Empress Hotel

The Empress Hotel is one of Victoria's oldest hotels. Its original designs were designed by Francis Rattenbury in 1904-1908, and was later enlarged in 1910-1912 and in 1928. This Chateau style hotel is one of many hotels purposely built by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to encourage tourism in the downtown area. The building incorporates many architectural styles such as French Renaissance, Tudor, and neo-Gothic and aided in defining Canadian architecture in the early 20th century. Some notable features the building is recognized for include its large scale, asymmetrical floorplan, and view over the Inner Harbour.