Toronto-Dominion Centre
Encyclopedia
The Toronto-Dominion Centre, or Centre, is a cluster of buildings in downtown Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada
, consisting of six towers and a pavilion covered in bronze-tinted glass and black painted steel. It serves as the global headquarters of the Toronto-Dominion Bank
, as well as providing office and retail space for many other businesses. 21,000 people work in the complex, making it the largest in Canada.
The project was the inspiration of Allen Lambert
, former President and Chairman of the Board of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, with Phyllis Lambert
recommending Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
as design consultant to the architects, John B. Parkin and Associates and Bregman + Hamann
, and the Fairview Corporation
as the developer. The towers were completed between 1967 and 1991, with one additional building built outside the campus and purchased in 1998. Part of the complex, described by Philip Johnson
as "the largest Mies in the world," was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act
in 2003, and received an Ontario Heritage Trust
plaque in 2005.
The Toronto-Dominion Centre was designed in the International style by Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
in association with John B. Parkin Associates and Bregman and Hamann Architects for the Toronto-Dominion Bank and Fairview Corporation. Toronto-Dominion Centre is located in the heart of Toronto's financial district.
The Toronto-Dominion Centre should not be confused with the nearby TD Canada Trust Tower, part of Brookfield Place. The latter was known as the Canada Trust Tower from 1990 until 1999, when Canada Trust
was purchased by the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Unlike the Centre buildings, it prominently features a "TD" logo at its top.
As Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was given "virtually a free hand to create Toronto-Dominion Centre," the complex, as a whole and in its details, is a classic example of his unique take on the International style
, and represents the end the evolution of Mies' North American period, which began with his 1957 Seagram Building
in New York City
.
s, the main tower in the centre of the site, and another tower in the northwest corner, each building offset to the adjacent by one bay of the governing grid, allowing views to "slide" open or closed as an observer moves across the court. The rectilinear pattern of Saint-Jean
granite pavers follows the grid, serving to organize and unify the complex, and the plaza's surface material extends through the glass lobbies of the towers and the banking pavilion, blurring the distinction between interior and exterior space. The remaining voids between the buildings create space for both a formal plaza to the north, later named Oscar Peterson
Square in 2004, containing Al McWilliam's Bronze Arc, and an expanse of lawn
to the south, featuring Joe Fafard
's sculpture The Pasture; these were the first examples of large-scale public outdoor spaces within the urban core of Toronto.
Phyllis Lambert wrote of the centre and the arrangement of its elements within the site:
More structures were added over the ensuing decades, outside the periphery of the original site as they were not part of Mies' master plan for the T-D Centre but still located close enough, and in such locations, as to visually impact the sense of space within areas of the centre, forming Miesian western and southern walls to the lawn, and a tall eastern flank to the plaza.
. The lobby is a double height space on the ground floor, articulated by large sheets of plate glass held back from the exterior column line, providing for an overhang around the perimeter of the building, behind which the travertine
-clad elevator cores are the only elements to touch the ground plane. Above the lobby, the building envelope is curtain wall
made of bronze coloured glass in a matte-black painted steel frame, with exposed I-sections
attached to the vertical mullions and structural columns; the modules of this curtain wall are 1.5 m (4.9 ft) by 2.7 m (8.9 ft), thereby conforming to the overall site template.
Borrowing the anti-skyscraper-canyon technique from his previous work on the Seagram Building in New York, Van der Rohe insisted that the buildings be located away from the roads and pedestrian walkways, thus creating double plazas as entrance ways into the site. Mies would continue to extract concepts from previous projects for reuse in Toronto Dominion Centre design. A garden plaza greets Wellington Street opposite an open granite plaza that welcomes pedestrians from King Street. To walk through the granite plaza grasping the sense of such vast open space between the two steel and glass towers is an experience in itself.
On the topmost accessible floor of the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower was a large indoor observation platform, which, as the tower was the tallest in the city, once allowed uninterrupted views of the then quickly developing downtown core and of Lake Ontario
to the south. This floor has since been converted to leased office space. On the level below is a restaurant on the south side, and the Toronto-Dominion Bank corporate offices and boardroom on the north. The interiors of these spaces were also designed by Mies and included his signature broad planes of rich, unadorned wood panelling, freestanding cabinets as partitions, wood slab desks, and some of his furniture pieces, such as the Barcelona chair
, Barcelona ottoman, and Brno chair. Adjacent to the main boardroom at the northeast corner of the floor plate and the Thompson Room at the northwest corner, service areas are concealed within the wood panelled walls behind secret panels.
The banking pavilion is a double-height structure housing the main branch of the bank (now branded TD Canada Trust). It contains fifteen 22.9 m² (27.4 sq yd) modules within a single interior space, with smaller areas inside the pavilion cordoned off using counters and cabinets, all built with the typical rich materials of Mies' palette marble, English oak, and granite. The roof of the building is made of deep steel I-sections, each beam supported on only one steel I-section column at each end, all combined to create a waffle-grid ceiling resting on a row of corresponding, equally spaced columns around the periphery. This structure was a further development on the post office
pavilion of the Federal Center in Chicago
, which has less expressed columns and a second level balcony, and a precursor to the Neue Nationalgalerie
completed in Berlin
in 1968, which had a similar roof supported on only eight large steel columns. The Centre pavilion was described by The Globe and Mail
as "among the best spaces Mies ever made."
Incorporated into the lower levels of the project is a large underground shopping mall, fitted in the same black aluminum and travertine as the main lobbies above, which was the genesis of Toronto's PATH
system. Also extending to this area was Mies' strict design sense; to maintain the clean-lined and ordered aesthetic of the environment, Mies stipulated, with the backing of both Phyllis and Alan Lambert, that the store fronts must consist only of the glass panels and black aluminum that he specified. Even signage graphics were restricted to only white backlit letters within a black aluminum panel, and only in the specific font that Mies had designed for the Centre. A 690-seat Famous Players movie theatre was originally included within this underground mall, but, though the space still exists, it was closed in 1978 due to redundancy after newer theatres opened throughout the city.
, past President and Chairman of the Board of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, secured a cooperative partnership in the late 1950s with the Bronfman
owned Fairview Corporation
(now Cadillac Fairview
) in order to build a new headquarters for the Toronto-Dominion Bank
; this marked a first for the development process
in Canada, in that a bank, rather than creating its head office alone, had aligned itself with real estate interests and the city to influence urban space. The partnership was established as a 50-50 one, with the bank having the final say on the design of the complex, and Phyllis Lambert
sister-in-law to Allen Lambert, and a member of the Bronfman family
was called in as an advisor on the Centre competition. Gordon Bunshaft
, then chief designer of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
, was originally hired by the consortium; his proposal called for exterior structural supports for the main office tower, which then necessitated piston-like slip joints at the roof level to deal with weather related expansion and contraction of the structure. Phyllis Lambert objected to this submission, seeing it as too radical, and later stating in an interview that it "was a ridiculous proposal on many levels... Even in a milder climate, it would have been problematic." Bunshaft, due to his refusal to redesign, was relieved of his commission.
This departure left John Parkin, the local architect who would have worked with the American Bunshaft, to design Toronto-Dominion Centre. His firm put forward a model showing a 100 storey all-concrete tower to be the largest in the Commonwealth
standing over a plaza with a sunken courtyard containing a circular banking pavilion. It was at this point that Phyllis Lambert insisted that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(whom she knew from having been the director of planning on his Seagram Building
) be called for an interview. Mies was unimpressed by Parkin's concept designs and wondered why one would design a building to be entered through its basement. With this, the Parkin proposal was scrapped and Allen Lambert was convinced to bring Mies on board. Though he was technically commissioned as the design consultant to the local architects, John B. Parkin and Associates and Bregman + Hamann Architects
, the project was essentially Mies' design in its entirety, demonstrating all the key characteristics of the architect's unique style.
The choice of Mies, and his new design, gave the project the added significance of being a symbol of Toronto
's emergence as a major city, and influenced the design of all of Toronto's subsequent skyscrapers. It also marked Mies' last major work before his death in 1969. This followed the precedent set by the previous incarnation of the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The Bank of Toronto's 1862-office at Wellington and Church Streets had been designed by William Kauffman, and its 1913 Beaux-Arts headquarters were conceived by Carrère and Hastings
. Both firms were the most renowned and respected architects of their times.
, except for some frontages on Bay Street and at the corner of King and York Streets. Amongst notable losses from the subsequent demolition were the Rossin House Hotel, which dated to the 1850s and was once one of the city's preeminent hotels. The Carrère and Hastings Bank of Toronto headquarters, at the south west corner of King and Bay Streets, was also rased despite protests urging that the Beaux-Arts building be incorporated into the new centre. Fairview officials brushed these aside and simply said that it "did not fit in." Elements of the old edifice can still be found as relics in the gardens of the Guild Inn
, in Scarborough, Ontario
.
The first structure completed was the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower in 1967. Though the complex remained unfinished, the official opening took place on July 1 of that year to coincide with the Canadian Centennial
celebrations with Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy
, presiding, accompanied by her husband, Sir Angus Ogilvy
. At 222.8 m (731 ft), the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower was the tallest building in Canada when completed and it remains the fifth-tallest building in Toronto. The completion of the banking pavilion and the Royal Trust Tower followed, in 1968 and 1969 respectively. The Commercial Union Tower (now the Canadian Pacific Tower) was added in 1974, and was the first on the site not conceived by Mies in his original plan. It was followed by the IBM Tower (now the TD Waterhouse Tower), built south of Wellington Street across from the original campus in 1985.
The 23-storey building at 95 Wellington Street was completed in 1987 and contains 330000 sq ft (30,658 m²). Fairview Cadillac acquired it in 1998 and incorporated it into Toronto-Dominion Centre.
With little available space left on or near the block, in 1992 the final building, the Ernst & Young Tower, was constructed over the existing 1930s Toronto Stock Exchange
. The new edifice deviates from the strict Miesian aesthetic of all the previous towers to accommodate the Art Deco
facade of the older building within its own. The Ernst and Young Tower is linked to the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower at the ground floor and by a two-level pedestrian bridge at the sixth and seventh floors, as well as by the underground shopping concourse.
The building made headlines around the world in 1993 when Garry Hoy
, a 39-year-old lawyer of the law firm of Holden Day Wilson, fell 24 floors to his death while demonstrating the strength of the windows to a group of visiting law students by charging into the glass.
Renovations to the underground mall, beginning in the late 1990s, have caused some controversy within the Toronto architectural community as the building management, under pressure from tenants who wish to have greater visibility, has let the strict design guidelines slip and allowed more individual signage. As well, ceilings have been renovated from the original flat drywall planes with recessed lights to coffered ceilings.
The original three buildings and the plazas of Toronto-Dominion Centre were together recognised as a part of Ontario's built heritage in 2005, when an Ontario Heritage Trust
plaque was unveiled by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
, and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, along with former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Lincoln Alexander
.
On 8 September, 2011, Cadillac Fairview and TD Bank Group announced they would install a living roof on the banking pavilion. This is part of Cadillac Fairview's goal of having the entire complex LEED
-certified by 2013 and will help protect the building from solar-heat gain and reduce storm runoff.
Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately bounded by Bloor Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don River to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, consisting of six towers and a pavilion covered in bronze-tinted glass and black painted steel. It serves as the global headquarters of the Toronto-Dominion Bank
Toronto-Dominion Bank
The Toronto-Dominion Bank , is the second-largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and based on assets. It is also the sixth largest bank in North America. Commonly known as TD and operating as TD Bank Group, the bank was created in 1955 through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and the...
, as well as providing office and retail space for many other businesses. 21,000 people work in the complex, making it the largest in Canada.
The project was the inspiration of Allen Lambert
Allen Lambert
Allen Thomas Lambert, OC was a Canadian banker and former Chairman of the Toronto-Dominion Bank.-Junior to General Manager:...
, former President and Chairman of the Board of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, with Phyllis Lambert
Phyllis Lambert
Phyllis Barbara Lambert CC, GOQ, OAL, FRAIC, FRSC, RCA is a Canadian philanthropist and member of the Bronfman family....
recommending Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
as design consultant to the architects, John B. Parkin and Associates and Bregman + Hamann
Bregman + Hamann Architects
B+H Architects , founded in 1953, is an international architecture, interior design and urban planning firm...
, and the Fairview Corporation
Cadillac Fairview
Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited is a North American investor, owner, and manager of commercial real estate.The name "Cadillac Fairview" came into existence in 1974 as a result of the merger between Cadillac Development Corporation Ltd and Fairview Corporation...
as the developer. The towers were completed between 1967 and 1991, with one additional building built outside the campus and purchased in 1998. Part of the complex, described by Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
as "the largest Mies in the world," was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act
Ontario Heritage Act
The Ontario Heritage Act, first enacted on March 5, 1975, allows municipalities and the provincial government to designate individual properties and districts in the Province of Ontario, Canada, as being of cultural heritage value or interest....
in 2003, and received an Ontario Heritage Trust
Ontario Heritage Trust
The Ontario Heritage Trust is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture, responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural heritage of Canada's most populous province. It was initially known as the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board...
plaque in 2005.
The Toronto-Dominion Centre was designed in the International style by Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
in association with John B. Parkin Associates and Bregman and Hamann Architects for the Toronto-Dominion Bank and Fairview Corporation. Toronto-Dominion Centre is located in the heart of Toronto's financial district.
The Toronto-Dominion Centre should not be confused with the nearby TD Canada Trust Tower, part of Brookfield Place. The latter was known as the Canada Trust Tower from 1990 until 1999, when Canada Trust
Canada Trust
CT Financial Services Inc. was a trust company that was founded in London, Ontario and later had its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario and operated in Canada through subsidiaries including Canada Trustco Mortgage Company and The Canada Trust Company...
was purchased by the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Unlike the Centre buildings, it prominently features a "TD" logo at its top.
Design
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
, and represents the end the evolution of Mies' North American period, which began with his 1957 Seagram Building
Seagram Building
The Seagram Building is a skyscraper, located at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd Street and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Philip Johnson. Severud Associates were the structural engineering consultants. The building...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Site and governing order
As with the Seagram Building, and a number of Mies' subsequent projects, Toronto-Dominion Centre follows the theme of the darkly coloured, rigidly ordered, steel and glass edifice set in an open plaza, itself surrounded by a dense and erratic, pre-existing urban fabric. The T-D Centre, however, comprises a collection of structures spread across a granite plinth, all regulated, in three dimensions, and from the largest scale to the smallest, by a mathematically ordered, 1.5 m² (1.8 sq yd) grid. Originally, three structures were conceived: a low banking pavilion anchoring the site at the corner of King and Bay StreetBay Street
Bay Street, originally known as Bear Street, is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James Street in that role in the 1970s...
s, the main tower in the centre of the site, and another tower in the northwest corner, each building offset to the adjacent by one bay of the governing grid, allowing views to "slide" open or closed as an observer moves across the court. The rectilinear pattern of Saint-Jean
Lac Saint-Jean
Lac Saint-Jean is a large, relatively shallow lake in south-central Quebec, Canada, in the Laurentian Highlands. It is situated 206 kilometres north of the Saint Lawrence River, into which it drains via the Saguenay River. It covers an area of 1003 km² Lac Saint-Jean is a large, relatively...
granite pavers follows the grid, serving to organize and unify the complex, and the plaza's surface material extends through the glass lobbies of the towers and the banking pavilion, blurring the distinction between interior and exterior space. The remaining voids between the buildings create space for both a formal plaza to the north, later named Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
Square in 2004, containing Al McWilliam's Bronze Arc, and an expanse of lawn
Lawn
A lawn is an area of aesthetic and recreational land planted with grasses or other durable plants, which usually are maintained at a low and consistent height. Low ornamental meadows in natural landscaping styles are a contemporary option of a lawn...
to the south, featuring Joe Fafard
Joe Fafard
Joseph Fafard, OC, SOM is a Canadian sculptor.-Biography:Born in Sainte-Marthe, Saskatchewan in 1942 to Leopold Fafard and Julienne Cantin whose families both date back centuries in Canada. Joe is a descendant of Jacques Goulet. He received a B.S.A from the University of Manitoba in 1966 and a...
's sculpture The Pasture; these were the first examples of large-scale public outdoor spaces within the urban core of Toronto.
Phyllis Lambert wrote of the centre and the arrangement of its elements within the site:
More structures were added over the ensuing decades, outside the periphery of the original site as they were not part of Mies' master plan for the T-D Centre but still located close enough, and in such locations, as to visually impact the sense of space within areas of the centre, forming Miesian western and southern walls to the lawn, and a tall eastern flank to the plaza.
Towers
The height of each of Mies' two towers is proportioned to its width and depth, though they, as well as those based on his style, are of different heights. All, save for 95 Wellington Street West, are of a similar construction and appearance: The frame is of structural steel, including the core (containing elevators, stairs, washrooms, and other service spaces), and floor plates are of concrete poured on steel deckOrthotropic deck
An orthotropic bridge or orthotropic deck is one whose deck typically comprises a structural steel deck plate stiffened either longitudinally or transversely, or in both directions. This allows the deck both to directly bear vehicular loads and to contribute to the bridge structure's overall...
. The lobby is a double height space on the ground floor, articulated by large sheets of plate glass held back from the exterior column line, providing for an overhang around the perimeter of the building, behind which the travertine
Travertine
Travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs, especially hot springs. Travertine often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, and cream-colored varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot...
-clad elevator cores are the only elements to touch the ground plane. Above the lobby, the building envelope is curtain wall
Curtain wall
A curtain wall is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, but merely keep out the weather. As the curtain wall is non-structural it can be made of a lightweight material reducing construction costs. When glass is used as the curtain wall, a great advantage is...
made of bronze coloured glass in a matte-black painted steel frame, with exposed I-sections
I-beam
-beams, also known as H-beams, W-beams , rolled steel joist , or double-T are beams with an - or H-shaped cross-section. The horizontal elements of the "" are flanges, while the vertical element is the web...
attached to the vertical mullions and structural columns; the modules of this curtain wall are 1.5 m (4.9 ft) by 2.7 m (8.9 ft), thereby conforming to the overall site template.
Borrowing the anti-skyscraper-canyon technique from his previous work on the Seagram Building in New York, Van der Rohe insisted that the buildings be located away from the roads and pedestrian walkways, thus creating double plazas as entrance ways into the site. Mies would continue to extract concepts from previous projects for reuse in Toronto Dominion Centre design. A garden plaza greets Wellington Street opposite an open granite plaza that welcomes pedestrians from King Street. To walk through the granite plaza grasping the sense of such vast open space between the two steel and glass towers is an experience in itself.
On the topmost accessible floor of the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower was a large indoor observation platform, which, as the tower was the tallest in the city, once allowed uninterrupted views of the then quickly developing downtown core and of Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
to the south. This floor has since been converted to leased office space. On the level below is a restaurant on the south side, and the Toronto-Dominion Bank corporate offices and boardroom on the north. The interiors of these spaces were also designed by Mies and included his signature broad planes of rich, unadorned wood panelling, freestanding cabinets as partitions, wood slab desks, and some of his furniture pieces, such as the Barcelona chair
Barcelona chair
The Barcelona chair was exclusively designed for the German Pavilion, that country's entry for the International Exposition of 1929, which was hosted by Barcelona, Spain...
, Barcelona ottoman, and Brno chair. Adjacent to the main boardroom at the northeast corner of the floor plate and the Thompson Room at the northwest corner, service areas are concealed within the wood panelled walls behind secret panels.
Pavilion and shopping concourse
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
pavilion of the Federal Center in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, which has less expressed columns and a second level balcony, and a precursor to the Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin...
completed in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1968, which had a similar roof supported on only eight large steel columns. The Centre pavilion was described by The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
as "among the best spaces Mies ever made."
Incorporated into the lower levels of the project is a large underground shopping mall, fitted in the same black aluminum and travertine as the main lobbies above, which was the genesis of Toronto's PATH
PATH (Toronto)
PATH is a network of pedestrian tunnels beneath the office towers of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. According to Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex in the world with 371,600 m² PATH is a network of pedestrian tunnels beneath the office towers of Downtown...
system. Also extending to this area was Mies' strict design sense; to maintain the clean-lined and ordered aesthetic of the environment, Mies stipulated, with the backing of both Phyllis and Alan Lambert, that the store fronts must consist only of the glass panels and black aluminum that he specified. Even signage graphics were restricted to only white backlit letters within a black aluminum panel, and only in the specific font that Mies had designed for the Centre. A 690-seat Famous Players movie theatre was originally included within this underground mall, but, though the space still exists, it was closed in 1978 due to redundancy after newer theatres opened throughout the city.
Technical details
| Structure | | Date completed | | Height | | Floors | | Address | | Architects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower | 1967 | 222.86 m (731.2 ft) | 56 | 66 Wellington Street West | Bregman + Hamann Architects and John B. Parkin Associates in consultation with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe |
| Royal Trust Tower | 1969 | 182.88 m (600 ft) | 46 | 77 King Street West | Bregman + Hamann Architects and John B. Parkin Associates in consultation with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe |
| Canadian Pacific Tower (formerly Commercial Union Tower) |
1974 | 128.02 m (420 ft) | 32 | 100 Wellington Street West | Bregman + Hamann Architects |
| TD Waterhouse Tower (formerly Aetna Tower, IBM Tower, and Maritime Life Tower) |
1985 | 153.57 m (503.8 ft) | 36 | 79 Wellington Street West | Bregman + Hamann Architects |
| Ernst & Young Tower Ernst & Young Tower The Ernst & Young Tower is one of the towers that forms part of the Toronto-Dominion Centre in downtown Toronto, Ontario. The former Toronto Stock Exchange building, now housing the Design Exchange museum, is embedded within the tower.... |
1991 | 133.2 m (437 ft) | 31 | 222 Bay Street | Bregman + Hamann Architects and Scott Tan de Bibiana |
| 95 Wellington Street West | 1986 | 96.93 m (318 ft) | 22 | 95 Wellington Street West | Pellow + Associates Architects Inc. |
Origins
After the 1955 merger of the Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank solidified in 1962, the Toronto-Dominion bank directors decided to commission a new headquarters to demonstrate the bank's emergence as a reputable national institution. Allen LambertAllen Lambert
Allen Thomas Lambert, OC was a Canadian banker and former Chairman of the Toronto-Dominion Bank.-Junior to General Manager:...
, past President and Chairman of the Board of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, secured a cooperative partnership in the late 1950s with the Bronfman
Bronfman family
The Bronfman family is a Canadian Jewish family. It owes its initial fame to Samuel Bronfman , who made a fortune in the alcoholic distilled beverage business during the 20th century through the family's Seagram Company. The family is of Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish ancestry...
owned Fairview Corporation
Cadillac Fairview
Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited is a North American investor, owner, and manager of commercial real estate.The name "Cadillac Fairview" came into existence in 1974 as a result of the merger between Cadillac Development Corporation Ltd and Fairview Corporation...
(now Cadillac Fairview
Cadillac Fairview
Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited is a North American investor, owner, and manager of commercial real estate.The name "Cadillac Fairview" came into existence in 1974 as a result of the merger between Cadillac Development Corporation Ltd and Fairview Corporation...
) in order to build a new headquarters for the Toronto-Dominion Bank
Toronto-Dominion Bank
The Toronto-Dominion Bank , is the second-largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and based on assets. It is also the sixth largest bank in North America. Commonly known as TD and operating as TD Bank Group, the bank was created in 1955 through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and the...
; this marked a first for the development process
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
in Canada, in that a bank, rather than creating its head office alone, had aligned itself with real estate interests and the city to influence urban space. The partnership was established as a 50-50 one, with the bank having the final say on the design of the complex, and Phyllis Lambert
Phyllis Lambert
Phyllis Barbara Lambert CC, GOQ, OAL, FRAIC, FRSC, RCA is a Canadian philanthropist and member of the Bronfman family....
sister-in-law to Allen Lambert, and a member of the Bronfman family
Bronfman family
The Bronfman family is a Canadian Jewish family. It owes its initial fame to Samuel Bronfman , who made a fortune in the alcoholic distilled beverage business during the 20th century through the family's Seagram Company. The family is of Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish ancestry...
was called in as an advisor on the Centre competition. Gordon Bunshaft
Gordon Bunshaft
Gordon Bunshaft was an architect educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1988, Gordon Bunshaft nominated himself for the Pritzker Prize and eventually won it.-Career:...
, then chief designer of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP is an American architectural and engineering firm that was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill. They opened their first branch in New York City, New York in 1937. SOM is one of the largest...
, was originally hired by the consortium; his proposal called for exterior structural supports for the main office tower, which then necessitated piston-like slip joints at the roof level to deal with weather related expansion and contraction of the structure. Phyllis Lambert objected to this submission, seeing it as too radical, and later stating in an interview that it "was a ridiculous proposal on many levels... Even in a milder climate, it would have been problematic." Bunshaft, due to his refusal to redesign, was relieved of his commission.
This departure left John Parkin, the local architect who would have worked with the American Bunshaft, to design Toronto-Dominion Centre. His firm put forward a model showing a 100 storey all-concrete tower to be the largest in the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
standing over a plaza with a sunken courtyard containing a circular banking pavilion. It was at this point that Phyllis Lambert insisted that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
(whom she knew from having been the director of planning on his Seagram Building
Seagram Building
The Seagram Building is a skyscraper, located at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd Street and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Philip Johnson. Severud Associates were the structural engineering consultants. The building...
) be called for an interview. Mies was unimpressed by Parkin's concept designs and wondered why one would design a building to be entered through its basement. With this, the Parkin proposal was scrapped and Allen Lambert was convinced to bring Mies on board. Though he was technically commissioned as the design consultant to the local architects, John B. Parkin and Associates and Bregman + Hamann Architects
Bregman + Hamann Architects
B+H Architects , founded in 1953, is an international architecture, interior design and urban planning firm...
, the project was essentially Mies' design in its entirety, demonstrating all the key characteristics of the architect's unique style.
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
's emergence as a major city, and influenced the design of all of Toronto's subsequent skyscrapers. It also marked Mies' last major work before his death in 1969. This followed the precedent set by the previous incarnation of the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The Bank of Toronto's 1862-office at Wellington and Church Streets had been designed by William Kauffman, and its 1913 Beaux-Arts headquarters were conceived by Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings , located in New York City, was one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States. The partnership operated from 1885 until 1911, when Carrère was killed in an automobile accident...
. Both firms were the most renowned and respected architects of their times.
Construction
The development of the Centre required Fairview to acquire a full city block of downtown TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, except for some frontages on Bay Street and at the corner of King and York Streets. Amongst notable losses from the subsequent demolition were the Rossin House Hotel, which dated to the 1850s and was once one of the city's preeminent hotels. The Carrère and Hastings Bank of Toronto headquarters, at the south west corner of King and Bay Streets, was also rased despite protests urging that the Beaux-Arts building be incorporated into the new centre. Fairview officials brushed these aside and simply said that it "did not fit in." Elements of the old edifice can still be found as relics in the gardens of the Guild Inn
Guild Inn
The Guild Inn was an historic hotel in the Guildwood neighbourhood of Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario. It evolved out of Ranelagh Park, a 33 room, Arts and Crafts-style manor house built in 1914 for Colonel Harold Bickford atop the Scarborough Bluffs, that was in 1921 sold to the Roman Catholic...
, in Scarborough, Ontario
Scarborough, Ontario
Scarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Steeles Avenue East, and on the east by the Rouge River...
.
The first structure completed was the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower in 1967. Though the complex remained unfinished, the official opening took place on July 1 of that year to coincide with the Canadian Centennial
Canadian Centennial
The Canadian Centennial was a year long celebration held in 1967 when Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. Celebrations occurred throughout the year but culminated on Dominion Day, July 1. 1967 coins were different from previous years' issues, with animals on each...
celebrations with Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy
Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy
Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy is the youngest granddaughter of King George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck. She is the widow of Sir Angus Ogilvy...
, presiding, accompanied by her husband, Sir Angus Ogilvy
Angus Ogilvy
Sir Angus James Bruce Ogilvy, was a British businessman best known as the husband of Princess Alexandra of Kent, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II....
. At 222.8 m (731 ft), the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower was the tallest building in Canada when completed and it remains the fifth-tallest building in Toronto. The completion of the banking pavilion and the Royal Trust Tower followed, in 1968 and 1969 respectively. The Commercial Union Tower (now the Canadian Pacific Tower) was added in 1974, and was the first on the site not conceived by Mies in his original plan. It was followed by the IBM Tower (now the TD Waterhouse Tower), built south of Wellington Street across from the original campus in 1985.
The 23-storey building at 95 Wellington Street was completed in 1987 and contains 330000 sq ft (30,658 m²). Fairview Cadillac acquired it in 1998 and incorporated it into Toronto-Dominion Centre.
With little available space left on or near the block, in 1992 the final building, the Ernst & Young Tower, was constructed over the existing 1930s Toronto Stock Exchange
Toronto Stock Exchange
Toronto Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Canada, the third largest in North America and the seventh largest in the world by market capitalisation. Based in Canada's largest city, Toronto, it is owned by and operated as a subsidiary of the TMX Group for the trading of senior equities...
. The new edifice deviates from the strict Miesian aesthetic of all the previous towers to accommodate the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
facade of the older building within its own. The Ernst and Young Tower is linked to the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower at the ground floor and by a two-level pedestrian bridge at the sixth and seventh floors, as well as by the underground shopping concourse.
Working complex
Garry Hoy
Garry Hoy was a lawyer for the law firm of Holden Day Wilson in Toronto. He is best known for the circumstances of his death; in an attempt to prove to a group of his partners at the firm that the glass in the Toronto-Dominion Centre was unbreakable, he threw himself through a glass wall on the...
, a 39-year-old lawyer of the law firm of Holden Day Wilson, fell 24 floors to his death while demonstrating the strength of the windows to a group of visiting law students by charging into the glass.
Renovations to the underground mall, beginning in the late 1990s, have caused some controversy within the Toronto architectural community as the building management, under pressure from tenants who wish to have greater visibility, has let the strict design guidelines slip and allowed more individual signage. As well, ceilings have been renovated from the original flat drywall planes with recessed lights to coffered ceilings.
The original three buildings and the plazas of Toronto-Dominion Centre were together recognised as a part of Ontario's built heritage in 2005, when an Ontario Heritage Trust
Ontario Heritage Trust
The Ontario Heritage Trust is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture, responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural heritage of Canada's most populous province. It was initially known as the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board...
plaque was unveiled by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO is the third son and fourth child of Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh...
, and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, along with former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario is the viceregal representative in Ontario of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who operates distinctly within the province but is also shared equally with the ten other jurisdictions of Canada and resides predominantly in her oldest realm, the United...
Lincoln Alexander
Lincoln Alexander
-External links:* * *...
.
On 8 September, 2011, Cadillac Fairview and TD Bank Group announced they would install a living roof on the banking pavilion. This is part of Cadillac Fairview's goal of having the entire complex LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
-certified by 2013 and will help protect the building from solar-heat gain and reduce storm runoff.