View source for CIBC Tower

{{Short description|Office skyscraper in Montreal, Quebec, Canada}}
{{For|the office tower in [[Windsor, Ontario]]|Bank of Commerce Building, Windsor}}
{{Infobox building
| name             = CIBC Tower
| native_name      = La Tour CIBC
| image            = CIBC Tower, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.jpg
| caption          = CIBC Tower and Dorchester Square
| alternate_names  = Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Building
| architectural_style = [[International Style (architecture)|International]]
| location         = 1155 [[René Lévesque Boulevard]] West<br />[[Montreal]], [[Quebec]]
| coordinates      = {{coord|45.4985|-73.5709|region:CA-QC|display=inline,title}}
| completion_date  = 1962
| building_type    = Commercial offices
| roof             = {{convert|187|m|abbr=on}}
| floor_count      = 45
| elevator_count   = Turnbull Elevator Co. Ltd (No. 16)
| cost             = 
| floor_area       = {{convert|54154|m2|abbr=on}}
| architect        = [[Peter Dickinson (architect)|Peter Dickinson]] and [[Ross and Macdonald|Ross, Fish, Duschenes and Barrett]]
| structural_engineer = 
| main_contractor  = 
| developer        = CIBC
| owner            = [[British Columbia Investment Management Corporation]]
| management       = British Columbia Investment Management Corporation
| references       = <ref>{{CTBUH|2173}}</ref><ref name="Emporis">{{Cite web |url=https://www.emporis.com/buildings/112403 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306021632/https://www.emporis.com/buildings/112403 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |title=Emporis building ID 112403 |work=[[Emporis]]}}</ref><ref name="GSS">{{Glass Steel and Stone|938}}</ref><ref name="SSP">{{SkyscraperPage|5924}}</ref><ref name="Structurae">{{Structurae|20010359}}</ref><ref name="IMTL">{{IMTL|15}}</ref>
|website = {{URL|1=http://groupepetra.com/eng/properties/view?id=19}}
}}

'''CIBC Tower''' ({{langx|fr|Tour CIBC}}) is a {{convert|187|m|abbr=on}} 45-[[storey]] [[skyscraper]] in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], [[Canada]]. The [[International style (architecture)|International Style]] office tower was built by [[Peter Dickinson (architect)|Peter Dickinson]], with associate architects [[Ross and Macdonald|Ross, Fish, Duschenes and Barrett]], and was the city's tallest building from 1962 to 1963. The building holds offices for the [[Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce]], the corporate law firm [[Stikeman Elliott]], the Canadian accounting firm [[MNP LLP]], as well as numerous other businesses.

The building is located at 1155 [[René Lévesque Boulevard]] West next to [[Dorchester Square]] facing the imposing but dwarfed [[Sun Life Building]]. Part of the fire-damaged [[Windsor Hotel (Montreal)|Windsor Hotel]] was demolished to make room for construction, with the remaining portion being converted to offices in the 1980s.

==History==
The project was initiated by the [[Canadian Bank of Commerce]] and announced in 1959. While the building was under construction, the Bank of Commerce merged with the [[Imperial Bank of Canada]] to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, effective June 1, 1961. The Imperial Bank abandoned its concurrent plan for a new head office at 612 McGill Street; that building was instead occupied by Crédit foncier franco-canadien, and since 1988 by [[Quebecor]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brodeur |first1=Mario |title=612, rue Saint-Jacques: la réhabilitation d'un mur-rideau |journal=Bulletin de Docomomo Québec |date=Autumn 2010 |issue=8 |url=http://docomomoquebec.ca/upload/files/bulletins/bulletin_08.pdf |access-date=2 January 2019}}</ref>

Completed in 1962, a few months before [[Place Ville-Marie]], the CIBC Tower was the tallest building in [[Canada]] and the entire [[Commonwealth of Nations]] when it was first built, until being surpassed later that year by Place Ville-Marie where a [[penthouse apartment|penthouse]] was added by the competing [[Royal Bank of Canada|Royal Bank]] for that express purpose.

The [[Foreign relations of Israel|Consulate of Israel]] was on the 26th floor of the building and as such, it was sometimes the site of demonstrations related to the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]]. The consulate has since relocated to [[Westmount Square]] in [[Westmount, Quebec|Westmount]].

==Architecture==
The tower is exceptionally slender with only {{convert|1400|m2|abbr=on}} of gross floor area per floor, because of 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 (architecture)|International style]] tower, with horizontal strips of glass [[Curtain wall (architecture)|curtain wall]] alternating with [[spandrel]]s of various types of stone, including green slate that was quarried in Wales. The building was fully renovated in 1991, and the highly visible CIBC logo at the top was redesigned in 2004 and again in 2013.

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 {{convert|7|m|abbr=on}} of the tower are actually an open-air raised partition, built sometime after construction, that hides the rooftop elevator control rooms. Without this extra structure, the actual roof height is {{convert|184|m|abbr=on}}, and approximately {{convert|187|m|abbr=on}} when counting the elevator penthouse. It is the fifth tallest building in Montreal, but an [[antenna (radio)|antenna]] raises the total height to {{convert|250|m|abbr=on}}, the tallest pinnacle in Montreal.

Until the end of 2018, [[French-language]] [[radio station]] [[CKOI-FM]] transmitted its 307,000 [[watt]] signal from atop the building.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Faguy |first1=Steve |title=Cogeco completes radio stations' transition to new antenna on Mount Royal |url=http://blog.fagstein.com/2019/01/17/cogeco-new-antenna/ |website=Fagstein |access-date=15 April 2019 |date=2019-01-17}}</ref> The antenna has since been removed.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cogeco Média |title=Démantèlement de l'antenne de la tour CIBC au cours des prochains mois |url=https://www.985fm.ca/nouvelles/245929/demantelement-de-l-antenne-de-la-tour-cibc-au-cours-des-prochains-mois |website=985fm |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref>

==Tenants==
*[[Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce]]<ref>[https://www.cibc.com/en/legal/legal-demands.html Address for Service of Legal Demands on CIBC]</ref>
*[[Minerai de fer Quebec]]
*[[Euler Hermes]]<ref>[https://www.allianz.com/oneweb/cms/www.allianz.com/en/about_us/where_we_are/regions_countries/canada.html Allianz | Canada] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121217113336/https://www.allianz.com/oneweb/cms/www.allianz.com/en/about_us/where_we_are/regions_countries/canada.html |date=2012-12-17 }}</ref>
*[[Macquarie Group]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Contact {{!}} Macquarie Group |url=https://www.macquarie.com/ca/en/about/contact.html |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=www.macquarie.com}}</ref>
*[[Russell Investments]]<ref>[http://www.russell.com/ca/Contact_Russell/default.asp Contact Russell|Russell Investments]</ref>
*[[Stikeman Elliott|Stikeman Elliott LLP]]<ref>[http://www.stikeman.com/cps/rde/xchg/se-en/hs.xsl/3560.htm Strikeman Elliott - Offices]. {{Archive url|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325194929/http://www.stikeman.com/cps/rde/xchg/se-en/hs.xsl/3560.htm|date=2016-03-25}}</ref>
*[[Vilaron Corporation]]<ref>http://www.by2clicksinvestments.com {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527175749/http://by2clicksinvestments.com/ |date=2013-05-27 }}</ref>
*[[Linkeo.com]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.linkeo.ca/ |title=Home |website=linkeo.ca}}</ref>
*[[MNP LLP]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mnp.ca/ |title=Home |website=mnp.ca}}</ref>
*[[ACE Aviation Holdings]]<ref name="address">{{cite web |url=http://www.aceaviation.com/en/contact/index.html |title=Get in Touch |publisher=ACE Aviation |last=<!--no byline--> |date=<!--no specified date--> |access-date=15 June 2018 }}{{self-published source|date=June 2018}}</ref>
*[[Parkland Fuel|Parkland Fuel Corporation]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.parkland.ca/en/|title=Parkland Fuel Corporation|website=www.parkland.ca|access-date=2019-08-30}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of tallest buildings in Montreal]]
* [[Old Royal Bank Building, Montreal]]
* [[Molson Bank Building, Montreal]]
* [[Bank of Montreal Head Office, Montreal]]
* [[Old Canadian Bank of Commerce Building, Montreal]]
* [[Commerce Court]], [[Toronto]]
* [[Commerce Place I]] and [[Commerce Place II]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Tour CIBC}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080516063346/http://www.latourcibc.com/ Official website]

{{Buildings in Canada timeline}}
{{Montreal tallest buildings}}
{{Montreal landmarks}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Office buildings completed in 1962]]
[[Category:Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce]]
[[Category:Skyscraper office buildings in Montreal]]
[[Category:Bank buildings in Canada]]
[[Category:International style architecture in Canada]]
[[Category:Downtown Montreal]]
[[Category:Peter Dickinson (architect) buildings]]
[[Category:1962 establishments in Quebec]]