[URBAN NOTE] "First Canadian Place: 40 years on top in Toronto"

[rfmcdonald]

Spacing Toronto's Chris Bateman examines the history of unloved Toronto skyscraper First Canadian Place.

First Canadian Place has been the tallest skyscraper in Canada for four decades now. At 298.1 metres from sidewalk to rooftop, the brilliant white tower is certainly an impressive feat of engineering, but what First Canadian Place delivers in height it lacks in physical presence and allure.

Maybe it’s the relatively unadorned, geometric shape of the building, or perhaps it’s because the CN Tower, completed just a year later in 1976, trumps it on a technicality as the tallest “freestanding structure” in the country. Whatever it is, FCP rarely figures in the conversation about Toronto’s most beloved buildings.

The Bank of Montreal’s Ontario headquarters was a relative latecomer to the downtown office tower scene. Announced in October 1972 by developer Olympia and York, the First Bank complex (as it was originally known) swept away the historic headquarters of both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, and razed a historic Bank of Montreal office, too.

Olympia and York were lucky to get building permission when they did. A few months later, in December 1973, Toronto city council passed an interim bylaw capping all new downtown construction projects at 14 metres and 3,700 square metres. The move was a temporary measure designed to give planners a chance to reassess the merits of allowing high-rise office development in the heart of the city without residential space to balance it all out.