Calgary House, (formerly known as TELUS Sky) is a 60-

storey A storey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or story (American English), is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the wor ...

mixed-use Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

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 ( ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. At completion in 2019, the structure building became the third-tallest building in Calgary behind Brookfield Place East and The Bow. As of July 2020, Telus Sky is the 18th tallest building in Canada, though several buildings in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

exceeding its height are under construction including

The One The One may refer to: Buildings * The One (shopping centre), a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong * The One (Toronto), a mixed-use skyscraper under development in Toronto, Canada * The One, a residential skyscraper under constru ...

. Calgary House incorporates of mixed-use area available. There is a total of of office space within the structure, of which is leased to

Telus Communications Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, v ...

, a Canadian

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

company that is a subsidiary of Telus Corporation.

History

On July 4, 2013, the Telus Corporation announced the development of the $400-million ($-million in ) Telus Sky, designed by the architectural firms

Bjarke Ingels Group Bjarke Ingels Group, often referred to as BIG, is a Copenhagen, New York City, London, Barcelona, Shanghai, Oslo, Los Angeles, Zurich, and Bhutan-based group of architects and designers operating within the fields of architecture, product, lands ...

and Dialog, which promised to provide a new architectural landmark to Calgary's Downtown to be completed in 2017. The announcement included plans for a mixed-use tower to incorporate office, retail and residential space. Of which there was to be 26 floors totaling of office space with Telus reserving . Calgary House would also host 341 residential units on the upper 32 floors and of retail space, mostly on the second floor connected to the city's

Plus 15 The Plus 15 or +15 is a skyway network in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is the world's most extensive pedestrian skywalk system, with a total length of 16 kilometres (10 miles) and 86 bridges connecting 130 buildings, as of 2022. Calgary often h ...

pedway system. The design included

LEED 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 ...

Platinum status and a number of

sustainable design Environmentally sustainable design (also called environmentally conscious design, eco-design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability ...

features including a storm water management system, and a public gallery. The building was designed with a clean rectangular base and bottom floors for efficient open-office layouts, and as the building rises, the floor plates slowly reduce in size and pixilate creating small

balconies A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

and terraces. Prior the construction of Telus Sky, the corner of 7 Avenue & Centre St SW was home to a three-storey building constructed in 1928 and hosted Art Central, a place where local artists could create and showcase their talent in small galleries and

studios A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to Wiktionary:study, study or zeal. Types Art The studio o ...

. The building was demolished in November 2014. Construction on Telus Sky started in February 2015. Due to the small footprint of the site, there was not enough room for traditional

excavators Excavators are heavy equipment (construction), heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a backhoe, boom, dipper (or stick), Bucket (machine part), bucket, and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The modern excavator's ...

or ramps to facilitate digging the base, instead a hydraulic crane using a clam-shell bucket was used to excavate the of dirt to a depth of up to to create the base of the building. Construction of the Telus Sky continued past the original completion date of 2017, with delays causing construction to continue into 2019. The first commercial tenants were scheduled to move in July 2019 and the residential rental suites received bookings for September 2019.

Public Art

Calgary House’s northern and southern facades are clad in a dynamic

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

display dubbed "Northern Lights", designed by Canadian artist

Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. He ...

, which is one of the largest

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

fixtures in Canada. The LED light strips that make up the art piece are equipped with an infinite number of colour shades and combinations. The Northern Lights display will go through five 12-minute sequences per hour. With the starting sequence always being a mimic of the world famous

aurora borealis An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

, and the remaining four sequences to be interchangeable. The public art features an interactive

smartphone app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

that will give users information about what inspired the current pattern at any given sequence, and will be online from sunrise to sunset, 365 days a year. The Northern Lights display was first previewed on April 19, 2019.

Building details

The developers of Calgary House are striving to achieve

Platinum certification for the office, retail, and art spaces of the building, with the residential levels being targeted for LEED Gold. This will make Calgary House the most environmentally sustainable building in Canada over 200 meters in height. *Square footage of: **The entire building: **The office space: on 29 floors **The residential space: on floors 30-58 **The retail space: located mainly on the ground level **Total leased space: **Art space: **Number of storeys: 60 **Listing Agency:

Colliers International Colliers International Group Inc. is a Canada-based diversified professional services and investment management company with approximately 18,000 employees in more than 400 offices in 65 countries. The firm provides services to commercial real ...

Tenants

Following the collapse in oil prices in 2015, the Calgary real-estate market began to suffer from growing vacant downtown office space, which Calgary House has not been immune. As of April 2020, Calgary House has an occupancy level of 60%, which is split among five commercial tenants, of which the Telus Corporation represents or 33% of the occupancy. Tenants include: *The Telus Corporation - *Absorb Software -

Construction

File:Telus Sky May.jpg, May 2019 File:Telus Sky October.jpg, October 2018 File:Telus Sky May 2018.jpg, May 2018 File:Telus Sky March 2018 - 2.jpg, March 2018 File:Telus Sky Bow January.jpg, January 2018 File:Telus Sky September 2017.jpg, September 2017

References

External links

Telus Sky official website
* *