Montreal Herald Building, Montreal, Canada



Architect
D. R. Brown & Hugh Vallance  
Date Built
1913
Location
415 Saint-Antoine Street West
Description
The website www.centrecdpcapital.com says of the Montreal Herald Building that it is, "... a testament to elegance at the heart of the Quartier international de Montréal ... (it) ... is a perfect fit, lending the International District an air of distinction. The sheer beauty of the building renders it a pleasure to spend time in. All of its original richness has been preserved and restored."

The seven-storey building was originally occupied by the Herald Press and it is composed of a reinforced concrete frame with floors made up of thin slabs resting on reinforced concrete beams.  Over the years the building has been restored and updated to meet the seismic standards required of modern buildings. The Canadian Consulting Engineer's website says of this process that, "The MontrĂ©al Herald had an important architectural value due to its facades .... To address the complexities involved in restoring the structures, the help of university researchers was enlisted. Composite materials still under development were required and a spectral dynamic analysis and a finite element analysis were performed. ...

... A system of bearing walls was designed to integrate the existing columns. These columns required much restoration. Many methods were used, including the use of composite materials such as carbon fibre to conserve their structural integrity. The use of composite materials was often the singular choice since the building had, over time, been renovated and the construction methods and the plans were not available.

A continuous review of the restoration process had to be done as the demolition unveiled a plethora of deteriorated conditions, such as mislaid granulated concrete and the use of non-traditional reinforcements, such as tie rails and square bars.

The new architectural design elements further complicated the structural engineering challenge. For example, two floors had to be opened up for the insertion of a monumental staircase. This required the splicing of columns and caused the floor diaphragms to lose stability. Once again, composite materials were applied to the slender columns in order to compensate for the lack of steel overlap and carbon laminates were applied to the floor beams."