Scotia Plaza
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Scotia Plaza is a commercial office complex in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The complex is situated in the financial district of the downtown core, and is generally bordered by Yonge Street on the east, King Street West on the south, Bay Street on the west, and Adelaide Street West on the north. Scotia Plaza bears resemblence to the later built Wachovia Financial Center in Miami, Florida.
Scotia Plaza has two main components:
- The historic Bank of Nova Scotia head office building at 44 King Street West, which was designed by architects Mathers and Haldenby (with Beck and Eadie), and built from 1946 to 1951. This 115-metre tall building was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by the City of Toronto in 1975. It was completely renovated with major, historically sensitive architectural design changes including a 14 story high glass atrium connecting the original building to the new, 68 storey structure.
- The modern component, comprising a main building at 68 storeys above ground and 6 storeys below ground, with two smaller extensions at 104 Yonge Street and 11 Adelaide Street West. The extensions incorporate the historic façades of the former Wood Gundy building on Adelaide Street and the Dunfield Building on Yonge Street. Designed by WZMH Architects, the modern structure was constructed between 1985 and 1992. Unlike most high office towers which use steel to bear structural loads and a glass curtain wall as their exterior facade, the 68 story tower was constructed of high strength reinforced concrete. Napoleon Granite, quarried in Sweden, cut and polished in Italy, and then imported to Canada, was used for the exterior and some of the interior surfaces. The main tower is Canada's second tallest building and the 21st tallest building in North America.
The ground floor is characterized by the atrium which contains a large banking hall incorporating architectural features from both the historic and modern components of the complex. The hall contains a 40 metre (130 foot) atrium called the "Circle of the Provinces".
Essential to this construction project was maintaining the Bank of Nova Scotia's head office and Toronto Main banking Branch functions with minimal disruption throughout the eight year construction work. The Bank's project and construction managers were Goldie-Burgess Ltd., followed by W. Tamm Consulting Limited.
Scotia Plaza is connected to the PATH network, and contains 190,000 m² of office space (approximately 2,000,000 sq. ft.) and 40 retail stores. The complex continues to serve as the head office of Scotiabank and the law firm of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP being two other notable tenants.
The construction scenes in Three Men and a Baby were filmed during building construction.
