Buildings tell stories, and architectural historians tell stories about buildings. That sounds like a pretty simple and symbiotic relationship, but in reality it is anything but. I was reminded of this while walking along Sparks Street late last summer.
One of my favourite buildings on Sparks is the Canadian Bank of Commerce, built by Darling and Pearson in 1922. I actually send some of my first-year students to look at this building, because it’s one of the most vivid and purest examples of Classical architecture in the city.