The Architects' Building was an office building located in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, 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 ...
, Canada. It was located at 1135
Beaver Hall Hill
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...
, on the southeast corner of Dorchester Boulevard (now
René Lévesque Boulevard
René Lévesque Boulevard (french: Boulevard René-Lévesque), previously named Dorchester Boulevard () is one of the main streets in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
It is a main east–west thoroughfare passing through the downtown core in the borou ...
) in
Downtown Montreal
Downtown Montreal (French language, 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 ...
.
It was designed by Montreal architecture firm
Ross and Macdonald, and was constructed between 1930 and 1931.
It stood 17 stories tall, equivalent to 69.82 m in height. Its architectural style was considered to be
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
.
The Architects' Building was designed shortly after the same firm's celebrated
Édifice Price
The Édifice Price ( en, Price Building) is an 18-floor (originally 16) skyscraper in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Built in 1928–1931 amid controversy for Price Brothers Limited, it is the tallest building in the Old Quebec historical distric ...
in Quebec City and showed similarities in its style and massing. As the building's name suggests, Ross and Macdonald did in fact locate their own offices on the 13th floor of the building from its 1931 opening until about 1934.
Canadian Industries Limited Canadian Industries Limited, also known as C-I-L, is a Canadian chemicals manufacturer. Products include paints, fertilizers and pesticides, and explosives. It was formed in 1910 by the merger of five Canadian explosives companies. It was until rec ...
(CIL) first leased space in the building in 1934 and shortly afterwards became the principal occupant. At that point (about 1936) the building was renamed CIL House – not to be confused with the
later building which also bore the same name. At the time, CIL was jointly owned by
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain.
It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926.
Its headquarters were at M ...
(ICI) and
DuPont. A U.S. antitrust settlement in 1954 required the termination of all joint ventures between the two companies. CIL was
split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, entertain ...
; the ICI-owned part retained the CIL name but moved to new headquarters. The remainder, named DuPont Canada, remained in the old building (now the DuPont Building) until 1967.
The building was demolished in 1968.
[The address is last listed in Lovell's city directory in 1968. The demolition was reported in the Montreal ''Gazette'' in November: ]
References
{{reflist
1931 establishments in Quebec
1968 disestablishments in Quebec
Art Deco architecture in Canada
Art Deco skyscrapers
Buildings and structures demolished in 1968
Demolished buildings and structures in Montreal
Downtown Montreal
Office buildings completed in 1931
Ross and Macdonald buildings