Van Horne chose the hotel’s location to entice elite travellers to stay at the lavish hotel, then venture on the C.P.R. rail across Canada to another city and hopefully another C.P.R. hotel. Construction of the hotel commenced in 1892 based on a design by American architect Bruce Price applying the “Châteauesque” style borrowing those elements from the Renaissance to include pitched roofs, elaborate towers and turrets, and ornate gables.