The Commercial Building Heritage Award of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board underscores a corporation’s contribution to the preservation of heritage commercial buildings.
 
This year, the award goes to the Bank of Montreal and DFS Inc. Architecture & Design for the restoration of the bank’s headquarters, located at 119 Saint-Jacques Street in Old Montréal.

Established in 1817, Bank of Montreal is the oldest financial institution in Canada. Built across from Place d’Armes between 1845 and 1847, its headquarters, designed by architect John Wells, is a reminder of this institution’s prestige with its monumentality, its Roman-inspired architecture and the sophistication of its historiated pediment. The headquarters complex was completed with the construction of the Royal Trust Building in 1912-1913 and of a 19-storey skyscraper in 1959.

Completed with flying colours by DFS Inc. Architecture & Design under the direction of Istvan Kovacs, associate architect, and Pascal Alarie, project manager, the masonry restoration project started with research into the building’s history. During the inspection, approximately five thousand stones were scrutinized, one at a time, in order to determine the required intervention based on the problems that were detected. The new coping stones were cut from stone blocks that were approved by the architect at the quarry and sculpted with the help of a computer. In addition, the cleaning of the Scotland sandstone pediment required a visit to Edinburgh to learn about the cleaning techniques of this very porous stone. The masonry contractor, St-Denis Thompson was able to meet a daunting challenge by doing work of remarkable quality.

This award pays homage to the Bank of Montreal for its praiseworthy care of this splendid building since its construction and particularly in the past few years.