Tour de la Bourse
The Tour de la Bourse ( Stock Exchange Tower in English ) is a skyscraper in Montreal. It was built according to plans by Luigi Moretti and Pier Luigi Nervi and opened in 1964. With a height of 190 meters, the Tour de la Bourse is the third tallest building in the city (until 1992 it was the tallest ). The skyscraper in the international style, is located in the central district Ville- Marie at Square Victoria. Namesake of the building is the exchange of Montreal.
Description
The Tour de la Bourse is located in the so-called Quartier international, between the Rue Saint -Antoine in the west, rue Saint -Jacques in the East and the Victoria Square to the north. The original project, designed before the World Expo 67 during the economic boom, called for the construction of three identical skyscrapers, which should be arranged in a triangle. A financial shortage meant that eventually one of these planned building was erected. On the building site of the second planned skyscraper came later, the Hotel Delta Centre-Ville stand.
In architectural circles the Tour de la Bourse is considered a masterpiece of the International Style. The completely renovated in 1995 facade consists of a bronze colored anodic oxidized curtain wall. They contrast with the tapered, made of precast concrete columns at the four corners. This creates a slightly curved impression. The building is divided by maintenance projectiles whose corners are recessed in an octagonal shape, in three approximately equal-sized blocks.
The 190 meter high building was until 1992 the tallest in Montreal, still the third highest. Until the completion of Lake Point Tower in Chicago in 1968, the Tour de la Bourse was the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world until the completion of the Toronto-Dominion Centre in Toronto in 1967, the tallest building in Canada. An important tenant is to be the market of Montreal in the third and fourth floor. On February 13, 1969 exploded with the SEC a placed by the Front de libération du Québec bomb and injured 27 people.
The Ville souterraine, the widely branched underground city, connects the skyscrapers with several adjacent buildings and the subway station Square - Victoria.
See also
- List of tallest buildings in Montreal