1801 Hollis Street, Office tower in downtown Halifax, Canada
1801 Hollis Street is a 22-storey office tower completed in 1985, rising 87 metres in downtown Halifax. It was designed by Toronto firm Clifford Lawrie Bolton Ritchie with Halifax partner Duffus, Romans, Kundzins, Rounsefell, and built by Fuller Construction. The reinforced concrete building has about 223,213 square feet (20,737.2 m2) of floor space, with each floor around 10,350 square feet (962 m2).
The site was part of Foreman's Division in the original 1749 Halifax townsite, and archival records show two banks stood there in the 19th century. Demolition of the existing buildings began in March 1983, and the tower opened on 19 June 1985 as Central Trust Tower, built for about C$25 million. Central Trust merged with Guaranty Trust, and after Toronto Dominion Bank acquired the company in late 1992 the building was renamed 1801 Hollis Street.
The tower's name changed with its owners: Central Trust Tower, then Central Guaranty Trust Tower after the 1990s merger, and finally 1801 Hollis Street after Toronto Dominion Bank acquired Central Guaranty in late 1992. Central Trust moved its Granville and Duke branch into the ground floor before opening, transferring safety deposit boxes under armed guard.
The tower sits above a two-level underground parking garage, and five elevators serve its 21 leasable floors; the 22nd storey is a mechanical penthouse, with a smaller freight-elevator penthouse above it. The main entrance is on Hollis Street at the corner of Duke Street, in downtown Halifax.
Excavation began without an archaeological survey; a NSCAD student spotted objects in the pit and alerted the Nova Scotia Museum in January 1984. Mayor Ron Wallace persuaded Fuller Construction to shift work from the northwestern corner, where about 1,000 artifacts were recovered, and a separate landfill salvage brought the total to roughly 25,000, mostly ceramics.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,750 contributors worldwide.