The Bay Adelaide Centre is a 51 storey office building demonstrating design excellence and leadership in sustainable urban development. The tower is a pristine glass prism with a distinctive silhouette on the Toronto skyline. With LEED Gold certification in process, the development goes beyond energy efficiency and responsible resource use to demonstrate a commitment to social and historical sustainability, while addressing the historical urban context and making significant contributions to the public realm of Toronto’s financial core. The development features an urban plaza, a public art light installation and an underground connection to adjacent developments and public transit. The transparent façades provide a seamless continuity between sidewalk, plaza, and the ground floor lobby. Historical façades are integrated to sustain the history of the ‘Bay Street Canyon’ created by early 20th century skyscrapers in the financial core. The BAC raises the bar for new office standards by providing services, amenities, and security features well above standard. Photography: Tom Arban
Bay Adelaide Centre
DEVELOPER
Brookfield Properties
ARCHITECT
WZMH Architects Inc.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Envision The Hough Group
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
EllisDon
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Comments
Boring.
The 'plaza' completely sucks (vacant, lack of character) but the building has nice proportions. The lower concourse is stone cold.
beats this
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Bay_Adelaide_Ce...
This building, while generic in most cities, is standout in Toronto.
Toronto's architecture were all in sixties or seventies, and even further back in century or so.
Toronto definitely needs a revamp with contemporary, classy, clear and pure block of its own. The rest of them (all in Financial District) are either overwhelming with bold materials or hideous.
Yes it's a tad unimaginative, but that will balance out with Trump opposite. Too much flair on that dense intersection would've been overkill. I still love it.
this building is so boring. :(
Image #3 makes no sense to me: is it really this building? Image #2 shows what the corners really look like.
Beautiful building that seems to resonate with the sky; reminds me of the replacment 5 WTC Tower in Lower Manhattan. And the lobby artwork is so cool. Looking forward to when the trees in the park mature. Toronto is so good at creating pockets of public spaces that give residents and visitors opportunities to pause, take a breath and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
However, the fins that line all sides of the top of this building seem disproportionately small. I think if they were taller - at twice/thrice the standard floor height - the building would have a stronger personality.
Also, I thought they were going to do some kind of artwork using display technology that would have the glass surfaces emit light shows/ads much like the Q-Front building in Shibuya, Tokyo. That would have been a nice and dramatic touch to Toronto's already super impressive skyline.
It was taller in past versions, but remember it took 20 years to get this thing built. Developing office buildings in Toronto is a brutal business, and between corporate suburban flight, a hack government and slipping transit system the builders couldn't make it work at a taller height. In Chicago or NYC this thing would have been 60 stories easy.
Hideous facade devoid of all imagination.
Depressing sea of concrete disaster masquerading as a people space with a tiny pathetic patch of green something.
No trees, so no shade whatsoever, which will lead to cranky office workers who are forced to sweat it out at lunch in this brutal concrete oven.
Mind-numbingly boring lobby - when the black TD towers did it at least it seemed half-classy and remotely original.
This building gets a 10/10 on the Horrible Scale©.