Bank of Canada, photo by Taxiarchos 228 via Wikimedia Commons.Located across from Parliament Hill, the Bank of Canada’s head office occupies a prominent site on Wellington Street, an address it shares with the Supreme Court of Canada, the Library and Archives of Canada, and until 1999, the Embassy of the United States. It is “one of Canada’s best 20th century buildings and a great example of the creative integration of old and new,” says Natalie Bull, executive director of the Heritage Canada Foundation. The centerpiece of the bank is an Art Deco granite building, constructed in the 1930s, flanked by symmetrical glass-and-copper-clad East and West Towers. The three buildings are connected by an atrium. The atrium and towers were designed by Arthur Erickson in collaboration with the firm Marani, Rounthwaite & Dick in the late 1960s and completed in 1979. A lush tropical garden, incorporating a reflecting pool, runs almost the length of the atrium. The green slate floor gently dips down toward the water which sits beneath a trellis of long wood beams. The result is a human-scaled and intimate experience within a 262-foot-high space.
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