The exterior was to be made of stone, brick and terra cotta (sourced from Perth-Amboy and used on the lower three floors) with limestone casings.

It was the first major Toronto building to introduce the New York system of leasing by the square foot.

A number of the city's public intellectuals and many of its architects expressed dismay at the prospect of skyscrapers.

It would overload the property values, shade the streets, and trap the disease-causing "miasmas" that still lurked in the public imagination.

"[10] Other editorials on the skyscraper theme compared Toronto to New York:but if the skyscraper habit grows, as there is every indication it will... the lower end of Yonge Street and the central portion of King street will become dim sunless canyons such as one sees in the financial centre of New York.

[12] The City Architect in November 1907 promised that it would not start a trend and that there would be strict enforcement of the 61 metres (200 ft) height limit,[13] which was still taller than the building itself.

As it turned out, the city council was usually persuaded to waive the height limits downtown, and the Traders' Bank was very shortly overtaken by even taller buildings.

61-67 Yonge Street at 4 Colborne Street (NE), 1905 by Carriere & Hastings; F. S. Baker, Associate is designated on architectural grounds as a notable example of French-inspired Beaux Arts classicism by a very important firm of New York architects.