Quebec City’s Price Building gets its
name from the Price Brothers Limited who
commissioned it at the end of the 1920s. The
Quebec based lumber company was founded by William
Price and passed on after his death to his sons.
The Price Brothers commissioned the architectural
practice of Ross and Macdonald to build this as
their corporate headquarters in the historic
district of Old Quebec. It was originally
intended to have 16 floors but in the end it rose
18 storeys above the street. Probably
intended to make a statement about the Price
company, it was instead what has been described as
a nail in their coffin because it was finished in
time for the Depression to drive the company to
the brink of bankruptcy. Price Brothers
Limited first become Price Limited and then in
1966 Abitibi-Price before disappearing altogether
in 1997 when the name changed to Abitibi
Consolidated.
Since 1983 the building has belonged to the
city of Quebec. In 2001 the sixteenth and
seventeenth floors have been the official
residence of the Premier of Quebec.
The building has a structural
steel frame clad in grey limestone from
Saint-Marc-des-Carrières and Queenston.
The Wikipedia entry for Édifice Price says of it
that, “The design uses setbacks to
gradually taper floor area down, yielding
the typical elongated 'wedding cake' shape
which contributes in reducing loads and
softens the building's visual impact on the
city's skyline. The upper setbacks
were later used to build balconies.
Because the building is deeper than it is
wide, it appears much bulkier when viewed
from the side. ... Geometric motifs
are carved in the Price Building's stone
cladding, especially over the first few
levels. ....
The building is topped by a more classical,
specifically Châteauesque, steepled copper
roof."
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