Tour CIBC
Encyclopedia
La Tour CIBC is a 187 m (613.5 ft) forty-five-storey
skyscraper
in Montreal
, Quebec
. With the communications antenna on the roof, the total height is 250 m (820.2 ft). The International Style
office tower was built by Peter Dickinson
, Ross, Fish, Duschenes and Barrett and was the city's tallest building from 1962 to 1963. The building holds offices for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
, the corporate law firms Stikeman Elliott
and Miller Thomson
, as well as numerous other businesses.
The building is located at 1155 René Lévesque Boulevard
West next to Dorchester Square
facing the imposing but dwarfed Sun Life Building
. Part of the fire-damaged Windsor Hotel
was demolished to make room for construction, with the remaining portion being converted to offices in the 1980s.
Completed in 1962 only a few months before Place Ville-Marie
, CIBC Tower was the tallest building in Canada
and the entire Commonwealth of Nations
when it was first built, until being surpassed later that year by Place Ville-Marie where a penthouse
was added by the competing Royal Bank
for that express purpose.
The tower is exceptionally slender with only 1400 m² (1,674.4 sq yd) of gross floor area per floor, because of a zoning regulation limiting the total building floor area to twelve times the property area. Its façade is more ornamental than that of the average International style
tower, with horizontal strips of glass curtain wall
alternating with spandrel
s of various types of stone, including green slate that was quarried in Wales. The building was fully renovated in 1991, and the highly visible CIBC logo at the top was redesigned in 2004.
Inside, levels 15 and 29 are transfer floors; level 16 is a triple-height mechanical floor
that is skipped in the floor numbering of the passenger elevators. Levels 42-44 are also mechanical floors; level 45 was originally an indoor observation deck
but was closed in the 1970s. The top 7 m (23 ft) of the tower are actually an open-air raised partition, built sometime after construction, that hides the rooftop elevator control rooms. Without this extra structure, the actual roof height is 180 m (590.6 ft), and approximately 184 m (603.7 ft) when counting the elevator penthouse. It is the fifth tallest building in Montreal, but an antenna
raises the total height to 250 m (820.2 ft), the tallest pinnacle in Montreal.
The Consulate of Israel
was on the 26th floor of the building and as such, it was sometimes the site of demonstrations related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
. The consulate has since relocated to Westmount Square
in Westmount
.
French-language radio station
CKOI-FM
transmits its 307,000 watt
signal atop that building.
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. With the communications antenna on the roof, the total height is 250 m (820.2 ft). The International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
office tower was built by Peter Dickinson
Peter Dickinson (architect)
Peter Allgood Rastall Dickinson, , was a British-born architect responsible for many modernist buildings in Toronto....
, Ross, Fish, Duschenes and Barrett and was the city's tallest building from 1962 to 1963. The building holds offices for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is one of Canada's chartered banks, fifth largest by deposits. The bank is headquartered at Commerce Court in Toronto, Ontario. CIBC's Institution Number is 010, and its SWIFT code is CIBCCATT....
, the corporate law firms Stikeman Elliott
Stikeman Elliott
Stikeman Elliott LLP is a Canadian corporate law firm. It is known as one of the "seven sisters" in Toronto and has approximately 500 lawyers in five Canadian offices as well as offices in New York, London , and Sydney. It was founded in 1952 by H...
and Miller Thomson
Miller Thomson
Miller Thomson LLP is a full service national law firm established in Toronto, Canada in 1957.The firm provides legal advice to Canadian clients and, through a network of affiliates, serves an international client base...
, as well as numerous other businesses.
The building is located at 1155 René Lévesque Boulevard
René Lévesque Boulevard
René Lévesque Boulevard is one of the main streets in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.It is a main east-west thoroughfare passing through the downtown core in the borough of Ville-Marie. The street begins on the west at Atwater Avenue and continues until it merges with Notre Dame Street East just east...
West next to Dorchester Square
Dorchester Square
Dorchester Square is a large urban square in downtown Montreal. Together with Place du Canada, the area is just over 21,000 m2 or 2.1 ha of manicured and protected urban parkland bordered by René Lévesque Boulevard to the south, Peel Street to the west, Metcalfe to the east and Dominion Square to...
facing the imposing but dwarfed Sun Life Building
Sun Life Building
The Sun Life Building is a historic office building on Dorchester Square in downtown Montreal, Canada.-History and construction:...
. Part of the fire-damaged Windsor Hotel
Windsor Hotel (Montreal)
The Windsor Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is often considered to be the first grand hotel in Canada, and for decades billed itself as "the best in all the Dominion".-Early years:...
was demolished to make room for construction, with the remaining portion being converted to offices in the 1980s.
Completed in 1962 only a few months before Place Ville-Marie
Place Ville-Marie
1 Place Ville-Marie , formerly Royal Bank Tower taken from its anchor tenant, is a with 47-storey, cruciform office tower built in the International style in 1962, arguably the most distinctive building in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in the 1960s as the headquarters of the Royal Bank of...
, CIBC Tower was the tallest building in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the entire Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
when it was first built, until being surpassed later that year by Place Ville-Marie where a penthouse
Penthouse apartment
A penthouse apartment or penthouse is an apartment that is on one of the highest floors of an apartment building. Penthouses are typically differentiated from other apartments by luxury features.-History:...
was added by the competing Royal Bank
Royal Bank of Canada
The Royal Bank of Canada or RBC Financial Group is the largest financial institution in Canada, as measured by deposits, revenues, and market capitalization. The bank serves seventeen million clients and has 80,100 employees worldwide. The company corporate headquarters are located in Toronto,...
for that express purpose.
The tower is exceptionally slender with only 1400 m² (1,674.4 sq yd) of gross floor area per floor, because of a zoning regulation limiting the total building floor area to twelve times the property area. Its façade is more ornamental than that of the average International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
tower, with horizontal strips of glass curtain wall
Curtain wall
A curtain wall is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, but merely keep out the weather. As the curtain wall is non-structural it can be made of a lightweight material reducing construction costs. When glass is used as the curtain wall, a great advantage is...
alternating with spandrel
Spandrel
A spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure....
s of various types of stone, including green slate that was quarried in Wales. The building was fully renovated in 1991, and the highly visible CIBC logo at the top was redesigned in 2004.
Inside, levels 15 and 29 are transfer floors; level 16 is a triple-height mechanical floor
Mechanical floor
A mechanical floor, mechanical penthouse, or mechanical level is a storey of a high-rise building that is dedicated to mechanical and electronics equipment. "Mechanical" is the most commonly used term, but words such as utility, technical, service, and plant are also used...
that is skipped in the floor numbering of the passenger elevators. Levels 42-44 are also mechanical floors; level 45 was originally an indoor observation deck
Observation deck
__FORCETOC__ An observation deck, observation platform or viewing platform is an elevated sightseeing platform usually situated upon a tall architectural structure such as a skyscraper or observation tower...
but was closed in the 1970s. The top 7 m (23 ft) of the tower are actually an open-air raised partition, built sometime after construction, that hides the rooftop elevator control rooms. Without this extra structure, the actual roof height is 180 m (590.6 ft), and approximately 184 m (603.7 ft) when counting the elevator penthouse. It is the fifth tallest building in Montreal, but an antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
raises the total height to 250 m (820.2 ft), the tallest pinnacle in Montreal.
The Consulate of Israel
Foreign relations of Israel
The foreign relations of Israel refers to diplomatic relations and international agreements between the State of Israel and other countries around the world. Israel joined the United Nations on May 11, 1949. Israel has diplomatic relations with 157 states...
was on the 26th floor of the building and as such, it was sometimes the site of demonstrations related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
. The consulate has since relocated to Westmount Square
Westmount Square
Westmount Square is a complex of four buildings located in Westmount, Quebec. Canada. The four buildings, two of which are residential, were designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The complex opened on December 13, 1967...
in Westmount
Westmount, Quebec
Westmount is a city on the Island of Montreal, an enclave of the city of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada; pop. 20,494; area 4.02 km²; population density of 5,092.56 inhabitants/km²....
.
French-language radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
CKOI-FM
CKOI-FM
CKOI-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.Owned and operated by Cogeco, it broadcasts on 96.9 MHz from the roof of the CIBC Tower in Downtown Montreal with an effective radiated power of 307,000 watts using an omnidirectional antenna...
transmits its 307,000 watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
signal atop that building.
See also
- List of tallest buildings in Montreal
- Old Royal Bank Building, MontrealOld Royal Bank Building, MontrealTour de la Banque Royale is a skyscraper at 360 Saint-Jacques Street in Montréal, Quebec. The 22-storey neo-classical tower was designed by the firm of York and Sawyer, and was the tallest building in the British Empire, and the first building in city taller than Montréal's Notre-Dame Basilica...
- Molson Bank Building, MontrealMolson Bank Building, MontrealThe Molson Bank Building was built at the corner of St. Peter and St. James streets in Old Montreal as the headquarters of the Molson Bank in 1866 by order of founder William Molson . It was the first building in Montreal to be built in the Second Empire style...
- Bank of Montreal Head Office, MontrealBank of Montreal Head Office, MontrealThe Bank of Montreal's Head Office is located on Saint Jacques Street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, across the Place d'Armes from Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica...
- Old Canadian Bank of Commerce Building, MontrealOld Canadian Bank of Commerce Building, MontrealThe Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Building is a building at 265 Saint-Jacques Street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-History:The building was erected in was built in 1906-1909...
- Commerce CourtCommerce CourtCommerce Court is a complex of four office buildings on King- and Bay-streets in the financial district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, The main tenant is the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce...
, TorontoTorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from... - Commerce Place ICommerce Place ICommerce Place I, the first tower built in 1987 and part of a twin tower complex. The complex is known as Commerce Place. The second tower; Commerce Place II was built in 1990. The 16-storey twin towers stand at 81.0 meters. This makes Commerce Place the 7th tallest building complex in Hamilton,...
and Commerce Place IICommerce Place IICommerce Place II is a building in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the second tower built in 1990 and part of a twin tower complex. The complex is known as Commerce Place. The first tower; Commerce Place I was built in 1987. The 16-storey twin towers stand at 81.0 meters. This makes Commerce Place the...