Trader's Bank Building

Trader's Bank Building
Former names	Montreal Trust Building
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Commercial offices
Architectural style	Neo-Classical
Location	67 Yonge Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates	43°38′55″N 79°22′39″W / 43.648737°N 79.377374°WCoordinates: 43°38′55″N 79°22′39″W / 43.648737°N 79.377374°W
Construction started	1905
Completed	1906
Height
Roof	55.39 m (181.7 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	15
Design and construction
Architect	Carrère and Hastings
References
[1][2]

Trader's Bank Building is a 15-storey, 55.39 m (181.7 ft) early skyscraper completed in 1906 at 67 Yonge Street in Toronto, Canada. The building was designed by Carrère and Hastings, with construction beginning in 1905. It was the tallest building in Toronto and the entire British Commonwealth until the Canadian Pacific Building was completed in 1913. It remains as one of North America's few surviving skyscrapers of the early 20th Century.

Construction of the building was marked by several accidents and one fatality. An engineer was scalded by a faulty steam injector in November 1905.^[3]

The building was innovative in its leasing arrangements. It was the first major Toronto building to introduce the New York system of leasing by the square foot.^[4] The building was complete by early December 1906, and the bank shortly moved into its new headquarters.^[5]

The building's height was fairly controversial at the time. A number of the city's public intellectuals and many of its architects expressed dismay at the prospect of skyscrapers. It would overload the property values and shade the streets, trapping the disease-causing miasmae that still lurked in the public imagination. The Globe newspaper complained: "in the next ten or fifteen years .... The chief retail thorofares will then look like a Colorado canyon."^[6] Other editorials on the skyscraper theme compared Toronto to New York:

"but if the skyscraper habit grows, as there is every indication it will … the lower end of Yonge street and the central portion of King street will become dim sunless canyons such as one sees in the financial centre of New York".^[7]

There are indications that the tall building changed the customary wind patterns at Yonge & Colborne. There are signs of urban canyon effect winds by the spring of 1909.^[8]

The City Architect in November 1907 promised it would not start a trend. There would be no more skyscrapers he promised, and strict enforcement of the 200 foot height limit.^[9] As it turned out, city council was usually persuaded to waive the height limits downtown, and the Traders' Bank was very shortly overtaken by even taller buildings.

References

1. Trader's Bank Building at Emporis
2. "Trader's Bank Building". SkyscraperPage.
3. The Globe. 17 November 1905, p. 12; 18 December 1906, p. 7
4. The Toronto Daily Star. 16 June 1906, p. 21
5. The Globe. 18 December 1906, p. 7
6. The Globe. 25 June 1909, p. 26
7. The Globe. 16 March 1912, p. 38
8. The Toronto Daily Star. 7 April 1909, p. 13
9. The Toronto Daily Star. 12 November 1907, p. 1

External links