Dominion Express Company Hotel, Proposal([1909-1910])
Saint-James and Saint-Antoine [formerly Craig] Streets (between Saint-François- Xavier and Saint-George Street), Montreal, QC, Canada
Commercial, Hotel; brick and stone; wall bearing

Client: Dominion Express Company
Architect: E. & W.S. Maxwell

Description: Before the decision was made to erect a tall office building on this site, the Dominion Express Co. (378), a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Railways since 1882, asked the Maxwells to design preliminary plans for a ten-storey hotel with its main entry elevation on St-James street, adjacent to the Royal Bank building at 221 Saint-James. From this main wing, a footbridge above Fortifications Lane would lead to a second wing facing Craig (now Saint-Antoine) Street between an existing structure at the south-west angle of Craig and Saint-François-Xavier and Saint-George Street to the west (that latter street no longer existing). The example of the Bank of Montreal seems to have captured many businessmen ‘s imagination. In 1906, it reached symbolically beyond Old Montreal walls to expand its premises and connecting its existing Dome building with a much larger Annex alongside Craig Street, celebrating its growth and that of Montreal’s economy and the expansion of the business district. Moreover, the company might have expected to win over the clientele of the prestigious Saint-Lawrence Hall, a popular hotel that stood on the site and that would have to be torn down. About 430 hotel rooms were planned, 50 per floor to eight bedroom floors plus 30 additional rooms on the first floor. A double-height podium that would house the reception and lobby, a store for the Dominion Express Company on Saint-James, the dining room, the rotunda, a bar and a café, etc. While the podium occupied all the available land, the bedroom floors would stand on top of it forming narrower wings with inner courts, a popular solution for hotel design that the Maxwells would also use for the Palliser Hotel (318) in Calgary. Here the block facing Saint-James, six bays and 120’ wide, adopted a U-shaped with the court overlooking the Fortifications Lane. The Craig Street block at seven bays and 135’ wide, would have been H-shaped, with a circulation spine straddling the lane and light courts on either side. The ''H'' would have been lying on its side parallel to Craig Street. From the main entrance on Saint-James Street, visitors would have entered a small bar to the left. To the right were the 90’ x 77’ store and public space for the Dominion Express Co. (ticket sales and reservations, telecommunications, parcel and courier services). The main circulation axis towards the bridge above the lane entered the Craig street block in the Rotunda, a 67’ x 39’ space next to a café. The main dining room that closed the mall lay parallel to Craig Street and measured 40’ x 130’. The first floor included 30 guest rooms, a writing salon and a reception room above the dining room. Preliminary elevations showed great concern for structural and functional authenticity. The two lower floors clearly expressed their public, formal nature with colossal pilasters and arches. The bedroom floors above, animated by the windows apertures, alternated larger bedroom and smaller bathroom windows in a balanced, simple pattern. One only had to examine the elevations for the aforementioned Palliser Hotel and the finished façades of the Dominion Express Office Building, finally built in 1912 on a smaller site giving up the Craig Street frontage altogether, to realise that the Maxwell firm was poised and quite able to integrate the best, most up-to-date tall building and hotel design principles on par with its times and age.

Holdings: Hotel; brick and stone; wall bearing
8 Drawings: 3 ink on paper; 3 pencil on paper; 2 blueprints
8 Development drawings: floor plans, elevations