Édifice Price, Art Deco skyscraper in Old Quebec, Canada
The Édifice Price is an 18-storey Art Deco skyscraper on rue Sainte-Anne in Old Quebec, built on a lot only 24 metres wide. Its limestone cladding carries carved geometric motifs, especially over the first levels, and setbacks taper the upper floors into a wedding-cake profile. A steep Châteauesque copper roof with dormers and a small lantern crowns the top.
In 1927 John Herbert and Arthur Clifford Price commissioned a headquarters for Price Brothers Limited on rue Sainte-Anne, near City Hall; the Montreal firm Ross and Macdonald designed the 16-floor Art Deco tower. The cornerstone was laid on October 29, 1929, and the building was inaugurated in 1931. The Great Depression pushed the family company to the brink of bankruptcy, and the Price family lost control of both the firm and most of its fortune.
The building's entrance vault and lower walls carry bas-reliefs showing the stages of turning logs into lumber, carved after John M. Lyle's ideas on Canadianizing architecture. The Price family fortune came from the timber trade, and the firm's name survives on the facade. A memorial was attached to the right side of the building in 2002.
The building stands on rue Sainte-Anne beside City Hall, on a lot only 24 metres wide, so it is best seen from the opposite side of the street. The entrance vault and the low-reliefs showing the stages of wood conversion are at ground level and in the lobby. The Premier's suite occupies the 16th and 17th floors and is not open to visitors.
The entrance vault and the lower walls carry bas-reliefs showing the stages of converting wood, a nod to John M. Lyle's ideas on the Canadianisation of architecture. The Price brothers' fortune came from timber, so the decoration names the source of the money that raised the tower.
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