The Dominion Square Building (french: Édifice Dominion Square), also known as the Gazette Building (french: Édifice Gazette), is a landmark office building in

Downtown Montreal Downtown Montreal ( French: ''Centre-Ville de Montréal'') is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The district is situated on the southernmost slope of Mount Royal, and occupies the western portion of the borough of Vil ...

facing

Dorchester Square , photo = Square Dorchester 01.jpg , photo_width = , photo_caption = , map = Canada Montreal , map_width = , type = Town square , location = Downtown Montreal, Ville-Marie Montreal, Quebec, Canada , nearest_city = , coords = , coo ...

on its northern side. It is located at 1010,

Sainte-Catherine Street Sainte-Catherine Street (french: rue Sainte-Catherine) () is the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It crosses the central business district from west to east, beginning at the corner of Claremont Avenue and de M ...

West, in

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. The building is named after the old name of the Square and its southern access is provided by Dorchester Square Street, which connects Peel Street to Metcalfe Street and offers access to a 600-lot parking garage under the building. The building was acquired for $78.25 million in 2005 by

David Azrieli David Joshua Azrieli, ( he, דוד יהושע עזריאלי; 10 May 1922 – 9 July 2014) was an Israeli-Canadian real estate tycoon, developer, designer, architect, and philanthropist. With an estimated net worth of US$3.1 billion as of ...

of Azrieli Holdings Inc.

Architecture

Completed between 1928 and 1930 in the

Beaux Arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...

, the Dominion Square Building is both a commercial office tower and a shopping mall. The site was formerly occupied by the Erskine Presbyterian Church c. 1866. Designed by the architectural firm of

Ross and Macdonald Ross and Macdonald was one of Canada's most notable architecture firms in the early 20th century. Based in Montreal, Quebec, the firm originally operated as a partnership between George Allen Ross and David MacFarlane (known as Ross and MacFar ...

, the building comprises twelve floors above ground and a 'T' shaped shopping concourse. The main entrance primarily serves the

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

with the escalators leading to a mezzanine looking out onto the ground floor below. The main floor was conceived as an interior shopping arcade at a time when such a notion was highly experimental. Moreover, the original design allowed access to the retail spaces on the ground floor from outside and in. From the third floor up, the facade is twice set back; however, this is not as a result of municipal regulations (only the upper most levels are so regulated), but rather aesthetic choices designed with multiple 'prestige clients' in mind. As such, the twin setbacks form a double comb shape which provides ample sunlight throughout the building while further permitting natural light to pass through the setbacks onto

below. By doing so, the building maximizes the total amount of available rental space for comparatively small city block. Moreover, multiple offices within have several different views, and recessed corners provide additional corner offices on the 9th and 10th floors. The

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

is of Alabama Rockwood

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and is described as having an unconventional, yet plentiful

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

decor. During the last major set of renovations, undertaken in 1989, a second and third floor extension was made, jutting out as a protective

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

with green-glass

solarium Solarium may refer to: * A sunroom, a room built largely of glass to afford exposure to the sun * A terrace (building) or flat housetop * The '' Solarium Augusti'', a monumental meridian line (or perhaps a sundial) erected in Rome by Emperor Augu ...

on top, along the southern side of the building.

Current tenants and services

Until late 2019, the principal tenant was the ''

'', which had placed a marquee title holder atop the arcaded entrance along

Saint Catherine Street Sainte-Catherine Street (french: rue Sainte-Catherine) () is the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It crosses the central business district from west to east, beginning at the corner of Claremont Avenue and de M ...

. Current principal tenants include the main Montreal Tourism office (facing Dorchester Square), and a women's wear retailer along Metcalfe Street.

Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after ...

moved their

CKMI-DT CKMI-DT (channel 15) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, the station maintains studios inside the Dominion Square Building in downt ...

station onto the 7th floor. The broadcast station includes a virtual television studio whereby anchors sit in front of a green screen and robotic cameras are controlled from remote cities. WeWork is a tenant with 3 floors with the main floor being on the 2nd floor.

Former tenants

Sherlock's Pub was once a tenant (Commercial )

Relation to the urban environment

The building was conceived as an ingenious solution to the multitude of building height and size regulations imposed by the City of Montreal during the early part of the 20th century. Moreover, it was conceived as an element of a new urban environment, and thus provided not only two levels of interior shopping and two levels of underground parking, but the city's first escalators as well. It was built at a time when there was significant interest (on the part of builders and promoters) to involve all elements of society, not just those who happened to work there. Furthermore, the available shopping space within was further conceived to be accessible from two sides, permitting the entire building to participate in social traffic exchange. Its modern conveniences and amenities, the prestige of location and effective beauty of the design made it an exceptionally important commercial office tower in the era before

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

Skyscrapers A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

References

External links

IMTL.org: Dominion Square Building
{{Authority control Beaux-Arts architecture in Canada Romanesque Revival architecture in Canada Office buildings in Montreal Downtown Montreal Montreal Gazette Newspaper headquarters in Canada Office buildings completed in 1929 Ross and Macdonald buildings