Calgary’s Most Beautiful Building
The Bow is the most recognizable building in the Calgary skyline. It is at least for now, the tallest building outside of Toronto – not just western Canada. You can see it from almost anywhere in Calgary, and it is an impressive skyscraper. Even the Calgary Tower can’t compete with the Bow when it comes to things that are synonymous with Calgary. All pictures and postcards of the Calgary skyline had to be updated once the Bow was completed in 2012. It is that impressive.
This project was proposed in 2006 by Encana, a leading oil and gas producer in Calgary. At first there was talk that they would build two or three buildings and then some speculated that they would build the tallest building in Canada. However by October of 2006 they had secured the services of the world renowned architect Norman Foster of the UK and he unveiled his plans for the site. The Bow was unveiled as a 58 story 247 meter crescent shaped skyscraper. There was also a second building anounced that would incorporate the old York hotel on the south side of the site. Shortly thereafter, the tower was shortened to 236 meters because of concerns that the building would cast too much of a shadow on the walking and cycle paths beside the Bow river.
Construction started in the summer of 2007 and caused a great deal of traffic congestion because the city allowed the development company Mathews Southwest, to close down 6th Avenue to allow the parking garage to be built under the street. Also in 2007, Encana sold the project to H & R REIT and signed a 25 year lease to occupy the entire building when it was complete. Construction of the Bow was stopped for a short amount of time when the global financial crisis hit in 2008, because they didn’t have all the neccessary financing in place. However, the additional $400 million was quickly secured and construction continued. The building was constructed with a steel frame, so three very large cranes were used to lift the extremely heavy beams into place. In total the building used 48000 tonnes of steel. In July of 2010 the Bow reached the 715 foot mark which now made it taller than the city’s previous tallest building, the Suncor Energy Centre, right accross the street. Then a couple of months later, it reached it’s ultimate height of 775 feet.
construction of the bow
The Bow was completed in 2012 and cost over 1 billion dollars to build. The building had it’s official grand opening with fireworks, speeches, and tours in June of 2013, well after much of the staff had already moved in. A giant head sculpture by the renowned artist Plensa was also unveiled and it added to the draw of the building as a tourist attraction. Now anyone that is wandering around downtown checking out the sights has to walk over to the Bow to marvel at it’s sheer size and beauty.
The Downtown Calgary office market continues to defy logic with several new buildings recently completed and many more planned and under construction. Eighth Avenue place was recently completed with the second shorter tower finishing work a few months ago. The next high profile building will be the Brookfield project that is under construction at the old Calgary Herald site right behind The Bay. This building will take the crown of tallest building in Calgary from The Bow when it is complete in 2017. Next, there is the City Centre project that is rapidly rising near Eau Claire and should be ready for occupancy by the summer of 2015. Probably the most interesting and attractive new building will be Telus Sky, which has yet to start construction but will be composed of office space and residential rental units. The architect for this building is the world renowned Bjarke Ingels. This beautiful building will begin construction this summer and will be located very close to the Bow, and many say the two will compliment each other with Telus Sky being almost as tall as the Bow, but with a thinner and twisting shape.
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