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PhotoTO: Bay Adelaide Centre

By Ryan Bremner

The newest addition to the Toronto skyline has been a long time coming. Originally planned in the 1980′s, the Bay Adelaide Centre was to accompany some of the Toronto’s newest and biggest office towers (BCE Place, Scotia Plaza). Construction began in 1990, but with an economic slowdown quickly approaching, it was soon obvious this project did not have the legs to finish. What remained by 1993 was coined “the stump,” an empty shell of a building in the heart of Toronto’s Financial district.
The stump stood as Toronto’s monument to the recession, and had been owned by a variety of developers, none of which were able to revive the project. In 2001 Brookfield Properties bought the land, and just as it seemed they would be just another placeholder, a sign went up announcing Bay Adelaide Centre, a mixed use high-rise tower. The stump was demolished and construction begin in 2007; what will stand on completion in 2009 will be a 218 meter, 52-storey skyscraper. Here’s a first look.

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Comments

  • spleen

    wow great photos! Reminds me of the urban guerilla photography of these guys:
    http://www.silentuk.com/writeupabove/dome.html

  • deadrobot

    The downshot on the street pic: wow. Good job, brave Ryan!

  • ariehsinger

    Sent this one around the office today, considering we are right near this building….great shots mate!

  • Gauldar

    Very impressive.

  • Lands Down

    great photos
    it’s too bad but the building looks like it will be a bit generic

  • friend68

    I’ve been watching this one go up for the reasons mentioned, and also because its steel floor structure is pretty unique these days.

  • Robsonian

    Please don’t get caught!
    I wonder if the Bay-Adelaide Centre will become a stump again, or if it will be completed, only to suffer with marginal occupancy rates for years to come.

  • gnille1

    Building architecture, meh.
    Nauseating over the edge photos, yay!

  • pman

    Bay Adelaide seems to be using steel frame construction that seems the standard pretty much everywhere in the world except Toronto. Can anyone tell me why most of Toronto’s tall buildings use reinforced concrete instead?

  • AR

    Actually, it’s not true that steel frames are the standard everywhere. The movement towards concrete frames is hardly local.
    Both concrete and steel have their advantages. Concrete, for one, requires no additional fireproofing, and absorbs sound better. Yet steel frames structures can also be built to be very strong and can get spray on fireproofing. They can go up faster.
    Important for office towers is the ability to have long, open rooms on the floors, and steel makes such designs possible. This isn’t an issue in residential construction with smaller rooms.