Bank of Nova Scotia Building, Toronto

The Bank of Nova Scotia Building is a 25-storey office building in Toronto, Ontario. In February 1929, the Bank of Nova Scotia purchased the north-east corner of King and Bay from Canada Life and proposed to build a new general office building there in 1931. The bank hired John M. Lyle to design the structure, and he devised his initial plans by the summer of 1930. Lyle's original design was of a 23-storey art deco tower. Due to the onset of the Great Depression, the bank put off the start of construction. However, the bank's directors asked Lyle to rework the plans continually throughout the 1930s, which allowed the architect to keep his office open. At the outset of World War II, the bank shelved the project formally. In the fall of 1946, the bank picked up the project again, however, Lyle had retired in 1943 and died in December 1945. The bank hired the firm Mathers and Haldenby to resume the project; they would work in conjunction with Beck and Eadie, two former associates of Lyle's who formed a partnership upon his retirement. Haldenby retained the concept and massing of Lyle's design, but removed much of the ornamentation and detailing. The result was a stripped classical design that was two storeys higher than Lyle's original plan. Construction began in the fall of 1947, the cornerstone was laid in 1949, and the building opened in the fall of 1950. When it opened, the bu

Building data from Wikidata (CC0); heights normalised. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).