Bow Valley Square is a four-tower office tower complex located in

downtown Calgary Downtown Calgary is a dense urban district in central Calgary, Alberta. It contains the second largest concentration of head offices in Canada, despite only being the country's fourth largest city in terms of population. The downtown is divided i ...

, Alberta, Canada. The complex constructed in stages between 1972 and 1982 was home to Calgary's tallest building between 1974 and 1976. The complex is owned by

Alberta Investment Management Corporation Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) is an Albertan Crown corporation and institutional investor established to manage several public funds and pensions headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta. AIMCo was established by an act of the Legi ...

OMERS The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is a Canadian public pension fund, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. OMERS is a defined benefit, jointly sponsored, multi-employer public pension plan created in 1962 by Ontario provinc ...

and

Oxford Properties Group Oxford Properties is a Canadian multinational corporation, with operations in real estate investment, development and property management. Its portfolio includes office, retail, industrial, multi-residential, life sciences and hotel assets. Esta ...

History

The complex was developed by

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

based Hammerson Canada and consists of four towers built over a period of 12 years, starting with the 17-storey first tower, 39-storey second tower, 33-storey third tower and finally 38-storey fourth tower which was topped off in June 1981. The buildings were designed by Webb, Zerafa, Menkes & Housden Architects and built by CANA Construction Company Limited. In 1985 Hammerson began evaluating construction of a fifth tower which would have been 17 storeys with of leaseable space; however, the fifth tower never come to fruition. Boris Zerafa of WZMH Architects received the 1970 Canadian Architect Yearbook Award of Excellence for the design of the Bow Valley Square complex. The design incorporates aspects of the International Style and is noted as one of the more elegant designs in the city for the period analogized as "Cadillac and Porsche architecture" versus the more common "sturdy Buicks and Oldsmobiles of middle management" design prevalent in Alberta during the period. Located in

, the buildings are directly connected by the +15 skywalk system to Fifth Avenue Place to the north,

Suncor Energy Centre The Suncor Energy Centre, formerly the Petro-Canada Centre, is a project composed of two granite and reflective glass-clad office towers of 32 floors and 52 floors, situated in the office core of downtown Calgary, Alberta. The Council on Tall B ...

to the east, and Brookfield Place to the south. A shopping gallery is located at the +15 level as well as ground level and contains retail, recreation, services and financial services. Construction started in 1972 and ended in 1981 with the fourth tower. The towers' addresses are 205 5 Avenue SW, 255 5 Avenue SW, 202 6 Avenue SW, and 250 6 Avenue SW.

Towers

The complex's tallest tower is the ''Bow Valley Square 2'', a 39-storey building which was topped off in February 1974. It was the tallest building in

western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

when it was built in 1975 and would remain the tallest until 1977 when Scotia Centre was completed in 1977.

References

External links

Bow Valley Square - Property Website
Buildings and structures in Calgary Skyscrapers in Calgary Modernist architecture in Canada Office buildings completed in 1972 Office buildings completed in 1975 Office buildings completed in 1979 Office buildings completed in 1981 Oxford Properties WZMH Architects buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Canada {{Alberta-struct-stub

History

Towers

See also

References

External links