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Ain’t Nobody Gonna Take Our CN Tower’s Pride
She was crowned with her towering spire on April 2, 1975, rising nearly six hundred metres above the Toronto waterfront. A year and a half later, on October 1, 1976, her doors were opened to the public for the very first time, the jewel of the skyline and a beacon to the world—and to anyone with misplaced bearings in the downtown core.
Through it all, including mid-winter flurries of falling ice and dizzying acts of daredevil madness, the CN Tower—heralded as one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World in 1995—has been the signature of our city, a monolithic beauty unparalleled or unchallenged anywhere on the planet, at least until recently. Enshrined as the “World’s Tallest Tower” in the 1982 Guinness World Records, many were convinced that the title would be lost to the Burj Dubai, a stratospheric 818-metre supertall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, when it soared past the CN Tower’s free-standing record on September 12, 2007.
As it turns out, we didn’t have much to worry about.
“I can confirm that the Toronto icon will retain its record,” says Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, “as a tower is defined by Guinness World Records and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat as a building in which less than 50% of the construction is usable floor space.” Despite its numerous attractions and appointments, including restaurants, shopping areas, and its head-spinning observation decks, the tower is not considered a “building” in the same respect as the Burj Dubai, which the CTBUH defines as “a structure that is designed for residential, business, or manufacturing purposes.”
“An essential characteristic of a building,” it continues, “is that it has floors.”
On Monday, September 21, coinciding with the release of Guinness World Records 2010, the CN Tower will be officially recognized as the World’s Tallest Tower once more, during a celebration at Horizons Restaurant to renew the old girl’s reign. Torontonians, meanwhile, whether navigating downtown laneways at 4 a.m. or leaping maniacally on the glass floor, can continue to do so with world-beating pride.
