Credit Foncier Building – West Hastings and Hornby Streets, Vancouver, British Columbia

The Crédit Foncier Franco-Canadien Company of Montreal chose this prominent location for its western headquarters in 1913. Fine materials, including granite, decorative terra cotta, and an elaborate copper cornice, are combined with the well-articulated base, middle, and top portions of the building to create this good example of Edwardian Commercial architecture.

This classic building is now dwarfed by a colony of more modern high-rises – in particular, the Norman Foster designed Jameson House, a high-end residential condo building with its four giant cylindrical projections.