Bay Adelaide Centre

Overview

Bay Adelaide Centre

status	Completed
location	333 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada
coordinates	43.6504°N, -79.38°W
pushpin map	Ontario
construction start date	2007
completion date	2022
architect	West Tower: WZMH Architects East Tower and North Tower: KPMB Architects, Adamson Associates (as architect of record)
owner	Brookfield Properties
floor area	108000 sqm (Bay Adelaide West) 91045 sqm (Bay Adelaide East)
references	‡R1R‡‡R2R‡
building type	Office building
architectural style	Neomodern
roof	218 m (Bay Adelaide West) 196 m (Bay Adelaide East)
elevator count	34
structural engineer	Halcrow Yolles
main contractor	West Tower: EllisDon East Tower: Multiplex
operator	Brookfield Properties
developer	Brookfield Properties

The Bay Adelaide Centre is an office complex in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The first phase, a 51-storey skyscraper known as Bay Adelaide West, was completed in July 2009. The second phase, the 44-storey Bay Adelaide East, was completed in October 2016.[3] A third tower, Scotiabank North Tower, opened in 2022 and serves as the new global head office of Canadian bank Scotiabank.[4][5]

Description

The Bay Adelaide Centre complex currently consists of three towers.[6] The first tower, Bay Adelaide West, was completed in 2009 entailing a floor area of 108000 sqm and a height of 218 m or 51 storeys. It is located on the northeast corner of Bay Street and Adelaide Street West.

History

First tower proposal

The first tower development on the site was a joint project by Markborough Properties and TrizecHahn: a 57-storey office tower to be constructed at the corner of Bay and Adelaide Streets. It was to have cost $500 million,[9] and was the last of a series of construction projects in downtown Toronto launched in the boom years of the 1980s, when a number of massive towers were built nearby, such as Scotia Plaza.[10]

The building caused considerable controversy among those opposed to the erection of such massive structures.[11] The tower would have stood far higher than was allowed by the city's official plan.[10] To gain city hall's approval, the developers committed some $33 million towards new social housing.[12] In addition, a portion of the site and $5 million were given by the developers to the city to build a new park named Bay Adelaide Park (now Cloud Gardens).[13][14] Both of these deals went ahead, despite the tower never having been completed.

Construction began in 1990, but the developers soon ran into problems. The economy went into recession and office vacancy rates in Toronto rose to 20%. Construction was halted, and in 1993, with over $500 million already invested, the project was permanently put on hold. All that was completed was the underground parking garage and several storeys of the concrete service shaft that stood from 1991 onwards, as a monument to the failed project in downtown Toronto.[15] The stump of the service shaft was known to security and the locals as "the bunker" or simply "the stump". The parking garage was in operation, and the stump itself was used as a surface on which to mount advertisements.

The exterior of the stump of the building was depicted as a nightclub in the opening scene of the 1996 comedy film Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy.

Subsequent proposals

There were several attempts to revive the project. In 1998 TrizecHahn briefly revived it, but another shift in the economy caused them to again pause. In 2000 there was again talk of reviving the project, but the next year TrizecHahn sold its 50% share to Brookfield Properties for $49 million. Brookfield was committed to completing the structure to a smaller height of either 40 or 50 storeys, but later that year the economy again soured and the project remained on hiatus.

Current development scheme

In October 2005, plans were filed with the City of Toronto to develop the property. An information sign (notice to amend the by law regulating zoning) was placed on Bay St. between 347 Bay and 355 Bay, both also Brookfield properties. The notice, in short, informed the public that three mixed-use high-rise towers surrounding an urban plaza will be built. The towers were then planned to vary in size from 43 to 50 storeys and contain an aggregate density of 240396 sqm. Brookfield Properties had signed KPMG and Goodmans as anchor tenants for the first tower, Bay Adelaide West, with Fasken Martineau and Heenan Blaikie also taking up residence in the building.[16]

In June 2006, both buildings on Bay Street attached to this property were emptied of tenants and by December 11, 2006, both buildings had been taken down, with the north and west facades of the National Building (347 Bay) being removed for incorporation into the new buildings. The National Building had only been designated a heritage building under the Ontario Heritage Act (Part IV) on September 27, 2006.[17] By December 2006, dismantling of the service shaft stump was complete. Construction of the PATH tunnel north from Scotia Plaza through the Bay Adelaide Centre started in fall 2007. Completion of this section closed the last remaining gap in the north–south route through PATH that parallels Yonge Street, thus eliminating the need to double back from Bay Street to get between buildings located on the eastern edge of PATH.

Bay Adelaide Centre

Description

History

First tower proposal

Subsequent proposals

Current development scheme

Sustainable design

Communications

See also

External links

References