BCE Place
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BCE Place is an office complex in downtown Toronto, Canada, comprising the 2.1 hectare (5.2 acre) block bounded by Yonge Street to the east, Wellington Street West to the north, Bay Street to the west, and Front Street to the south. The complex contains 242,000 square metres (2.6 million square feet) of office space, and consists of two towers, the Bay Wellington Tower and the TD Canada Trust Tower, linked by the six-storey Allen Lambert Galleria. BCE Place is also the home of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Bay Wellington Tower is a 47 storey office tower, designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects and completed in 1990. The TD Canada Trust Tower (formerly the Canada Trust Tower until the merger with the Toronto-Dominion Bank) noted for its recessed design and spire on the upper levels, stands at 53 storeys. Designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, the tower was completed in 1991.
The Allen Lambert Galleria, sometimes described as the "crystal cathedral of commerce", was the result of an international competition and was incorporated into the development in order to satisfy the City of Toronto's public art requirements. Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, it is one of the most photographed spaces in Toronto's financial district, and is heavily featured as a backdrop for news reports, as well as TV and film productions.
Although BCE Place is a modern office complex, it contains a significant heritage component. In the 19th century, this block was described in the Globe newspaper as "the most valuable business block in the city", although much of it was subsequently destroyed in the Great Fire of 1904. The fire spared a row of a dozen commercial buildings at the corner of Yonge and Wellington streets, the façades of which were restored decades later and incorporated "in situ" into the BCE Place development. The façade of the 1890s-era Merchants' Bank building, originally located on Wellington Street, was similarly restored, although it was moved and incorporated into the Allen Lambert Galleria. The opulent former Bank of Montreal branch at the northwest corner of Yonge and Front streets, built in 1885, also forms part of the complex, and now serves as part of the Hockey Hall of Fame. It contains portraits all of the Hall of Fame inductees, and houses a number of hockey trophies, including the Stanley Cup.
BCE Place is connected to the underground PATH system and to the subway. Brookfield Commercial Properties owns the Bay Wellington Tower, and it shares the ownership of the TD Canada Trust Tower with OMERS Realty and Truscan Property Corporation.
