The IA Tower (Industriel Alliance Tower or Tour Industrielle Alliance), originally called Industrial Life Tower, is a 23 stories high rise building located in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Inaugurated in 1986, it was one of the first postmodernist high rises built in downtown Montreal.

History

The IA Tower was the result of a joint venture between the then Industrial Life Insurance Company and First Québec Corporation. Built on

McGill College Avenue McGill College Avenue (officially in french: avenue McGill College) is a street in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Named for McGill University, the street was widened in the 1980s and transformed into a scenic avenue with McGill's Roddick Gates ...

, the tower was designed to be a premium grade-A office building The original tenants included Industrial Life, Dominion Securities Pitfield, Ernst and Whinney, Quantum group and Rolland Inc. Following the 1987 merger between Industrial Life Insurance and Alliance Nationale, the tower was renamed with the Industrielle Alliance name. Located between Boulevard De Maisonneuve Ouest and Avenue du Président-Kennedy, the IA Tower is ornamented by city furnitures and the public artwork ''Le banc des secrets'' by Lea Vivot.

2000 at night

Architecture

Designed by the Montreal firm Tolchinsky and Goodz, the IA Tower is made of Quebec polished granite. The building is larger at the last three floors and is designed to provide a maximum view of the

Mont-Royal Mount Royal (french: Mont-Royal, officially Town of Mount Royal, french: Ville de Mont-Royal, abbreviated TMR, french: VMR) is an affluent on-island suburban town located on the northwest side of the eponymous Mount Royal, northwest of Downtown ...

. Due to its conception, every floor apart from the three top floors has eight corner offices.

Notable tenants

American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...

(AIG), an American multinational insurance corporation * British Consulate-General in Montreal * Chambre de la sécurité financière, Quebec organization for self-regulation of financial services advisors * Co-operators General Insurance Company, a Canadian insurance cooperative * Crédit agricole CIB *

Cresa Cresa is an international commercial real estate Commercial property, also called commercial real estate, investment property or income property, is real estate (buildings or land) intended to generate a profit, either from capital gains or r ...

, an international commercial real-estate * Industrielle Alliance * IWG plc (Regus), a multinational services-office provider *

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

Maples Group Maples Group (previously Maples and Calder) is a multi-jurisdictional firm providing legal and financial services, headquartered in the Cayman Islands. It has offices in many financial centres around the world, including several tax neutral ju ...

, a multi-jurisdictional law firm
Quantum
Canadian firm specialized in recruitment, staffing and hiring services *

RSA Insurance Group RSA Insurance Group Limited (doing business as, trading as RSA, formerly RSA Insurance Group plc and Royal and Sun Alliance) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational general insurance company headquartered in London, England. RSA has ...

Woods LLP
one of the foremost litigation, arbitration and insolvency firm in Canada File:2000 avenue McGill College 02.jpg, 2000 McGill college (left) and Bell Media Tower (right) File:2000 avenue McGill College.jpg, View from the corner of McGill College and President Kennedy File:Avenue McGill College 05.JPG File:Lights 2000 mcgill.jpg File:2000 mcgill side view .jpg, View from Mansfield File:Hall 2000 mcgill .jpg

References

{{reflist Postmodern architecture in Canada Skyscraper office buildings in Montreal Buildings and structures completed in 1986 1986 establishments in Quebec