By the time Arthur Erickson tackled the design of the Bank of Canada Headquarters in Ottawa in the late 1960s, he had demonstrated mastery in concrete at Simon Fraser University, and made forays into using glass in his pavilions for Expo 67 in Montreal and the 1970 world exhibition in Osaka.* The Bank of Canada presented him with challenges in creating glass architecture at a different scale: the prestigious site covered an entire city block in downtown Ottawa. In addition, there was the need to integrate the existing 1938 Bank of Canada, a neo-classical building by Marani, Lawson & Morris (later Marani, Rounthwaite & Dick).
The Bank of Canada headquarters occupies a city block on Wellington Street, a short distance from Parliament Hill. To accommodate the Bank?s growing number of employees, Erickson positioned two 12-storey glass towers on either side of the original Bank. An 80-metre-high atrium, topped by transparent pyramids, linked the three buildings, drawing inspiration from Roche and Dinkeloo?s recently completed Ford Foundation Building in New York. In a gesture of openness difficult to imagine today, the atrium was accessible to the public. Its garden court became a much-appreciated oasis in the Capital?s densely built downtown core. The outer skin of the complex was composed of light- and heat-reflecting glass, while patinated copper horizontal and vertical elements?matching the green hues of the nearby Parliament buildings?broke the uniformity of the faÃ...