The Telus Tower is a 34-storey office tower in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. The project was conceived and managed by Ionel Rudberg (1906–1965), and the building was owned originally by Dorchester-University Holdings Limited, a joint venture of Rudberg, the

Royal Trust Company The Royal Trust Company is a Canadian trust company that was founded in 1892 in Montreal, Quebec. By the late 20th century, it carried out trust, financial, real estate and deposit services in over 100 branches in Canada, the U.S. and overseas. I ...

, and the

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (, ), abbreviated as BMO (pronounced ), is a Canadian multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank, making it Canada ...

. The building was announced in January 1959, and in May of that year,

Canadian Industries Limited Canadian Industries Limited, and from 1980 C-I-L Inc., was a Canadian chemicals manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 as Canadian Explosives Limited, and in 1927 changed its name to Canadian Industries Limited. At its inception, the compa ...

signed as the main tenant and received naming rights. Accordingly, the building was called C-I-L House at the time it opened. Designed by architect

Gordon Bunshaft Gordon Bunshaft (May 9, 1909 – August 6, 1990) was an American architect, a leading proponent of modern design in the mid-twentieth century. A partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Bunshaft joined the firm in 1937 and remained with it ...

from the architectural firm

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by enginee ...

with local architects Greenspoon, Freedlander and Dunne, it stands 135.6 m (445 ft) and 34 storeys tall. In 1960, Bunshaft had recently completed his seminal work,

Lever House Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed from 1950 to 1952, the building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merr ...

in New York City.

History and design

During the 1960s when Montreal's financial district shifted from its St. James Street center to midtown, The CIL House also became the annex headquarters of the

when it added a main banking branch there. Then-named Dorchester Boulevard West became the financial center of Montreal and Canada with the largest Canadian banks and insurance companies having a presence. In later years, CIL moved its head office operations to Ontario. The Royal Trust later received naming rights to the building when it located its head office there until the merger with the

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; ) is a Canadian multinational Financial institution, financial services company and the Big Five (banks), largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than ...

. The name

Royal Trust Tower The Toronto-Dominion Centre, or TD Centre, is an office complex of six skyscrapers in the Financial District of downtown Toronto owned by Cadillac Fairview. It serves as the global headquarters for its anchor tenant, the Toronto-Dominion Bank, an ...

now refers to another building in Toronto. Today, it is home to the Montreal operations of

Telus Telus may refer to: * Telus Corporation, a Canadian publicly traded holding company ** Telus Communications, a telecommunications company ** Telus Digital, a technology company ** Telus Health, a health technology provider ** Telus Mobility T ...

, the head office of Telus Health Solutions, but also houses the local offices of

NEUF architect(e)s History NEUF architect(e)s is a team of creative professionals who have been contributing to Canada's built environment for nearly 50 years. Active in all sectors, including strategic planning, urban design, institutional, resorts and hotels, r ...

Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...

Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche (), is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational corporation, multinational holding healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, ...

Canada Life The Canada Life Assurance Company ( French: ''La Compagnie d'Assurance du Canada sur la Vie''), commonly known as Canada Life (''Canada-Vie''), is a Canadian insurance and financial services company with its headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The ...

, ROBIC,

Clyde & Co Clyde & Co is a global law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The firm is one of the top 10 largest law firms in the City of London and has the largest dispute resolution practice of any UK law firm. It employs 2,600 legal professiona ...

, Fairstone Financial, Inc., as well as a

branch A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includ ...

References

External links

*
Redbourne (real-estate manager of the building)630 René-Lévesque Boulevard West - Technical Specifications
Office buildings completed in 1962 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Montreal International style architecture in Canada Downtown Montreal Telus {{Quebec-struct-stub