Place Ville-Marie Montréal by MagikUnicorn

Photography • Architecture • posted on Sep 19, 2011

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Description

The name "Place Ville-Marie" is often used to refer to the cruciform building only, but it also applies to four 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 facelift, much of the grey concrete and terrazzo of the plaza was covered with grass, flowers and shrubs. The complex has 2,700,000 square feet (250,838 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". 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. According to design historian Mark Pimlott, "The most radical aspect of the Place Ville Marie project was that nearly one-half of its 280,000 square metres area were beneath street level... deriving the obvious benefit of being protected from Montréal’s extreme winter and summer climate." Its vast network and multi-purpose is juxtaposed with a continuous interior "with episodes of civic gravity and monumentality". At the time of construction, the main tower was known as the tallest skyscraper in the Commonwealth, and was the third tallest skyskraper on earth outside the United States. 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. 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. The central plaza became an important new public space in downtown Montreal, hosting an historic election rally for Pierre Elliott Trudeau during the 1968 federal election. Developer William Zeckendorf lost a bet to then Royal Bank President Earle McLaughlin, making payment in full (US$0.10) in an elaborate dime encased in acrylic. Exactly what the bet concerned is unknown. Though the Head Office was moved to Toronto in the 1970s, RBC still maintains the regional headquarters there. In 1975 Air Canada's headquarters were at 1 Place Ville-Marie. Mayor Jean Drapeau chose the name himself. Ville-Marie was the name of the Catholic colony founded at what is now Montreal in 1642. Place Ville-Marie official website Thanks Magik

Comments (64)

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MagikUnicorn

10:08PM | Mon, 19 September 2011

La Place Ville-Marie ou 1, Place Ville-Marie, est le quatrième plus haut gratte-ciel de Montréal. Il se situe à l'extrémité sud de l'avenue McGill College, à l'opposé de l'Université McGill dans le district Peter-McGill de l'arrondissement Ville-Marie. Le complexe de la Place Ville-Marie fut construit entre 1958 et 1962 par le promoteur new-yorkais William Zeckendorf et son architecte Ieoh Ming Pei au-dessus de la tranchée de la Gare Centrale du CN. La construction d'un aussi vaste complexe dans ce qui était un lieu difficile à mettre en valeur fut un coup de génie qui contribua à réorienter le développement du centre-ville montréalais. À l'époque, les promoteurs de la Place Ville-Marie et de la Tour CIBC se livraient compétition pour le plus haut édifice de Montréal et du Canada. La palme fut remportée par la place Ville-Marie. Cette compétition est un peu à l'image de celle que se livraient les promoteurs de New York en 1931 lors de la construction du Chrysler Building et de l'Empire State Building pour le plus haut édifice au monde. L'édifice principal, cruciforme, mesure 188,1 m (617 pieds) et possède 44 étages. (La tour devait en contenir 56, mais à cause d'un manque de fonds, les constructeurs ont dû arrêter à 44.) Le complexe a été développé en quatre édifices afin de ne pas être construit trop en hauteur, puisque la Ville de Montréal limite par règlementation la hauteur des gratte-ciels à celle du mont Royal. Au PH 1 (42e étage), l'édifice central contient un chute d'eau, qui est le point central du système d'aération du complexe. La tour contient aussi un bar à l'étage PH 2 appelé Altitude 737. Le service d'ascenseur a été installé par Otis Elevator Company, mais certains ascenseur ont été modernisés par Kone. Malgré son âge, le complexe reste encore aujourd'hui le pivot du centre-ville et le point central du Montréal souterrain, géographiquement et historiquement. À son niveau inférieur, un centre commercial du même nom est relié par tunnels au Centre Eaton et à la Gare centrale (ce dernier tunnel passant sous le boulevard René-Lévesque). Place Ville-Marie Site Officiel Merci Magik

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Chipka

10:11PM | Mon, 19 September 2011

Modern, blocky architecture! It's so...monolithic but it jiggles nicely when you move the image up and down rather fast! I love the POV...you get a real sense of the height here and I love the crisp, clear details. Great work!

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Faemike55

10:17PM | Mon, 19 September 2011

Very cool building and great history

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evielouise

10:35PM | Mon, 19 September 2011

I worked at Avis Rent-a Car in a beautiful office around the year kevin was about 2 yrs old so that would be about 1963 I sat in a beautiful office as people came to drop off and rent cars from countries all over ,I also posed for the company to advertise my picture was a large bulletin board in germany for years wow_it's still as beautiful as ever and I love to shop underground when I take trips there thanks for the wonderful memories magik great photo:

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Lashia

10:36PM | Mon, 19 September 2011

Awesome POV- thanks for sharing! :)

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bazza

10:43PM | Mon, 19 September 2011

Cool shot MU now that's a lot of windows to clean.. interesting history indeed..

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mgtcs

11:06PM | Mon, 19 September 2011

Fabulous image Magic, superlative shot!

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jocko500

11:45PM | Mon, 19 September 2011

super wonderful

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RodS Online Now!

12:01AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

Nice POV, crisp and clear! Nice capture and interesting information, Real!

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renecyberdoc

12:20AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

what a view wow.

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virginiese

12:23AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

joli building !

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DennisReed

12:50AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

Stunning!

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hipps13

12:54AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

WOW looing way up coming down with and actually see those trees are short cool capture warm hugs, Linda

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jayfar

1:24AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

Excellent shot and POV Magik.

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Feliciti

1:28AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

really cool pov and shot of this building too !!

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odile

2:36AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

Impressionnant et merci pour la visite documentée!

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npauling

2:43AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

A very impressive building and I like the POV you have used for this capture.

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evinrude

2:56AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

VERY COOL!!!

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dochtersions

3:03AM | Tue, 20 September 2011

An amazing POV and I love the trees there, as if they carry their arms into/around the building. Yes, the building will travel up from them, it seems so, by the way you've taken the picture, this is very well done. Magik. (LOL, more Magic)

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