333 Broadway
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333 BROADWAY MONARCH LIFE BUILDING City of Winnipeg Historical Buildings & Resources Committee Researcher: M. Peterson May 2017 This building embodies the following heritage values as described in the Historical Resources By-law, 55/2014 (consolidated update July 13, 2016): (a) It is an important illustration of the growth of Winnipeg as a regional/national headquarters for many companies after World War II and their need for modern office space and the growth of Broadway as one of the city’s premier thoroughfares; (b) It is associated with the Monarch Life Assurance Company a major regional concern in the insurance/finance sector since its incorporation in the early 1900s with a growing influence after World War II; (c) It was one of the first and best examples of Modernist architecture that became an important part of the redevelopment of downtown Winnipeg in the late 1950s and 1960s and an important design of the influential local firm Smith Carter Searle Associates; (d) Built of steel and reinforced concrete and clad in granite, this office tower is an excellent example of period construction methods and materials; (e) It is a highly conspicuous building within the downtown; and (f) The building’s interior main floor lobby and exterior retain much of its original architectural integrity, although its exterior has been sensitively rehabilitated in recent years. 333 BROADWAY – MONARCH LIFE BUILDING One of Winnipeg’s earliest and most exclusive residential districts was known as the Hudson’s Bay Reserve, so named because of its long association with the fur trading company. This large block of land, 188 hectares, near Upper Fort Garry was granted to the company under the terms of the surrender of the Company’s land rights in Western Canada (Rupert’s Land) to the Government of Canada. The Reserve included the land west of the Red River as far as Colony Creek (present-day Osborne Street) and from the Assiniboine River north to Notre Dame Avenue (Plate 1). Cottages and other small structures appeared as early as 1873 and by the 1880s, many of the city’s most prestigious families and opulent houses were found in the area.1 In fact, one study of early buildings in Winnipeg locates over half of the city’s 22 most luxurious dwellings in the Reserve.2 Large churches, terraces and schools were also part of the building stock (Plates 2 and 3). As new areas of exclusive residential development organized further from the expanding downtown – Armstrong’s Point, Fort Rouge, Crescentwood, Wolseley and River Heights – many of Winnipeg’s elite families relocated. In 1910, however, the Reserve still boasted fine homes on sizeable grounds with Broadway, a tree-lined, expansive street, running through its heart (Plate 4). And Broadway’s signature building of the pre-1920 era, the Hotel Fort Garry, was completed just before the start of World War I in 1913 (Plate 5). Through the War, much of the 1920s and into the Depression years of the 1930s, the pace of development in Winnipeg slowed to a near standstill and little new construction was found on Broadway and most other streets in the city. This would all change after World War II. The worldwide economic boom translated into a demand for modern office space in downtown Winnipeg, with Broadway becoming the primary 1 M. Peterson, “Glines House (Tremblay Apartments) – 55 Hargrave Street,” Report for the City of Winnipeg Historical Buildings Committee, July 1989, p. 1. 2 R.R. Rostecki, “The Growth of Winnipeg, 1870-1886,” unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Manitoba, 1980, p. 11. 2 location for many large local, national and international firms seeking to establish new headquarters. Both sides of the street filled with new office towers, sleekly designed utilizing the newest technologies of the day. The Monarch Life Assurance Company, a major regional insurance company founded in Winnipeg/Toronto in 1904, sought to create a new headquarters that would be a signature building. Two years of planning and study3 led to the design and construction of its new office building facing Broadway that officially opened in early 1962 (Plates 6 and 7). STYLE Internationally recognized as one of Winnipeg’s landmark Modernist buildings, the Monarch Life Building was constructed amid much public interest and took its place among a growing number of modern buildings on both sides of Broadway and along the intersecting streets. The landmark design...was carefully selected to express the bold confidence and security of the corporation, its concern for its clients and employees, as well as its commitment to the economic development of the city of Winnipeg.4 The Monarch Life Building features many of the design elements associated with the International Style. The style dates to the early 1930s, although its widespread popularity throughout Europe and North America did not occur until after 1950. Seen as a reaction to the historically based styles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it strove to reinterpret architecture using modern construction materials and technologies, especially steel framing and reinforced concrete. Architects could design buildings without the need for load-bearing exterior walls – the walls could be designed and built as mere “curtains” covering the steel/concrete structural system and could be constructed almost entirely of glass if desired. Through its use of hard, angular edges, severely plain surfaces, large areas of glass and square or rectangular 3 “333 Broadway,” Winnipeg Architecture Foundation website, http://www.winnipegarchitecture.ca/333- broadway/, 2017 (below as WAF website). The architects hired a New York City planning firm specializing in insurance office efficiency. 4 WAF website. 3 modules, the style stressed material and proportionality over ornamentation.5 The use of glass and steel gave the style a “lightness” of appearance.6 Winnipeg in the 1950s featured a number of young, well-trained Modernist architects, a population and economic boom, ready capital and a lack of modern office and institutional space. Over the next two decades, some of the country’s finest Modernist buildings were designed and completed in the city to meet the demand for space and the Monarch Life Building would certainly be considered one of the best examples. The Modern era was…considered to encompass the years from about 1930 to about 1975; that is, from the period when a faith in a better future independent of the past began to take hold and find expression in a significant number of buildings, to the period when Canadians’ faith in a better future untethered to the past began to fade, replaced by the rooted architecture of the heritage conservation and post-Modernist movements.7 CONSTRUCTION The building measures approximately 22.9 x 64.7 metres,8 rising six storeys from grade with a penthouse. Built of steel and precast and cast in place concrete (Plate 8), the building is clad in 5.1-centimetre thick granite panels 9 quarried in Cold Springs, Minnesota. One of the unique aspects of its construction is the extensive use of stainless steel – 50 tonnes were used for curtain walls, doors, window frames and mullions and numerous interior elements – making it the largest use of the material in Western Canada at the time. The building cantilevers 5 Identifying Architectural Styles in Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Citizenship, 1991), pp. 34-35; and L. Maitland, et al., A Guide to Canadian Architectural Styles (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 1992), p. 178. 6 J. Thorsteinson, Brutalist Architecture in Winnipeg (Winnipeg, MB: Winnipeg Architecture Foundation, 2012), p. 9. 7 National Historic Sites of Canada System Plan: Commemorating Canada’s Built Heritage of the Modern Era (Ottawa, ON: Parks Canada, 2001), p. 4. 8 City of Winnipeg Assessment Record, Roll No. 12093421500. Below as AR. 9 Loc. cit. 4 approximately 4.0 metres over its 35.6-centimetre concrete foundation and the $4 million project took 20 months to complete.10 Contracts for the new building totalling $3 million were let in April of 1960 and construction began shortly after, continuing through the winter.11 So interested was the general public in the construction, that bleachers were built to allow spectators a comfortable and protected viewing location. DESIGN Sitting on a wide pedestal of dark, smooth stone, the Monarch Life Building features front (south) and rear (north) façades of similar design. The smaller ground floor features extensive use of glass (Plate 9) while the upper floor are comprised of plain columns running from the pedestal to the roof line, the bays created filled with thin rectilinear window openings, angled and separated by dark spandrels (Plate 10). Topping the building are deeply recessed windows and a penthouse (Plate 11). The rear (north) façade faces a large surface parking lot (Plate 12). The east and west façades are windowless (Plate 13). A number of alterations occurred to the building over time including replacing of the original windows in 1995, the replacement of the front landing/stairs and the construction of barrier free access in 200712 and the addition of two new door openings on the north façade in 2009.13 In 2010, it was identified that building envelop replacement was necessary. The massive $7 million project,14 completed in 2011 and 2012, entailed removal and repair of the over 4,000 granite panels, asbestos removal and new building envelop completed, replacement of the 1995 10 WAF website. 11 Winnipeg Free Press, April 23, 1960, p. 3, May 31, 1960, p. 4 and November 10, 1960, p. 3. 12 City of Winnipeg Building Permit (below as BP), #153303/2007, $230,000. 13 BP #103175/2009, $120,000. 14 BP #171575/2010. 5 windows, new spandrel panels, new coping stones supplied by the original Minnesota quarry and reinstallation of the repaired granite panels (Plate 14).15 The expanded envelop necessitated the design of stainless steel joints at six exterior locations (Plate 15).