1250 René-Lévesque

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The 1250 René-Lévesque seen from the east.
The 1250 René-Lévesque seen from the east.

Le 1250 Boulevard René-Lévesque, still known as La Tour IBM-Marathon, is a 199 m, 47-story skyscraper in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. As of 2005, it is the second-tallest in the city, behind the nearby 1000 de La Gauchetière, which was completed the same year (1992). Despite being 6 m shorter than 1000 de La Gauchetière, it is built on higher ground and thus also reaches the maximum allowed elevation from sea level (that of Mount Royal).

The building was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates for IBM Canada and Marathon Realty, hence the former name "IBM-Marathon." It is now named for its address at 1250 René Lévesque Boulevard West, in the Ville-Marie borough of downtown Montreal. It is adjacent to the Bell Centre and Windsor Station to the south, and stands on the site of the former American Presbyterian Church. It is connected to the Bonaventure metro station and the underground city network.

The 1250 is currently managed by Oxford Properties and is still partially occupied by IBM.

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[edit] Building design

The 1250 René-Lévesque's architecture is based on another skyscraper by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the 51-story Westend Straße 1 in Frankfurt, Germany. [1] The design is partly dictated by the building's position at the western edge of the downtown core, with its shape forming a boundary between the commercial center and the residential periphery. As such it has a markedly rectangular footprint, being very elongated on a north-south axis. Like its Frankfurt counterpart, emphasis is given to the east and west façades, which have opposed yet complementary appearances that strongly relate to the urban area they face.

The modern-style western façade, facing the residential periphery, is a straight granite-clad wall covered with square windows, with irregular setbacks creating the appearance of several superimposed slabs. Conversely the postmodern-style eastern façade, facing the commercial center, is dominated by an outwardly-curved glass curtain wall that extends past the southern edge, creating a suspended vertical "fin" that emphasizes the structure's impression of lightness and thrust. The narrow north wall recesses in a series of setbacks, allowing the building to keep its human scale at street level. At the lowest setback, the 4-floor atrium includes a bamboo-planted winter garden, and a food court on a mezzanine. At the building top, a spire/antenna is integrated to the north walls of the last few floors and extends 31 metres beyond the mechanical penthouse above the 47th floor.

It should be noted that Montreal's downtown area is now expanding beyond the building's "boundary", with the two towers of the recently completed Cité du commerce électronique in the west. The height of those towers increases towards the 1250 and the city center, creating a "staircase effect" in the skyline. A parking lot remains in-between, which is expected to be redeveloped with a building of intermediate height.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

On 29 May 2006 at 3:00 pm two men were cleaning windows on the fifth floor of the building when the shaft collapsed. The two men survived but sustained injuries.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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