Place Ville-Marie by MagikUnicorn

Photography • Architecture • posted on Apr 19, 2012

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Description

Place Ville Marie (PVM), formerly Royal Bank Tower taken from its anchor tenant, is a 188 m (617 ft) with 47-storey, cruciform office tower built in the International style in 1962, arguably the most distinctive building in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 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 several metro stations in Montreal, 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. 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. MORE INFORMATION >>> List of tallest buildings in Montreal Thanks Magik _________

Comments (52)

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MagikUnicorn

6:29PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

Place Ville-Marie Montréal La 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. Le promoteur fit cependant faillite avec ce projet quelques années plus tard. 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 47 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 ascenseurs 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). Pour plus d'information >>> Liste des plus hautes constructions de Montréal Merci Magik

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Faemike55

6:33PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

Very cool photo and wonderful information

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rocdan

6:39PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

awesome photo , love to scroll up and down great effect ,well done and great info

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Richardphotos

6:46PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

outstanding architecture and capture

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Glendaw

6:55PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

Amazing photo Magik. Agree great effect when one scrolls up and down. Feels like the building is moving. Wonderful information you have provided as well as the list of buildings. Montreal is too huge for me. Used to be citified but now am countryfied.

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bebopdlx

7:05PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

Excellent photo

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Savage_dragon

7:33PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

Glad I'm not the window washer. Cool shot! ")

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eekdog

8:36PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

i agree with savage dragon, would be challanging. cool pic!!!!

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bazza

8:49PM | Thu, 19 April 2012

Great looking building and info MU I'm with Savage Dragon on that one would be a full time job start at the top get to the bottom and time to start at the top again lol...

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