McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Drummond Medical Building
File
281 drawings : 1 ink on linen, 1 ink on paper, 154 pencil on paper, 125 blueprints
11 photographs
File consists of architectural drawings for commercial parking garage and office building (office building: 2 sub-basements 11 floors; garage: 2 sub-basements, 5 floors; brick and stone; tile; concrete frame) and photographs of finished exteriors and interiors. Drawings include:
1 survey drawing: site plan
1 sketch drawing: plan
34 development drawings: block plan, floor plans, elevations, section, perspective
147 detail drawings: floor plan, structure, sills, windows, stairs, lavatories, vent shaft, marquise, entrances, elevator, lighting, doors, partitions, store fronts, offices, cabinets, corridors, screens, signs, fittings, lettering, moulding, ceilings, sash, trims, vestibule, rent house, coping, panelling, baseboards, wickets, stained glass, heraldry, furniture, lion's head, ironwork (including sign), bronzework (including ornament, lettering, board, panels), plasterwork (including cornices, ceiling), stonework (including granite, sills, panels, windows, bays, balcony, doors, ornaments, pier caps, kneelers, entrance), ironwork (including marquise, balconies, railings, bracket, gate), woodwork (incl. trims, stair, screen, furniture), marble work (including entrance, vestibule, corridors), brickwork, tilework
76 shop drawings: floor plans, elevations, sections, hall, elevator lobby, staircase, entablature, windows, wall plans, radiators, cabinets, partitions, panels, structure, signs, gate, stair, pipe rail, main chute, balconies, fire escapes, thresholds, ladder, garage door, transom, grille, lettering, marquise, mailbox, spandrels, machinery, penthouse and cars, ladder
21 consultant drawings: floor plans, roof plan, marquise, hall, doors, structure, stair
1 wecord drawing: floor plan
1 copy of bylaw no. 954 included. Inscriptions on photographs verso: "Doorway Drummond Medical Building/ Montreal/Design Nobbs & Hyde/Executant Robert Mitchell Co. Ltd." and "Marquise Drummond Medical Building Montreal/Design Nobbs & Hyde/Craftsman Porter Smith Co. Ltd."
“Designed in 1929, the building was a Birks investment venture with shops at street level and suites of medical offices on the floors above. Accordingly, Nobbs devised a design for the window breasts in blue and old gold terra cotta which incorporated the medical cross symbol. By 1929 semi-modern tendencies including Art Deco had begun to appear in the city, and although the Drummond Medical Building represents an awareness of new trends and marks an advance over the base-shaft-cornice arrangement of the New Birks Building, Nobbs did not find completely abstract ornament sufficiently articulate to suit his purpose. Even so, the north façade, with its slim central shaft of windows, is a supremely elegant example of streamline composition. The Drummond Medical Building still retains its handsome iron canopy covering the main entrance — ironwork being another of Nobbs’s decorative media.” (Susan Wagg, Percy Erskine Nobbs: Architect, Artist, Craftsman (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1982), 70)