Trader's Bank Building

Trader's Bank Building is one of the early skyscrapers in Toronto.

Designed by Carrère and Hastings and begun in 1905 at 67 Yonge Street, standing at 15 storeys (198 feet) above Yonge and Colborne Streets, it was the tallest building in Toronto and the entire British Commonwealth until the CPR Building was completed in 1913. The Traders Bank Building has a single shaft rising to a roof. It remains as one of North America's few surviving skyscrapers of the early 20th Century.

Construction of the building was marked by several accidents and one fatality. An engineer was scalded by a faulty steam injector in November 1905[1]

The building was innovative in its leasing arrangements. It was the first major Toronto building to introduce the New York system of leasing by the square foot.[2] The building was complete by early December 1906, and the bank shortly moved into its new headquarters.[3]

The building's height was fairly controversial at the time. A number of the city's public intellectuals, and many of its architects, expressed dismay at the prospect of skyscrapers. It would overload the property values and shade the streets, trapping the disease-causing miasmae that still lurked in the public imagination. The Toronto Globe complained that "in the next ten or fifteen years .... The chief retail thorofares will then look like a Colorado canyon".[4] Other editorials on the skyscraper theme compared Toronto to New York:

"but if the skyscraper habit grows, as there is every indication it will … the lower end of Yonge street and the central portion of King street will become dim sunless canyons such as one sees in the financial centre of New York".[5]

There are indications that the tall building changed the customary wind patterns at Yonge & Colborne. There are signs of urban canyon effect winds by the spring of 1909.[6]

The City Architect in November 1907 promised it would not start a trend. There would be no more skyscrapers he promised, and strict enforcement of the 200 foot height limit.[7] As it turned out, city council was usually persuaded to waive the height limits downtown, and the Traders' Bank was very shortly overtaken by even taller buildings.

References

  1. ^ Globe 17 Nov 1905 p. 12; 18 Dec 1906 p. 7
  2. ^ Toronto Star 16 Jun 1906 p. 21
  3. ^ Globe 18 Dec 1906 p. 7
  4. ^ Globe 25 Jun 1909 p. 26
  5. ^ Globe 16 Mar 1912 p. 38
  6. ^ Toronto Star 7 Apr 1909 p. 13
  7. ^ Toronto Star 12 Nov 1907 p. 1