1920 – Bank of Commerce, Grosvenor Avenue, Winnipeg

Small branch aimed at non-business customers constructed on corner of Grosvenor Avenue and Stafford Street in Winnipeg. Replaced by CIBC with a modern branch in the 1960s.

“In the new branch at the comer of Stafford and Grosvenor Avenues, Winnipeg, the factors necessitating a high or large building were absent. In Winnipeg staff apartments are unnecessary, the suburban surroundings raise of no question of rentable office and the moderate size of the neighbouring houses set no standard of height or mass. The question of design was therefore approached from the standpoint that the amenity of the locality should be respected and that while the building should be unmistakably a bank and reasonably prominent, it should not dwarf its domestic neighbours nor introduce the jarring note of a commercial block in a purely residential locality. All these dangers have been avoided by the happy and natural division of the building into a central pavilion containing the banking hall and low wings containing the manager’s room and the vault. The plan is one which in the event of a large business development can readily be extended rearwards without disturbing any department.

The character of the surrounding has also been respected in the material employed. The walls are faced with deep red sandfaced brick, the doorway and cornice are constructed in painted wood and the high pitch of the roof is covered with Spanish tiles. The form of the rood over the banking hall resulted naturally in a high coved ceiling which has been moderately enriched and developed as a feature of the interior.”
Construction, January 1921

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