And that's a good thing.Because as I found out at the recent Doors Open Toronto, the TD Centre, [here a shot of Scotia Plaza as seen from the 54th floor of the TD Centre]
to maintain the original integrity and feel of the building, uses only single pane glass!
So don't want to be leaning too hard on it to get that one really great shot. At least that is what the tour guide "script" instructed us to tell visitors.
I was volunteering at DOTO as a tour guide one day and elevator operator the next.
From the bottom looks pretty ordinary.But when this building was constructed in 1967, it was the tallest building in Canada and put TO on the map as the financial centre of Canada.
Command Central!Minus the Commander.
Elevator takes 27 seconds to cover 54 floors. Second fastest elevator in Canada.
Fastest one was the one next to me, damn.
Ha ha, elevator operator joke [visitors ate it up! Strangely enough, though, after ad libbing several more clever factoids, many people commented that the ride felt a lot longer than 27 seconds. Huh?]
But nope - CN Tower elevator is the fastest. No joke.
"He missed the tag!".Could (almost) see into Skydome to watch the Jays play (white open dome beyond CN Tower).
And also got an up close and personal view of the refurbishment of Bank of Montreal's First Canadian Place.FCP is not maintaining the original architectural features of their building as the little tiles (lower half) keep falling off.
So they have to replace every last frickin' one. Floor by floor.
Ouch! Can you say "increased banking charges?"
4 comments:
...You forgot to mention that all three buildings are controlled by Johnson Controls Building Automation Systems. TD Centre is the largest BAS system in the world for a commerical office building with over 25,000 points of control. This tops buildings such as the Pentagon and Chrysler HQ. Also, Garry Hoy, a lawyer in the TD Centre in 1993 was presenting to students and demonstrated the thickness of the glass by jumping against it. He landed in the courtyard 40 floors below proving lawyers can't fly. Lastly, TD Centre has invested over $20 M in energy improvements and still has one of the highest costs per square foot showing that building envelope issues plague their operating results. FCP $100 MM project is expecting to reduce energy by another 14%. I am sure your tours will become even more insightful when you graduate.
Correction... All four buildings mentioned - TD Centre, FCP, Scotia Plaza and Sky Dome. Thanks for the opportunity for the commercial. NYSE - JCI to help a man retire.
Uhhhh, thanks, Steve. But for next year I think I'm going to stick with the funny second-faster-elevator line.
All are very interesting. I have tended to go for the historic buildings on Doors Open - might be fun to see more modern stuff explained - though the TD Centre is getting on in years, too. Wonder when they'll tear it down because it's too expensive to keep up....
(Interesting to see you on the modern side of the fence, UC)
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