Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE BANK PREMISES DEPARTMENT 495corner as the central line of the building. This is notably thecase at Windsor, where by the expedient of treating the interioras an octagon, with concentric octagonal counters, the publicspace is placed in the centre and the staff has the benefit ofall the light available. The same principle was adopted atDanforth and Broadview under different conditions, anda triangular lot was thus used without any waste. Theto utilizeportico at Nanaimo 1 was also the result of seekingin a natural and practical manner the narrow end of a goreshapedsite facing the end of the principal street. The largestone building in Quebec 2 contains the germ of the diagonalaxisdesign in the arrangement of its corner entrance. As,however, the site was of ample size and lighted from all sides,the problem encountered in Windsor and at Danforth andBroadview did not occur. While in other recent buildings ofthis type the corner entrance isflanked by equal fronts, thisis not the case at Quebec, where two street fronts of markedlyunequal length have been given a sense of balance by thedesign of the building itself.The policy of the bank in designing its largest buildingswith a view to meeting only its own requirements has beenamply justified by the results. It was in this way that thegranite columnation of its building on St. James Street,Montreal, 3 was made possible. In the absence of provisionfor more than a few office rooms for the bank's own use on theupper floors, the massive composition could be carried out inits full simplicity and impressiveness. The banking hall isequally successful in its loftiness and fine proportions andin the effect of every detail. The leading features of thedesign of the Winnipeg building 4 are similar to those ofMontreal, but it differs in many important particulars whichare mainly the result of an effort to combine the requirementslSee plate 57, facing page 374.2See plate 16, facing page 114.3See plate 36, facing page 226.4See plate 32, facing page 206.