First Canadian Place

After months of intensive glass assembly research and hundreds of mock-ups, MdeAS, together with executive architect B+H Architects, developed an innovative new glass spandrel system being used to redefine the tallest building in Canada, Toronto's 72-story First Canadian Place. As the original marble cladding began to fail, MdeAS proposed replacing 45,000 aging marble panels with 5,370 specially designed glass spandrel panels. Exhaustive research of industry-standard glass assemblies led to a custom frit-patterned white spandrel panel that meets exacting color, size, strength, performance and economic constraints. The extensive design renewal also included a renovation of the public, retail podium.

Address 100 King Street West

City Toronto, Canada

Year 2012

Size 2.7 million sq ft

Client Brookfield Properties

Executive Architect B+H Architects

Awards

ZeroFootprint | Re-Skinning Award, Finalist, 2011

Design & Build Through Research

In order to meet the clients expected timeline for completed construction, the design team was tasked with finding a solution to the daunting undertaking of removing the building’s original marble. Collaborating with B+H architects, a custom-designed suspended elevator platform was invented. This 50-foot system was comprised of 14 separate sections and could hold 160 workers at a time. This single piece of engineering saved over 1.3 million hours of labor.