Bjarke Ingles Unveils Elevator Light Show for Toronto's Skyline
Bjarke Ingels Elevator Design
A new Toronto tower proposal aims to be one of the tallest, and most entertaining towers in the city. Standing at 52-storeys tall, around 264 metres, it would be taller than Mies van der Rohe’s all black TD Centre or I.M. Pei’s metallic Commerce Court West.
Towering over the downtown, Bjarke Ingles and his team at BIG Architects aims to build a ‘vertical factory’ that dances atop one of Canada’s largest data centre. BIG partner Thomas Christoffersen explains the scheme behind the towers design “was to do the most utilitarian building possible, creating the biggest floor plates we can.”
Most notably, the tower will have a linear elevator tower situated along the north side of the building. By strategically anchoring the building’s elevator shafts and mechanical equipment to its north elevation, the layout completely opens up its floor plates without any structural interruptions to the floor plans.
This singular shift from the core to the facade afforded another unique benefit, a design opportunity to try something extraordinary with the exposed elevators. Typically, skyscrapers are designed with elevators shafts at the core of the building. However, this unorthodox placing of the elevators added a “dramatic visual interest” to the street.
An animated rendering of the Union Centre's elevator light show.
With all the elevators pushed to the northern edge of the building, pedestrians are able to see the movement of the cabs travelling up and down the facade making it come to life and creating a bold visual statement. With the addition of lights, this scheme allowed for a kind of elevator light show on the outside of the building - bit of ‘vertical ballet’ on the skyline says Christoffersen.
“The elevators might even have terrariums on their top and bottom, glass boxes of greenery on the move”
Taking a cue from the motion of the elevators, LEDs have also been proposed for the building's envelop adding to the colourful nighttime shows. Located on Front Street West, its proximity to the CN Tower and surrounding entertainment district would make this bizarre electric tower a welcome addition to Toronto’s skyline, and a game changer in how architects celebrate the kinetic effects of the the only room that moves.
