Random Building
1962 – Tour CIBC, Montreal, Quebec
La Tour CIBC measures 187 meters in height and counts forty-five storeys.This slender tower has only 1,400 square meters per floor. This is due to a zoning regulation limiting the total building floor area to twelve times the property area. Its façade is more ornamental than that of the average International style tower, with horizontal strips of glass curtain wall alternating with spandrels of various stone.
Inside, levels 15 and 29 are transfer floors; level 16 is a triple-height mechanical floor that is skipped in the floor numbering of the passenger elevators. Levels 42-44 are also mechanical floors; level 45 was originally an indoor observation deck but was closed in the 1970s. The top 7 meters of the tower are actually an open-air raised partition, built after construction, that hides the rooftop elevator control rooms.
Published December 14, 2009