BUILDING HISTORY The Former Toronto Stock Exchange... A Brief Account of Its History and Architectural Significance Toronto's first Stock Exchange building was built in 1912 at 234 Bay Street. The Exchange merged in the 1930s with the Standard Stock and Mining Exchange and a new structure was erected on the same site. Designed by architects George and Moorehouse with associate S.H. Maw and completed in 1937 it combines streamlined moderne, art deco and stripped classicism. The dominant style, however, is streamlined moderne. Its elegant proportions and sophisticated detailing perfectly suited its Bay Street address. Revered as an architectural and technological marvel, a "masterful expression of its time, place and function" with "the most up-to-date trading floor in the world." The dominant style of the limestone and pink granite faŤade is streamlined moderne with its horizontal emphasis on door and window treatments, rounded corners and bands of contrasting stone. Probably the most significant feature of the faŤade is the frieze at the second floor level. Designed by renowned Canadian artist and muralist Charles Comfort, the frieze, chiseled into the limestone, depicts a renewed and vibrant Canadian economy. Similar images are carved in the stainless steel medallions of the front doors at both the north and south recessed entrances of the building. The moderne styling continues inside the building. The grand staircase leading from the ground floor lobby to the second floor trading floor is a masterful example of streamlined design. Stainless steel bands and lacquered birch handrail emerge from a newel post and swirls upward along the marble stairs. Inset at the landing is a low-relief cast glass medallion. The ceiling boasts a series of low-relief cast plaster hexagonal pyramids surrounded by a border of recessed planes. Suspended from the ceiling is an elegant chromium-plated light fixture with vertical fluorescent tubes layered with discs of etched glass. The grand staircase leads into the 10,000 square-foot trading floor. When visitors enter the room they are taken aback by the grand scale of the room with its gilded leaf molding and ceiling medallions, streamline moderne detailing and the eight Charles Comfort murals that flank the east and west end of the space. Like the friezes, Comfort has depicted in these magnificent murals the optimism and vitality of Canadian industry at that time. On the east wall, from left to right are: "Oil," "Mining," "Smelting" and "Refining." On the west wall, from left to right are: "Transportation and Communication," "Pulp and Paper," "Construction and Engineering" and "Agriculture." Six 4-foot streamline bands of light sheathed in opalescent glass span the 40-foot ceiling and the east and west walls. The sheathing continues across the ceiling concealing rows of fluorescent lighting optically blending both natural and artificial light. The Toronto Stock Exchange building was designated a heritage property on August 14, 1978 because of its "architectural value and historic interest." The Exchange moved in 1983 to its current headquarters at the corners of King and York streets. York. The original building has remained wholly intact and parts were fully restored by the developer. The specific heritage components surviving today are: Exterior Facade Frieze Windows on all levels Two sets of stainless steel doors Interior The Inco Limited Grand Staircase and detailing Trading floor Eight murals by Charles Comfort Only surviving Trading Post from the trading floor