Epcor Tower is an office tower in
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
, Alberta, Canada. The tower is capped by two
spire
A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...
s that are capped with four flagpoles each. When the spires were taken into account, it was the tallest building in Edmonton from 2011 to 2017. Epcor Tower is the first building in the
Station Lands project. Tenants includes
EPCOR Utilities
EPCOR Utilities Inc., formerly known as Edmonton Power Corporation, is a utility company based in Edmonton, Alberta. EPCOR manages water, wastewater, natural gas, and electricity distribution systems in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British ...
,
Capital Power
Capital Power is a Canadian independent power generation company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It develops, acquires, owns and operates power generation facilities using a variety of energy sources.
History
The company history dates back t ...
,
Ernst & Young
EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...
,
Intuit
Intuit Inc. is an American multinational business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparati ...
, and
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American ...
.
History
Development of the tower started in May 2007 when
EPCOR Utilities
EPCOR Utilities Inc., formerly known as Edmonton Power Corporation, is a utility company based in Edmonton, Alberta. EPCOR manages water, wastewater, natural gas, and electricity distribution systems in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British ...
began seeking proposals from developers to lease of office space for their 1,100 employees in downtown Edmonton.
It was announced on December 7, 2007, that the company had chosen Qualico to provide the space with the construction of new office tower on the Station Lands site by the
CN Tower
The CN Tower () is a communications and observation tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Completed in 1976, it is located in downtown Toronto, built on the former Railway Lands. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway co ...
. Epcor entered into a 20-year lease to become the anchor tenant of the tower with an option for a 15-year renewal. The structure was certified to a silver standard or higher under the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...
(LEED) program. LEED certification is a widely used standard for reducing energy, water and other resources in buildings. With the completion of the building, Edmonton saw its first new office tower in 17 years. Due to the nature of the anchor tenant, the building has been nicknamed the "Power Tower".
Construction of the tower began in spring 2008 and was completed in 2011.
In April 2008, Edmonton City Council approved $45 million in funding to immediately build a 180-metre underground portion of the future Metro
LRT
Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
line beneath the tower's underground parkade, at the same time as the building's construction. The coordinated construction effort saved the City of Edmonton approximately $140 million. The remaining construction of the Metro Line resumed in 2012, with the line opening in September 2015.
Also in April 2008, Qualico announced plans to bid on the right to host a new Canadian national portrait gallery in the new building. However, the federal government scrapped the plan later in the year.
Gallery
File:EPCOR Tower 09.jpg, Construction of EPCOR Tower in September 2009
File:EPCOR Tower 10.jpg, Construction of EPCOR Tower in June 2010
File:EPCOR and CN towers.jpg, EPCOR Tower and CN Tower
The CN Tower () is a communications and observation tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Completed in 1976, it is located in downtown Toronto, built on the former Railway Lands. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway co ...
in December 2010
File:Epcor-Tower-Edmonton-Alberta-Canada-01.jpg , South view of Epcor Tower, summer 2012
See also
*
List of tallest buildings in Edmonton
This is a list of the tallest buildings in Edmonton, the capital city of the province of Alberta in Canada.
Edmonton has twenty-four buildings taller than . The tallest is the Stantec Tower, the tallest Canadian building outside Toronto, which s ...
References
External links
*
{{s-end
Headquarters in Canada
Skyscraper office buildings in Edmonton
Towers in Alberta
Office buildings completed in 2011
Retail buildings in Canada