August 2025.
Skipping forward a day, this Montreal dump post covers my walk down Cote du Beaver Hall/Rue du Square-Victoria (and a quick foray down Rue Saint-Jacques) on the way to Old Montreal.
Helene Desmarais Building (HEC Montreal)
I really wish I did this one more justice, as it is probably one of the better Contemporary designs in Montreal. This 2023 building was designed by Provencher_Roy for HEC Montreal, the oldest business school in Canada. I particularly like it because it exhibits several characteristics of good Contemporary architecture:
It responds to the neighborhood context, both in scale and wrapping around existing buildings
It has an interesting exterior and interior design compared to more banal designs that are common today
The building is very sensitive to sustainable and human-focused design
I only focused on the 1900 Canadian Street Car Advertising Building, instead, which is some crappy, bare Beaux-Arts design. Really, the only thing interesting about it is that it was built on the site of fur trader Joseph Frobisher’s 1792 home, known as “Beaver Hall,” which gave this street its name.
Two different design sensibilities…masonry and punched windows versus glass curtain walls.
Although I love historic architecture dearly and generally find it to be more appealing, I’ve matured enough to realize there are great contemporary works out there, too. This is one of them.
Stock Exchange Tower
This unorthodox International-style tower is expressed as four distinct sections that bulge outwards slightly, and each corner is buttressed by a reinforced concrete pier. Compared to the uninterrupted Miesian shafts that pervaded most cities in the 1950s and 1960s, this is a somewhat welcome departure. The Stock Exchange Tower was a product of the economic boom during the planning of Expo 67, and its original plan designed by Luigi Moretti and Pier Luigi Nervi featured three identical towers in a triangle (later two towers bordering a central core). In the final design, only one tower and the central module were built, and the Hotel Centre-Ville to the south currently occupies the site of the proposed second tower.
The Stock Exchange Tower was both the tallest building in Montreal and Canada upon completion in 1964, standing 48 stories and 636 feet high. It was surpassed by the Dominion Center in Toronto in 1967, and it is currently the eighth tallest in Montreal.
Greenshields Building/Canada Steamship Lines Building
A Beaux-Arts building with Romanesque Revival vaulting, this building was designed as the Greenshields Building for Greenshields, Son, & Company, a dry goods store. Completed in 1907 by firm Hutchinson and Wood, it is composed of two different warehouses expressed as a unified composition. Greenshields occupied the building until 1933, when it merged with two other companies and moved.
In 1946, the building was purchased by shipping company Canada Steamship Lines, granting it its alternative name. It was later owned by Power Corporation of Canada beginning in 1976 and remodeled in 1989. In 1992, the World Trade Centre Montreal was completed, which incorporates it into a larger shopping mall along the former Fortification Lane, the site of Montreal’s defensive walls during its colonial period. The current top floor is an addition dating to 2004.
Window detail--note the egg-and-dart molding and Beaux-Arts details:
I honestly like this abstracted metal cornice, even though it isn’t the most historically accurate:
McIntyre Building
Also part of the World Trade Centre, the earlier Second Empire McIntyre Building was constructed by Montreal businessman Duncan McIntyre as a dry goods store and warehouse. His company owned the building until 1927, when an addition occurred. Canada Steamship Lines also acquired the McIntyre Building in combination with the Greenshields Building, and the Power Corporation of Canada likewise purchased it in 1976.
Entrance detail, which has two Ionic columns supporting an entablature above:
Banque Scotia Building
I have only one photo from this building at the corner of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue du Square-Victoria, which features the sign, pilaster capitals, and interestingly carved windows above.
628 Saint-Jacques
A Contemporary 36-story apartment building, 628 Saint-Jacques was designed by NEUF architect(e)s and completed in 2021. It maintains the facade of a 1907 Beaux-Arts building as part of its base, which was heavily altered over the years, and a New Classical facade facing Rue Gauvin was rebuilt along its original footprint.
Can you tell I don’t do great with super tall skyscrapers yet?
The Beaux-Arts building that makes up part of the base today, with Corinthian columns and pilasters, vaulted windows, and balconettes:
Compared to this Google Maps snapshot, it’s definitely an improvement. I don’t mind the brick facade on one side, but the Modern addition above is pretty atrocious:
Victoria sur le Parc
Victoria sur le Parc is the tallest residential building and third-tallest building overall in Montreal, standing at 660 feet. It is another Contemporary design and was completed in 2023. Although it also replaced historic buildings on the site, it did not attempt to preserve them. However, the buildings were in poor shape and were rather bare in style.
I also like Contemporary designs that use a warmer color palette, such as the entrance here:
Next, we’ll finally crack into Old Montreal along Rue Saint-Jacques. I had too many photos for one article alone, so I’ve split it into several more digestible chunks, starting with the east side from Rue du Square-Victoria to Place d’Armes.
Sources:
https://provencherroy.ca/en/projects/edifice-helene-desmarais-hec-montreal
https://www.squarevictoriaimmobilier.com/en/properties/759-square-victoria
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=236396
https://squarevictoriaimmobilier.com/en/properties/751-square-victoria
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