Shell Centre is a 33- storey, office tower in Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. At completion in 1977, Shell Centre was the fourth tallest building in Calgary, behind Dome Tower, Bow Valley Square Two, and Stephen Avenue Place. The Shell Centre was announced by Olympia and York Developments in February 1975 as a $35-million, 33-storey, tower to be built on the site of the former Caravan Hotel. The building would be Olympia and York's first development 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� ...

, which went ahead despite the absence of a major tenant at announcement. During construction of the building Shell Oil would step forward to become the primary tenant for the building in a plan that would consolidate the oil company's 1,000 employees in Calgary, and changing the name of the building to Shell Centre. Shell Centre's design called for 34,000 cubic yards of concrete and 4,700 tons of steel in construction, and the structure was cladded with 1.25 inch think slabs of Italian

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

. The building included two levels of

underground parking A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

with capacity for 86 cars. The building was designed in a

figure eight Figure 8 (figure of 8 in British English) may refer to: * 8 (number), in Arabic numerals Entertainment * ''Figure 8'' (album), a 2000 album by Elliott Smith * "Figure of Eight" (song), a 1989 song by Paul McCartney * '' Figure Eight EP'', ...

shape which allows for eight corner offices, and includes a recessed lobby accessible from street levels behind a series of supportive pillars. The Calgary Herald would note the tower marked a turning point in corporate offices in Calgary, moving away from the traditional simple towers which were previously common in the city, to more elaborate and flamboyant skins of marble and granite which were common in

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cities.

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* Buildings and structures in Calgary Skyscraper office buildings in Calgary Modernist architecture in Canada Shell plc buildings and structures Office buildings completed in 1977 {{Alberta-struct-stub

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