Dominion Building

Commissioned by Imperial Trust in 1906, this ornate Beaux-Arts skyscraper opened in 1910 as the Dominion Trust Building after that company assumed the debt and completed construction. At 18 storeys, it was then the tallest building in the British Empire. Its striking red and yellow terracotta exterior is capped by a three-storey Mansard roof reminiscent of late 19th Century Parisian townhouses. It was the finest building of the architects' careers and a major city landmark for decades. Together with the other Edwardian-era buildings around Government Square, it formed Vancouver's commercial centre before World War I. A plan to remodel it in the 1940s for the Army & Navy store never materialized, and its interior features of marble wainscoting, terrazzo flooring, oak woodwork, and a decorative ten-storey spiral staircase remain intact.

British Columbia · Canada