1250 René-Lévesque

1250 René-Lévesque is a 47-storey skyscraper in downtown Montreal, Canada. It was once called the IBM-Marathon Tower. The roof is 199 metres high and the tower with its spire reaches 226.5 metres. Depending on whether you count the spire, it is Montreal's second tallest or its tallest building.

The tower was designed by the firm Kohn Pedersen Fox and finished in 1992. It was built between 1988 and 1992 for IBM and a company called Marathon Realty, at a cost of 250 million dollars. It stands next to the Bell Centre and Windsor Station, and is linked to Montreal's Underground City.

A building with two faces

The east and west sides look very different. The west side is a granite wall with square windows and uneven steps, facing the quieter, residential part of the city. The east side is a curved glass wall facing downtown, which gives the tower a light, floating look. A thin spire rises along the north side, 31 metres above the roof, and lines up with the height of Mount Royal's peak.

Inside and around

Inside is a four-storey atrium with a winter garden planted with bamboo, along with a food court and meeting rooms. The tower connects to Bonaventure metro station and the underground walkways of the city. Its location marks a visual edge between the business centre and the older homes to the west, an idea taken from a KPF tower in Frankfurt, Germany called Westend Tower.

On the globe

The model shows the curved glass face to the east, the stepped granite wall to the west and the needle spire. Look for the wide curved roof canopy.