TORONTO

November 20, 1998

To:City of Toronto Community Council

From:Managing Director, Toronto Historical Board

Subject:Designation Under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act - - 11 King Street West (Montreal Trust Tower)

Purpose:

This report recommends that the property at11 King Street West (Montreal Trust Tower) be designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

Not applicable.

Recommendations:

1. That City Council state its intention to designate the property at 11 King Street West (Montreal Trust Tower) under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.

2.That the appropriate officials be authorized to take whatever action is necessary to give effect hereto.

Background:

At its meeting of November 18, 1998, the Board of Heritage Toronto had before it the attached report recommending the designation of the property at 11 King Street West (Montreal Trust Tower) under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Comments:

Short Statement of Reasons for Designation

The property at 11 King Street West is recommended for designation for architectural and historical reasons. The Montreal Trust Tower was constructed in 1964-1965 according to the designs of the Toronto architectural firm of Page and Steele. It served as the Toronto headquarters of Montreal Trust, the financial company incorporated in 1889 and, since 1994, a subsidiary of the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The Montreal Trust Tower is a good example of the International Style. Constructed on a modified cruciform plan with corner setbacks, the design features an 18-storey flat-roofed tower rising from a podium of black granite. The building extends 5 bays along King and Melinda Streets and 7 bays on Jordan Street. All elevations feature tinted glass curtain walls and stainless steel spandrel panels. The ground floor, set back from the perimeter rectangular columns, is enclosed with full-height vertical glass panels and stainless steel mullions. The rectangular columns rise to the second storey where they become expressed as pilasters for the full height of the tower. The openness of the ground floor area allows for viewing outward to and inward from the adjacent streets. The elevator lobby is entered from King and Melinda Streets through revolving doors. A second revolving door in the King Street facade serves the west area of the ground floor.

Extending along the east side of Jordan Street from King Street West to Melinda Street, the Montreal Trust Tower is recessed from the north, west and south lot lines to allow light to penetrate to the neighbouring streets. The Montreal Trust Tower is an important example of the work of Page and Steele, one of Toronto's foremost architectural firms during the post-World War II era.

Conclusion:

Heritage Toronto recommends that City Council designate the property at11 King Street West (Montreal Trust Tower) under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Contact Name:

Ms. Kathryn Anderson

Preservation Officer, Historical Preservation Division, Toronto Historical Board

Tel: 392-6827, ext. 239

Fax: 392-6834

George Waters,

Acting Managing Director

(g:\report\1998\cc98\cc98029.thb)

copy:

Councillor Kyle Rae, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, Suite 4, Toronto,

M5H 2N2

HERITAGE TORONTO

November 13, 1998

To:Chair and Members, Toronto Historical Board

Subject:11 KING STREET WEST (MONTREAL TRUST TOWER) -

DESIGNATION UNDER PART IV OF THE ONTARIO HERITAGE ACT

From:Managing Director, Toronto Historical Board (thb98041.hpd)

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. That City Council state its intention to designate the property at 11 King Street West (Montreal Trust Tower) pursuant to Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act to be of architectural value.

2.That the appropriate officials be authorized to take whatever action is necessary to give effect hereto.

COMMENTS

Background:

At its meeting of December 20, 1996, the Board of Heritage Toronto recommended that the property at 11 King Street West be designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. At that time, the owner's representatives requested prior approval for an alteration to the base of the building that was not supported by staff. The Neighbourhoods Committee of the former City of Toronto Council considered the Board's recommendation at its meeting on September 10, 1997. The Committee requested that the Managing Director of Heritage Toronto, in consultation with the City's Planning Department, meet again with the owner and report directly to City Council.

Meetings between Heritage Toronto staff and the owner's representatives did not resolve the issue. A report was sent to the City Council meeting of October 6, 1997 requesting a deferral to allow further time to find an acceptable solution. Council granted the deferral.

The property has recently changed ownership. The report recommending the designation of the property is being brought back at this time.

A Short Statement of Reasons for Designation, intended for publication, follows. A Heritage Property Report (Long Statement of Reasons for Designation), including visuals, is attached. Both documents constitute the Reasons for Designation.

2.Short Statement of Reasons for Designation:

The property at 11 King Street West is recommended for designation for architectural and historical reasons. The Montreal Trust Tower was constructed in 1964-1965 according to the designs of the Toronto architectural firm of Page and Steele. It served as the Toronto headquarters of Montreal Trust, the financial company incorporated in 1889 and, since 1994, a subsidiary of the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The Montreal Trust Tower is a good example of the International Style. Constructed on a modified cruciform plan with corner setbacks, the design features an 18-storey flat-roofed tower rising from a podium of black granite. The building extends 5 bays along King and Melinda Streets and 7 bays on Jordan Street. All elevations feature tinted glass curtain walls and stainless steel spandrel panels. The ground floor, set back from the perimeter rectangular columns, is enclosed with full-height vertical glass panels and stainless steel mullions. The rectangular columns rise to the second storey where they become expressed as pilasters for the full height of the tower. The openness of the ground floor area allows for viewing outward to and inward from the adjacent streets. The elevator lobby is entered from King and Melinda Streets through revolving doors. A second revolving door in the King Street facade serves the west area of the ground floor.

Extending along the east side of Jordan Street from King Street West to Melinda Street, the Montreal Trust Tower is recessed from the north, west and south lot lines to allow light to penetrate to the neighbouring streets. The Montreal Trust Tower is an important example of the work of Page and Steele, one of Toronto's foremost architectural firms during the post-World War II era.

George Waters

Managing Director

RS/KA

encl.Heritage Property Report

TORONTO HISTORICAL BOARD

Heritage Property Report

Montreal Trust Tower

11 King Street West

November 1998

Heritage Property Report

Montreal Trust Tower

11 King Street West

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Basic Building Data

Historical Background

Architectural Description

Context

Summary

Sources Consulted

Attachments:

IShort Statement of Reasons for Designation

IILocation Map

IIIPhotographs

TORONTO HISTORICAL BOARD

Heritage Property Report

Basic Building Data:

Address:11 King Street West (southeast corner of King Street West and Jordan Street)

Ward:6

Current Name:Montreal Trust Building

Historical Name:Montreal Trust Tower

Construction Date:1964-1965

Architect:Page and Steele

Contractor/Builder:Inspiration Limited

Additions/

Alterations:windows replaced

Original Owner:Montreal Trust Company

Original Use:commercial

Current Use*:commercial

Heritage Category:Notable Heritage Property (Category B)

Recording Date:December 1996; revised February 1997 and November 1998

Recorder:HPD:KA

* this does not refer to permitted use(s) as defined in the Zoning By-law

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

When Toronto was founded as the Town of York, the community was centred in a 10-block area east of present day Yonge Street. King Street emerged as the commercial artery of the town and remained the main street as the community expanded westward. By 1800, Jordan Post, a watchmaker from New England, acquired most of the land in the block bounded by Yonge, King, Wellington and Bay Streets (excluding the site of the Wesleyan Methodist Meeting House, the community's first Methodist Church, established in 1818 on land now occupied by Commerce Court). Post laid out two streets across his property, naming them "Jordan" and "Melinda" after himself and his wife. He established a shop on the southeast corner of King and Jordan Streets where he built and repaired clocks and watches.

By the end of the 19th century, the block held a mixture of low-rise commercial stores and factories, with the first Dominion Bank Building (completed 1878) occupying the southwest corner of Yonge and King Streets. When Yonge Street became the primary commercial street in the city, financial institutions replaced shops along King Street, west of Yonge. During the World War I era, the city's earliest surviving skyscrapers congregated around the corner of Yonge and King; the Traders Bank Building, completed in 1905 at 67 Yonge Street, rose 15 stories to become the tallest building in the city, country and British Empire. It was soon surpassed by neighbouring structures. In the 1920s, "second generation" skyscrapers appeared along King and Bay Streets where they were set back from the lot lines and rose in a series of progressively narrower setbacks. The Canadian Bank of Commerce Building was completed in 1931 on the southwest corner of King and Jordan Streets, once the location of Jordan Post's residence. It became the tallest building in the Empire at 34 stories, a distinction it retained until 1967 when the first phase of the Toronto-Dominion Centre opened.

After World War II, new buildings filled in or replaced existing structures along King Street, west of Yonge Street. In a project delayed by the Great Depression and war, the Bank of Nova Scotia Building was completed on the northwest corner of King and Bay Streets in 1951. The Prudential Building opened on the northwest corner of Yonge and King Streets in 1960. Later that decade, large-scale complexes featuring groups of buildings were under construction, with the Toronto-Dominion Centre on the southwest corner of King and Bay Streets (begun in 1963) and Commerce Court on the southeast corner (begun in 1968).

In the mid 1960s, the Montreal Trust Company established its Toronto branch office on the southwest corner of King and Jordan Streets. Incorporated in 1889, the company was later acquired by BCE Incorporated and, in 1994, became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Nova Scotia. The Montreal Trust Tower was completed in 1965, with the company occupying the first 8 floors of the facility. The upper stories housed stock brokerage and investment companies, among which was Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith. The law firm of Tory Tory Deslauriers and Binnington was one of the original tenants.

The Montreal Trust Tower was designed by the Toronto architectural firm of Page and Steele. The origins of the firm date to 1925 when Forsey Pemberton Page (1885-1970) established his own practice following a decade-long partnership with Stanford Warrington. Two years later, he was joined by W. Harland Steele, a recent graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. While the firm initially gained a reputation for designing Georgian Revival buildings for high-profile clients, it turned to Modern design with the Park Lane Apartments on St. Clair Avenue West (1938) and Moderne Garden Court Apartments on Bayview Avenue (completed in 1942). Following World War II, Page employed many graduates of English polytechnical schools, among whom was architect Peter Dickinson (1925-1961). Dickinson was the chief designer at Page and Steele from 1950 until 1958 when he left to establish his own firm. With Dickinson's influence, Page and Steele designed many of the landmarks of the Modern era in Toronto, including the Benvenuto Place Apartments (completed 1955). During the 1950s and 1960s, the firm's designs won a series of Massey Medals for Architecture. In 1967, Page and Steele received the Award of Excellence in the second national structural steel awards program for the Montreal Trust Tower. The firm gained international recognition as the Toronto associates for Commerce Court (1868-1972), designed in conjunction with the celebrated American architect, I. M. Pei. Page and Steele is regarded as one of the two pre-eminent Toronto architectural firms of the post-World War II period. It shares this distinction with John B. Parkin Associates, designers of Toronto City Hall (1965, in association with Viljo Revell) and other landmarks.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:

The Montreal Trust Tower is designed in the International Style, which evolved in Europe during the early 1900s. The name was introduced in a photographic exhibition entitled "The International Style: Architecture since 1922", held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1932. French architect Le Corbusier and German designers Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were the leading exponents of this new movement in architecture. Characterized by smooth surfaces, horizontal emphasis, asymmetry, flat roofs, neutral colours, and a lack of ornamentation, proponents of the style used modern materials such as aluminium, steel and large expanses of glass.

The Montreal Trust Tower features an 18-storey tower rising from a podium of black granite. Covered by a flat roof, the building is constructed on a modified cruciform plan with corner setbacks. It extends five bays along King and Melinda Streets and 7 bays on Jordan Street. All elevations feature tinted glass curtain walls and stainless steel spandrel panels. The ground floor, set back from the perimeter rectangular columns, is enclosed with full-height vertical glass panels and stainless steel mullions. The rectangular columns rise to the second storey where they become expressed as pilasters for the full height of the tower. The openness of the ground floor area allows for viewing outward to and inward from the adjacent streets. The elevator lobby is entered from King and Melinda Streets through revolving doors. A second revolving door in the King Street facade serves the west area of the ground floor.

CONTEXT:

The Montreal Trust Tower extends along the east side of Jordan Street from King Street West to Melinda Street. Situated on a narrow rectangular lot, the building is set back from the north, west and south lot lines in a modified plaza. To the east, the 4-storey Michie Building at 5 King Street West, completed in 1895 for a grocery chain, is a rare surviving example of the low-rise buildings that characterized the area before 1900. Across Jordan Street to the west and Melinda Street to the south, the Montreal Trust Tower faces Commerce Court North (historically known as the Canadian Bank of Commerce Building at 25 King Street West) and Commerce Court East. The land assembly required for the latter complex resulted in the closure of Jordan Street between Melinda and Wellington Streets, and Melinda Street from Jordan to Bay Streets.

SUMMARY:

The Montreal Trust Tower is identified for architectural reasons. Constructed in 1964-1965 in the International Style, the building was designed by Page and Steele, one of Toronto's foremost 20th century architectural firms. Located on the southeast corner of King and Jordan Streets, the Montreal Trust Tower is a good example of a Modern skyscraper reflecting the evolution of the Financial District in the 1960s.

Sources Consulted:

"The Bad boy who shaped Canadian architecture". Globe and Mail (28 September 1985) E3.

The Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism. Toronto Modern: Architecture 1945-1965. Coach House, 1987.

City of Toronto Directories, 1963-1965.

Freedman, Adele. Sightlines. Looking at Architecture and Design in Canada. Oxford University, 1990.

Gad, Gunter, and Deryck Holdsworth. "Large office buildings and their changing occupancy. King Street, Toronto, 1880-1950". SSAC Bulletin (December 1985) 19, 22-26.

Goad's Fire Insurance Atlases, 1884 and 1890.

Kalman, Harold. A History of Canadian Architecture. Vol. 2. Oxford University, 1994.

McHugh, Patricia. Toronto Architecture. A City Guide. 2nd ed. McClelland and Stewart, 1989.

Montreal Trust Company. Annual Report. 1995.

"Obituary -- Forsey Pemberton Page". Toronto Star (23 November 1970) 34.

"Page and Steele form partnership". Construction (April 1927) 135.

Scadding, Henry. Toronto of Old (1873). Reprint. Oxford University, 1966.

"Structural steel design awards". Architecture Canada (April 1967), 7.

Kathryn Anderson

December 1996

revised February 1997

and November 1998

ATTACHMENT I

Short Statement of Reasons for Designation

Montreal Trust Tower

11 King Street West

The property at 11 King Street West is recommended for designation for architectural reasons.

The Montreal Trust Tower was constructed in 1964-1965 according to the designs of the Toronto architectural firm of Page and Steele. It served as the Toronto headquarters of Montreal Trust, the financial company incorporated in 1889 and, since 1994, a subsidiary of the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The Montreal Trust Tower is a good example of the International Style. Constructed on a modified cruciform plan with corner setbacks, the design features an 18-storey flat-roofed tower rising from a podium of black granite. The building extends 5 bays along King and Melinda Streets and 7 bays on Jordan Street. All elevations feature tinted glass curtain walls and stainless steel spandrel panels. The ground floor, set back from the perimeter rectangular columns, is enclosed with full-height vertical glass panels and stainless steel mullions. The rectangular columns rise to the second storey where they become expressed as pilasters for the full height of the tower. The openness of the ground floor area allows for viewing outward to and inward from the adjacent streets. The elevator lobby is entered from King and Melinda Streets through revolving doors. A second revolving door in the King Street facade serves the west area of the ground floor.

Extending along the east side of Jordan Street from King Street West to Melinda Street, the Montreal Trust Tower is recessed from the north, west and south lot lines to allow light to penetrate to the neighbouring streets. The Montreal Trust Tower is an important example of the work of Page and Steele, one of Toronto's foremost architectural firms during the post-World War II era.