TORONTO | First Canadian Place | 298 M | 72 stories | RECLADDING

[BrandonJXN]

www.redefiningfirst.com

Towering 72 floors above Toronto's Financial District, First Canadian Place has remained unrivalled as Canada's tallest business landmark since 1975.

Brookfield Properties, in partnership with its co-owners, is embarking on a multi-faceted rejuvenation project that will transform this classic corporate icon and redefine its position as the country's premier address for business and pleasure.

With a brilliant new white fritted glass exterior curtain wall, FCP will once again be a sleek and commanding silhouette on the city's skyline. The newly designed common areas will combine modern aesthetics with urban elegance. A new standard for sustainability and operational efficiency will be achieved with the introduction of the latest electrical and mechanical systems while providing the ultimate in comfort for discerning tenants.

[Steely Dan]

e.d. stone did two massive marble clad towers in climates that did not at all cooperate with his designs - toronto's FCP and chicago's aon center. aon center already had all of it's marble replaced with white granite back in the early 90s, preserving the stone masonry heaviness of the design, but also loosing some of the sheen and polish of the original marble. this FCP reclad sounds like it's going the other direction, preserving the sheen with the new white glass, but loosing the masonry heaviness. it will be interesting to see how this turns out, and to compare and contrast it with aon's reclad job years ago.

however it turns out, it's welcome news as the original marble on FCP is in really bad shape.

[steveve]

Interesting to see this thread go up!....

In my opinion this re-cladding of First Canadian Place isn't that substantial but it does improve the overall look of the building... It still looks like an older building though even with the new cladding.... It's just the older design of the building and the white cladding... it gets dirty too easily...

I would have liked to see fins on this one because it would look nicer and add some height!

[caltrane74]

Oh that would have been sweet if they could have added in some fins, some hieght and additional archtecitural merit to the building...

[steveve]

HEY!

In that large photo of the new FCP above I noticed that there are little, puny fins at the side of the building... this might be currently there but it looks different... The design mimics the Bay Adelaide Centre SOOO much (or vise versa )

[BrandonJXN]

I also agree that fins would really make this building shine. The scruffy looking antennas don't really fit on top.

[Tom In Chicago]

This is welcome news. . .

. . .

[BrandonJXN]

From SSC:

Originally Posted by AndrewJM3D

Taken by drum118 on u/t. Also a news conference will be held Tuesday to announce this. These two floors look like the bottom 15 I mentioned.


So her face lift begins.

[niwell]

Snapped these from the office window today. First noticed the panel removal yesterday and it seems to be going pretty fast. I wonder how much of the tower is going to have panels removed before they start the new cladding? It might be odd to see a brown FCP.

For what it's worth I think the project is top notch. It really keeps the feel of the original design which is extremely important in my books. A complete redesign with fins or reflective glass would be completely innapropriate.

[steveve]

FCP won't ever be seen as fully brown... When they start actually removing panels... the new ones will be installed almost immediately after....

And look closely at the new renders of FCP... To my understanding they are adding little, tiny, fins at the top of the building... Minimal but they're there alright... I think that's the case...

Look at the current FCP... I don't see those fins right now... hmm...

[niwell]

Yeah, the majority of panels will be removed more or less at the same time as new installation. But those being removed now seem to be for the setup of whatever equipment is needed to do the recladding. I imagine there will be a repeat of the current panel removal pattern at least once on each side of the building.

I don't think the renders actually show fins, but rather a bit of an optical illusion caused at the junction of white and bronze glass. If anything it looks like the white glazing will extend a bit beyond the current corners, if that makes any sense.

[steveve]

to me the new cladding just extends above the roof JUST a wee little bit

But this re-cladding process is suppose to take 3 years (2009-2012)

They say the cladding on the building itself will go until 2011 and then the podium will be finished by 2012...

So the process is SUPPOSE to be gradual (and in phases) but maybe the process will take shorter (like IT SHOULD)...







***PS: I read on the wikipedia article for First Canadian Place and since the white marble tiles were getting dirty... Instead of cleaning each piece, workers deliberately dirtied the tiles so that it would match the dirty ones.... First Canadian Place FAIL!

[steveve]

Here's a shot I took of FCP re-clad preparation... Sorry for the poor image quality because it rained and I took it from a car....



Photo by me: steveve

Enjoy

[Sulley]

Will the 70s funk lobby and disco-riffic crystal chandeliers be preserved?

[BrandonJXN]

I've never been inside FCP but I would love to see a very minimal lobby. Something a long the lines of this:

[Sulley]

Nooo, keep it original.

[isaidso]

Agree, the interior is 70s fabulousness.

[steveve]

It's On!!!

FCP re-clad by Androiduk on UT...

FCP re-clad is slowly happening ... Although panels are being removed, I don't think we will be seeing new panels until the first quarter of 2010

So we'll have to deal with an EVEN MORE UGLY building for now

[uaarkson]

It'd be cool if it was just bare steel for a while. I don't think a building has ever been fully occupied but still look U/C.

[jodelli]

Photo Robert Taylor c 1975
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

Looks kinda interesting. At least to a skyscraper geek.