The Bow Building

The Bow is an imposing 58-floor office building located in downtown Calgary in Alberta, Canada. It is considered as the tallest office tower in Canada as well as the tallest in the whole country outside of Toronto. It is considered also as one of the 10 significant architectural projects for 2012. The tower is so named due to its crescent shape.

The Bow Building History

The construction of the Bow is considered to be the start of the redevelopment in Downtown East Village in Calgary. The proposed construction of the tower was first announced in 2006 by Encana Corporation, the second largest natural gas producer in North America. While there were several conflicting reports of what the architectural design of the proposed tower would be, official statements eventually announce the construction of a 58 storey tower that was projected to stand 247 meters or 810 feet tall.

After it was announced in 2006, groundbreaking work commenced on June of 2007, a neighboring building, the York Hotel was demolished to give way for the construction of the new tower. But because of the historical significance of the said hotel, which was built from 1929 to 1930, certain parts of the old building such as bricks were preserved and incorporated into the construction of the new building. Construction of the tower was briefly halted in December of 2008 due to financial issues required to finish the job. But eventually, the construction went on and the tower was eventually finished in 2012.

The Bow Features

The Bow was designed by a collaboration of architectural firms Foster and Partners from the UK and Zeidler Partnership Architects of Calgary. It was designed to follow a crescent shape that also was the reason for its name. But in addition to that, its view of the nearby Bow River may also have contributed to its name.

The Bow stands 236 meters or 774 feet tall, lower than its projected height of 247 meters or 810 feet. It comes with a total of 58 floors composed of 53 office floors, 2 retail floors, 4 mechanical floors and 3 sky gardens.
Architecture Design – GuideTo.Com

Tags:

Recent Comments

    Categories