Commerce Court
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Commerce Court is an office building complex on
King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
and Bay Streets in the financial district of
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Ontario, Canada. The four-building complex is a mix of
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
, International, and early
Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
architectural styles. The office complex served as the corporate headquarters for the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; ) is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District, Toronto, Financial District of Toronto, Ont ...
(CIBC) and its predecessor, the Canadian Bank of Commerce, from 1931 to 2021. Although CIBC relocated its headquarters to CIBC Square, the bank still maintains offices at Commerce Court.


History

The site initially housed Toronto's first Wesleyan Methodist Church, a small wooden chapel surrounded by woods (which later became the Metropolitan United Church) from 1818 to 1831, then as Theatre Royal from 1833 onwards. From 1887 to 1927 it was home to a seven-storey head office of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, which was then demolished to make way for a new corporate headquarters, the building now called Commerce Court North. The new 34-storey
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
building was the tallest in the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
/
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...
for roughly three decades, until 1962. In 1961 the bank merged with the Imperial Bank to form the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; ) is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District, Toronto, Financial District of Toronto, Ont ...
(CIBC) and construction soon began to establish Commerce Court as its headquarters complex of buildings. The tallest, and the tallest in Toronto at the time, was Commerce Court West, completed in 1972. On Wednesday, January 9, 2008, a portion of a CIBC sign at the top of the Commerce Court West building blew off as a result of wind gusts. Police cordoned off the area as a precaution. As a result, Bay St. from Front to Richmond and King St. from York to Yonge were shut down.
Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the primary public transport agency in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operating the majority of the city's transit bus, bus and rail services. It is the oldest and largest of the urban transit service providers ...
(TTC) service was diverted. This took place eight months after a piece of white marble panel fell from the 60th storey of the
First Canadian Place First Canadian Place is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario, at the northwest corner of King and Bay streets, and serves as the global operational executive office of the Bank of Montreal. At , it is the tallest buildin ...
building, and ten months after layers of ice fell from the
CN Tower The CN Tower () is a communications and observation tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Completed in 1976, it is located in downtown Toronto, built on the former Railway Lands. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway co ...
. The CIBC sold the complex in April 2000, now managed by QuadReal Property Group, but the head office of the bank remains the anchor tenant. CIBC relocated its headquarters from Commerce Court to CIBC Square on 1 November 2021. However, the bank intends to maintain a presence at Commerce Court.


Site

Commerce Court is a commercial complex made up of four structures, and a central courtyard. The complex is bounded by several major roadways, including
Bay Street Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District, Toronto, Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Economy of Canada, Canada's financial services indust ...
to the west, King Street West to the north,
Yonge Street Yonge Street ( ') is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Great Lakes#Geography, Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, ...
along its southeastern periphery, and Wellington Street West to the south. The structures are connected to the PATH network, a series of underground pedestrian tunnels that connect
downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main city centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the nor ...
.


Towers


Commerce Court North

The first building, now known as Commerce Court North, was opened in 1931 as the headquarters of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, a precursor bank to the current main tenant. The Canadian Bank of Commerce head office (now Commerce Court North) was designed by the American bank specialists
York and Sawyer York and Sawyer was an American architectural firm active between 1898 and 1949, subsequently as the Office of York & Sawyer, Architects; Kiff, Colean, Voss & Souder into the mid-1950s; and was succeeded by Kiff, Colean, Voss & Souder, who were ac ...
with the notable Canadian firm Darling and Pearson as the local architects of record. Structural engineering was provided by Harkness and Hertzberg. At the time of its construction, the building was one of the most opulent corporate headquarters in Canada and featured a public observation deck (since closed to the public for safety and liability concerns). The building is protected under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act since 1991. The Art Deco-style building is made of limestone and features a one-ton chandelier with over 70 lights in the lobby. Along the roofline (32 stories up), are 4 bearded figures along each side of the building. Each head is 24 feet high, representing Courage, Observation, Foresight and Enterprise.


Later buildings

In 1972, three other buildings were erected, thus creating the Commerce Court complex:
glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
and
stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...
glass curtain wall
International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...
Commerce Court West designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners with Page and Steele. Commerce Court West was the tallest building among the three later additions, at 57 storeys and it was the tallest building in Canada from 1972 to 1976. Originally, Commerce Court West's 57th floor was an observation floor. Commerce Court East (1972: 13 storeys) and Commerce Court South (5 storeys) are glass and applied masonry structures also designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners with Page and Steele in 1972. In 1994, Zeidler Partnership Architects was commissioned to renovate the Commerce Court urban plaza, the banking area at the base of Commerce Court West, and the below-grade retail area. There are 65 retail shops in the plaza below the complex.


Technical details


Central plaza

Surrounding the Commerce Court complex of buildings is a plaza featuring a fountain in its centre, and a three-piece bronze sculpture by Derrick Stephan Hudson entitled, ''Tembo, Mother of Elephants'' completed in 2002. The sculptures were installed on site in 2005 on loan from the L.L. Odette Foundation of
Windsor, Ontario Windsor ( ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Esse ...
. In popular culture, the plaza was used as a stand-in for Wall Street in a pair of Kids in the Hall sketches featuring Mr. Tyzik, the Headcrusher.


Tenants

The
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; ) is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District, Toronto, Financial District of Toronto, Ont ...
is a major tenant for the complex, with the bank having formerly housed its headquarters there. However, CIBC announced plans to relocate its headquarters from Commerce Court to CIBC Square in 2021. However, the bank still maintains offices at the office complex. Other anchor tenants situated in Commerce Court includes B2B Bank, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP,
Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...
, Guardian Capital Group, and Stikeman Elliott LLP. Other notable tenants of the building include the Canadian Bankers Association,
Ricoh is a Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company. It was founded by the now-defunct commercial division of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) known as the ''Riken Concern'', on 6 February 1936 as . Ricoh's hea ...
, and CIBC Wood Gundy, the latter tenant also being a subsidiary of CIBC.


See also

* Architecture of Toronto * List of tallest buildings in Canada *
List of tallest buildings in Toronto Many of the tallest buildings in Toronto are also the tallest in all of Canada. The tallest structure in Toronto is the CN Tower, which rises . The CN Tower was the List of tallest buildings and structures, tallest free-standing structure on land ...


References


External links


Commerce Court official website
{{I. M. Pei Bank headquarters in Canada Buildings and structures in Toronto Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Darling and Pearson buildings Eberhard Zeidler buildings I. M. Pei buildings Modernist architecture in Canada Office buildings completed in 1931 Office buildings completed in 1972 Path (Toronto) Skyscraper office buildings in Toronto 1931 establishments in Ontario 1972 disestablishments in Ontario