Canadian Pacific Building, Heritage high-rise building on Yonge Street, Toronto, Canada.
The Canadian Pacific Building is a 15-story high-rise on Yonge Street with an Indiana limestone and granite exterior featuring Renaissance Revival design details. The ground floor contains a two-story marble lobby with elevators that serve the upper office levels.
Construction began in 1911 and the Canadian Pacific Building opened in 1913 as the corporate headquarters of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was consolidating its scattered Toronto offices under Sir Thomas Shaughnessy. At completion it was the tallest building in Canada and the British Empire. In 1929 its ornate terracotta cladding failed against Canadian winters, and Darling and Pearson supervised a recladding in Indiana limestone from the fourth floor up, leaving the original granite on the first three floors.
The ground floor held a two-storey marble ticket office so passengers could buy rail tickets without going to Union Station; it was removed in 1990 to make way for a drug store. Above it sat the company's telegraph business. The CPR name is gone from the facade, but its faint outline can still be traced on the walls.
The building stands at 69 Yonge Street, at the corner of King and Yonge in the downtown core, near King subway station. It is a working office building, so the lobby and upper floors are not open for sightseeing; the exterior, including the faint CPR lettering, is best viewed from the street. It is protected under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, designated by the City of Toronto in 1990.
The cream enamel terra-cotta on all four elevations was made by the Northwestern Terra Cotta Co. of Chicago. After it failed against Canadian winters, Darling and Pearson supervised a year-and-a-half recladding from the fourth floor up in Indiana limestone, leaving the original granite on the first three floors.
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