Canadian Broadcasting Centre

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The Canadian Broadcasting Centre

View up to the skylight inside the Barbara Frum atrium.

View from CN Tower

The Canadian Broadcasting Centre, located in Toronto, Ontario, is the broadcast headquarters and master control point for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's English-language television and radio services. It also contains studios for local and regional French language productions.

[edit] History

The 13-storey complex, which opened in 1993 and was constructed at a cost of $350 million, was designed in order to accommodate CBC employees who were housed at various buildings throughout downtown Toronto at the time. The building required over 12 years of planning and another four years of construction. Television production is located on the upper floors (with many programs recorded in the three rooftop studios), and radio on the second and third floors. Some of the larger sound stages are rented out to outside movie and television productions, such as Global's Canadian version of Deal or No Deal. The building sits on rubber pads to reduce unwanted noise and vibrations. Its for that reason that all of the studios are located in the core of the building^{[citation needed]}.

The atrium was named for Barbara Frum, a noted Canadian journalist. It is best known as the place where CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge based all of CBC's operations during CBC 2000 Today, the network's coverage of the millennium. It has been a venue for federal election coverage, as well as episodes of Canadian Antiques Roadshow.

The building contains the Glenn Gould Studio, a performance and recording studio. The CBC Museum, which is dedicated to preserving the memories and physical artifacts of the national broadcaster's heritage, is located on the first floor of the building. A Toronto campus of the International Academy of Design and Technology, focusing on film production is also contained within the building.

The Canadian Broadcasting Centre is located at 250 Front Street West in downtown Toronto, directly across the street from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It is within walking distance of Union Station, the Rogers Centre, and the CN Tower. Public tours are available on occasion.

The analogous facility for CBC's French-language networks is Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal. The CBC's corporate headquarters are located in Ottawa in the CBC Ottawa Broadcast Centre.

[edit] Facts and figures

Architects: Bregman + Hamann Architects & Engineers and Philip Johnson & Alan Richie Architects
Floors: 13
Completed: 1992
Floor space: 1.72 million square feet

Upon completion it contained 3 radio studios (including the Glenn Gould Theatre), 19 radio production studios, 3 television studios, 2 local television studios, 2 all purpose studios, and one national news studio.