Place Ville-Marie
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Place Ville-Marie or 1, Place Ville-Marie (previously also called Royal Bank Tower due to its principal tenant) is a cruciform office tower built in the International style in 1962, arguably the most distinctive building in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is 188 m (617 ft) in height with 46 stories. It was built in the 1960s as the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada. Along with an underground shopping mall, it forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city, the world's largest, with indoor access to over 1,600 shops, restaurants, offices and businesses, as well as many of Montreal's metro stations, a suburban transportation terminal, and tunnels extending all over downtown. A rotating beacon on the rooftop (turning counter-clockwise) lights up at night, illuminating the surrounding sky with up to four white horizontal beams that can be seen as far as 50 km away.
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[edit] Buildings
The name "Place Ville-Marie" (sometimes abbreviated to PVM) is often used to refer to the cruciform building only, but it also applies to three shorter office buildings which were built around it in 1963 and 1964, and to the urban plaza which lies on top of the largest section of the shopping promenade, and between the buildings. From a postal point of view the cruciform tower is "1, Place Ville-Marie" and the lesser buildings around it are "2, Place Ville-Marie" and so on. The buildings and the plaza have been given many facelifts over the years. In the latest, much of the grey concrete and terrazzo of the plaza was covered with grass, flowers and shrubs. The complex has 2.7 million square feet (250,000 m²) of space and parking for about 900 cars. There are about 70 tenants with 3,000 employees. VIA Rail has its headquarters in "3, Place Ville-Marie".
[edit] Site
The location of Place Ville-Marie () was originally a vast railway trench gouged in the flank of Mount Royal between the southern portal of Canadian National Railway's Mount Royal Tunnel and Central Station. Most of the building was thus built over the tracks, requiring the structure to be more resistant to vibrations than normally required. As a result, it is the most earthquake-resistant office tower in Montreal.
[edit] History
Place Ville-Marie was one of the first designs of Henry N. Cobb and I. M. Pei, who was later to become a famous master of Modernist Architecture. His design was controversial from the start given its proximity to many Montreal landmarks and the vast changes it would bring to the downtown core.
Conceived and built at a time when Montreal was the Metropolis of Canada during the 1960s, the structure's largest occupant and anchor tenant was the Head Office of the Royal Bank of Canada, the country's largest bank. Though the Head Office was moved to Toronto in the 1970s, RBC still maintains the regional headquarters there.
[edit] Place Ville-Marie in popular culture
- 1, Place Ville-Marie is featured in many local television opening credits, particulalrly news programs.
- During the holiday season, a large Christmas tree is installed in the central court. It is often regarded as the Montreal equivalent of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree of New York City.
[edit] Other information
In addition to being the only cruciform building in the core of the city, Place Ville-Marie stands out even more at night because of the rotating beacon on its roof. Its four spotlights are visible at more than 50 kilometres. The building's penthouse contains the Restaurant Club Lounge Altitude 737 restaurant and nightclub (named for its elevation in feet from sea level) and opens onto a rooftop terrace.
The project's developer was William Zeckendorf of New York. The complex is currently owned by the SITQ, a division of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP Capital), who bought the building in March 2000 for $450 million CAD.
[edit] Trivia
- At the time of construction, the main tower was known as the tallest skyscraper in the Commonwealth. The equivalent of three floors was added late in the project to ensure that this building would not be topped by the neighboring Tour CIBC which was built at the same time.
- Mayor Jean Drapeau chose the name himself. Ville-Marie was the original name of Montréal in the 17th century.
- On the top of the building, there is a penthouse with a famous nightclub called the Restaurant Club Lounge Altitude 737. It is named for its elevation in feet from sea level, and opens onto a rooftop terrace.
[edit] See also
- List of malls in Montreal
- List of Montreal's 10 tallest skyscrapers
- Montreal
- Montreal underground city malls
[edit] External links
- Official website
- SITQ datasheet
- Emporis datasheet
- SkyscraperPage datasheet
- Place Ville-Marie on IMTL datasheet
| Montreal's Tallest |
|---|
| 1000 de La Gauchetière - 1250 René-Lévesque - Tour de la Bourse - Place Ville-Marie - Tour CIBC |
| Montreal landmarks | |
|---|---|
| Buildings | Biodome | Biosphère | Bell Centre | Canadian Centre for Architecture | Montreal Casino | Complexe Desjardins | Montreal Forum | Grande Bibliothèque du Québec | Habitat '67 | Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral | McCord Museum | Montreal Science Centre | Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica | Olympic Stadium | Palais des congrès de Montréal | Place des Arts | Place Ville-Marie | Redpath Museum | Saint Joseph's Oratory | Tour de la Bourse | Underground City | World Trade Centre Montreal |
| Neighbourhoods | Chinatown | Old Montreal | Old Port | Quartier international de Montréal |
| Nature and Parks |
Jardin botanique de Montréal | Mount Royal |
| Islands | Île Bizard | Island of Montreal | Île Notre-Dame | Nuns' Island | Saint Helen's Island |
| Transportation | Montréal-Mirabel International Airport | Montreal Metro | Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport | Windsor Station | Central Station |
