Project Info
Architects: BIG
Creative Director: Bjarke Ingels
Partner In Charge: Thomas Christoffersen
Project Leader: Iannis Kandyliaris
Project Manager: Chris White
Team: Carolien Schippers, Choonghyo Lee, Maya Shopova, Brian Rome, Dennis Harvey, Ivy Hume, Manon Gicquel, Michael Zhang, Barbora Srpkova, Isshin Morimoto, Ho Kyung Lee, David Spittler
Client: Westbank, Telus, Allied Properties
Area: 750,000 ft2
Year: 2017
Photographs: Courtesy of BIG
Introduction
In an attempt to transform Calgary’s corporate-centric downtown into a walkable, dynamic community, TELUS has commissioned BIG to design a mixed-use skyscraper in the heart of the Canadian city. Known as TELUS Sky, the 750,000 square foot tower is designed to “seamlessly accommodate the transformation from working to living as the tower takes off from the ground to reach the sky.”
Details
In order to achieve this, the large floor plates for workplaces recede to allow for the slender dimensions of residential floor depths. Similarly, the texture of the façade evolves from the smooth glass, enclosing the work space, to a three-dimensional composition of apartments and balconies. According to BIG, the “resultant silhouette expresses the unification of the two programs in a single gesture – in rational straight lines composed to form a feminine figure.”
TELUS Sky, scheduled for completion in the fall of 2017, will be a LEED Platinum signature development at the 7th Avenue block in Calgary. It will be realized as a collaboration between BIG and the Canadian architecture firm Dialog, along with partners developer Westbank Corp with whom BIG is already collaborating upon the Beach & Howe Tower in Vancouver and real estate investment trust Allied Properties.
