Commerce Court West

The Canadian Bank of Commerce set up its headquarters on this site in 1887. In 1931 Frank Darling and John Pearson completed the bank's 34-storey Art Deco limestone tower there. In 1972 three buildings designed by I. M. Pei & Partners, with Page & Steele, were added around a fountain court. The four-building complex, on four acres, is now known as Commerce Court.

The west tower is the largest of the four buildings. Its 57 storeys are clad in stainless steel and stand on pillars that tie it to the plaza. The new buildings pair modern materials with stone, in keeping with the 1931 tower.

The plaza measures 50 by 50 metres. It is paved in textured concrete and holds a pool 19.5 metres across with jetted fountains, curved and straight sets of stepped risers, backless benches, a few honey locusts and planting boxes of annuals. In 1994 Zeidler Partnership renovated the plaza and added glass and steel canopies leading to an underground pedestrian tunnel. A bronze sculpture by Derrick Stephan Hudson, Tembo, Mother of Elephants, was added in 2005 southwest of the pool.

The tower houses offices. The plaza provides civic space and access to outdoor cafés.

Commerce Court West is an office building: it is seen from outside, from the complex's plaza.