BMO Bank of Montreal Bloor Manulife Flagship Branch

The new state-of-the-art space offers a reimagined customer experience, with indoor mall access – and for the first time in two decades —a retail storefront to allow for pedestrian access from Bloor Street. On the exterior, the blue glass portal is backlit with LED lights, requiring coordination with the Landlord to get the coloured interlayer well in advance of the project. The mall portal consists of back painted glass and polished epoxy flooring, signifying entry into the branch itself.

In order to maintain the full functionality of the branch for the temporary location, BMO’s team coordinated with the Landlord to install the vault and a desk for a bank employee to be accessible during bank hours during both the Landlord’s renovation of the space, and BMO’s renovation of the space, ensuring continual client and employee safety in the middle of the construction site.

The design of the branch took the standard office partitions and modified them, creating an undulating façade of glazing that creates areas for different functions within the branch itself while it tucks away the back of house spaces such as storage and employee meeting spaces. This free-form geometry results in glass office fronts that reflect the sophisticated Yorkville area shops. Further back, the offices create a private suite for the Wealth Management portion of the branch.

Both entries include significant branding opportunities for clients, and the BMO marketing team collaborated with the design team during the initial project phases. LED screens wrap around the central columns of the branch, welcoming visiting clients and visible from the teller lines and from the mall entry. Behind the main entry teller line, visible through the BMO Blue portal on the building’s exterior, is a large, curving, thirty-nine-foot-long and 8-foot-high LED screen that conveys both BMO Branding, local community events and nature-scape messages.

At night, the nature-scape and community-focused images become artwork for the city outside to experience. Similarly, a large-scale panoramic photo taken from the top of the Manulife building at the time of construction highlights key Toronto landmarks in the ATM vestibule in mural form. This mural is part of a successful network-wide initiative to represent local elements in branches, highlighting BMO’s connection to the local community.

Taking standard office spaces and creating an undulating wall takes the branch from even and uniform, transforming it into a dynamic working environment. The materials used are not all new and unique, but uniquely applied to create a welcoming space for employees and clients that illustrates the BMO Brand effectively.