurae
  4. ^ "Davenport, Sumner Godfrey | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada".
  5. ^ http://www.emporis.com/building/tourdelabanqueroyale-montreal-canada
  6. ^ http://www.rbc.com/history/_assets-custom/pdf/Quick-to-the-Frontier-Chapter-3.pdf
  7. ^ [1][dead link]

External links[]

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