1.
Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, it is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto and this refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
2.
Oxford Properties
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Oxford Properties, established in 1960 is a global real estate owner, investor, developer and property manager with a portfolio of office, retail, industrial, multi-residential and hotel assets. Wholly owned by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System since 2003, the organization has 2,000 employees and over $40 billion of real assets that it manages for itself and on behalf of its co-owners and investment partners. Oxford’s portfolio of properties represents more than 50 million square feet of office, retail, hotel, industrial, land and multi-residential assets in key markets across Canada, the US and Europe. Some of its most recognized assets include Royal Bank Plaza, The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Olympic Tower and The Leadenhall Building. Oxford also owns seven Canadian Fairmont luxury hotels which were acquired in 2006, Oxford Leaseholds was established in 1960 in Edmonton by Don Love and John and George Poole, founders of PCL Construction. In the early days of the formation the partners decided there was a need for a medical clinic. Seven years and a few later, Great-West Life, Confederation Life Insurance Co. To reflect its growing desire to develop towers as well as operate them, the firm entered the 1970s as a publicly traded company, with an offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with its assets surpassing $1 billion. At the time, large acquisitions included Y&R Properties portfolio and 25 shopping centres from Cambridge Leaseholds, a decade later, a new ownership structure was introduced as Oxford went private in 1980 in a management-led leveraged buyout. To pay for the deal, it sold its shopping centres, the decade didnt pass quietly however, with assets rising above $3 billion. Oxford Properties set up its headquarters in Torontos Richmond-Adelaide Centre, eight years later, the two companies merged and once again went public with help from a $60 million investment from a Hong Kong investor. The company made significant real estate investments buying entire portfolios from Marathon, Greiner-Pacaud, Hammerson Canada, Royal Bank, Don Love had arrived in Edmonton in 1955 as an enterprising young stockbroker working for a national securities firm. A physician client approached him about building a clinic in Edmonton. He knew E. E. Poole, another one of his clients, and when Don made the proposal Ernest Poole declined, the three young men started a new company called “POLO” – PO for Poole, and LO for Love. Don provided the imagination, while John and George provided the capital, the trio secured a mortgage and built the Baker Clinic, which they then sold back to the doctors of the practice. They were officially in the development business, GRESB is an industry-driven organization committed to assessing the ESG performance of real assets globally, including real estate portfolios and infrastructure assets. Oxford Properties has measured a 26 per cent improvement in the efficiency of their managed portfolio, on a per square foot basis. RBC WaterPark Place was the first LEED Core and Shell Platinum Office Tower in Toronto
3.
Kohn Pedersen Fox
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Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates is an American architecture firm which provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in the world and is one of the largest in New York City. KPF’s projects over the last 10 years include Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Unilever House in London, the Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas, the Stephen M. In New York, KPF is presently designing the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project, KPF recently completed One Jackson Square and served as Executive Architect for the 10-year phased expansion and renovation of New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. Current projects around the world include the Midfield Terminal Complex at the Abu Dhabi International Airport, kPFs philosophy is firmly rooted in the belief that success is the result of collaboration and dialogue. KPF explains, “A similar sentiment is central to the manner in which we weave our buildings into the environmental fabric, for a firm of its size, KPF takes on an unusually large number of restoration and renovation projects. Examples of this work include The World Bank Headquarters, Unilever House, KPF has been recognized for workplace collaboration. Shortly after its founding in 1976, the American Broadcasting Company chose KPF to redevelop a former building on Manhattan’s West Side to house TV studios. This experience led to 14 more projects for ABC over the next 11 years, as well as commissions from major corporations across the country, including the AT&T, by the mid-1980s, KPF had nearly 250 architects working on projects in cities throughout the United States. It remains a Chicago landmark, and was voted “Favorite Building” by the readers of the Chicago Tribune in both 1995 and 1997. In 1986, KPF’s Procter & Gamble Headquarters in Cincinnati, which included an open plan interior design by Patricia Conway, was recognized for its design with the AIA National Honor Award. In the 1990s, KPF also took on a number of government and civic projects. Courthouse in New York, the Mark O. Hatfield U. S, courthouse in Portland, OR, the U. S. Courthouse of Minneapolis, the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and the multiple award-winning redevelopment of The World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D. C. KPF’s winning entry in the competition for the World Bank Headquarters. KPF’s sensitive design solution for the World Bank, its first D. C. project, KPF completed the design for two blocks of the large-scale Canary Wharf redevelopment and the Goldman Sachs Headquarters on Fleet Street. KPF has been selected for projects in the Canary Wharf area through the present day, KPF’s subsequent work in the U. K. includes Thames Court in London, the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University and the master plan for the London School of Economics. KPFs introduction to the Asian market began with the 4,500, within 10 years, KPF had projects in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China
4.
WZMH Architects
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WZMH Architects is a Canadian multinational architectural firm established in 1961 and based in Toronto. Originally known as Webb Zerafa Menkès Housden the company’s name was changed to WZMH Architects in 2002, WZMH has incorporated sustainable design principles into the majority of its projects and has received numerous domestic and international Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design awards. In 2013, the firm’s Nova Scotia Power Corporate Headquarters was the first building in Atlantic Canada to receive LEED Platinum certification, WZMH has enduring developer relationships with Oxford Properties, Brookfield Properties, Infrastructure Ontario, ELAD Group, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. In 2015, WZMH merged with pellow + associates, a known for its retail design. In 2016, WZMH Architects celebrated its 55th anniversary
5.
Skyscraper
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A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building having multiple floors. When the term was used in the 1880s it described a building of 10 to 20 floors. Mostly designed for office, commercial and residential uses, a skyscraper can also be called a high-rise, for buildings above a height of 300 m, the term supertall can be used, while skyscrapers reaching beyond 600 m are classified as megatall. One common feature of skyscrapers is having a steel framework that supports curtain walls and these curtain walls either bear on the framework below or are suspended from the framework above, rather than resting on load-bearing walls of conventional construction. Some early skyscrapers have a frame that enables the construction of load-bearing walls taller than of those made of reinforced concrete. Modern skyscrapers walls are not load-bearing, and most skyscrapers are characterized by surface areas of windows made possible by steel frames. However, skyscrapers can have curtain walls that mimic conventional walls with a surface area of windows. Modern skyscrapers often have a structure, and are designed to act like a hollow cylinder to resist wind, seismic. To appear more slender, allow less wind exposure, and transmit more daylight to the ground, many skyscrapers have a design with setbacks, a relatively big building may be considered a skyscraper if it protrudes well above its built environment and changes the overall skyline. The maximum height of structures has progressed historically with building methods and technologies, the Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world. High-rise buildings are considered shorter than skyscrapers, the first steel-frame skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois in 1885. Even the scholars making the argument find it to be purely academic and this definition was based on the steel skeleton—as opposed to constructions of load-bearing masonry, which passed their practical limit in 1891 with Chicagos Monadnock Building. What is the characteristic of the tall office building. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and it must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line. Some structural engineers define a highrise as any vertical construction for which wind is a significant load factor than earthquake or weight. Note that this criterion fits not only high-rises but some other tall structures, the word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. A loose convention of some in the United States and Europe draws the limit of a skyscraper at 150 m or 490 ft. The tallest building in ancient times was the 146 m Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient Egypt and it was not surpassed in height for thousands of years, the 14th century AD Lincoln Cathedral being conjectured by many to have exceeded it
6.
Art Deco
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Art Deco, sometimes simply referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. It took its name, short for Arts Decorators, from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925 and it combined modernist styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, Art Deco was a pastiche of many different styles, sometimes contradictory, united by a desire to be modern. It featured rare and expensive materials such as ebony and ivory, the Chrysler Building and other skyscrapers of New York were the most visible monuments of the new style. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the became more subdued. New materials arrived, including chrome plating, stainless steel and plastic, a more sleek form of the style, called Streamline Moderne, appeared in the 1930s, it featured curving forms and smooth, polished surfaces. Art Deco became one of the first truly international architectural styles, with examples found in European cities, the style came to an end with the beginning of World War II. Deco was replaced as the dominant global style by the functional and unadorned styles of modernism. The term arts décoratifs was first used in France in 1858, in 1868, Le Figaro newspaper used the term art décoratifs with respect to objects for stage scenery created for the Théâtre de lOpéra. In 1875, furniture designers, textile, jewelry and glass designers and it took its present name of ENSAD in 1927. The term Art déco was then used in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in the Times, describing the different styles at the exhibit. Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major book on the style. Hillier noted that the term was already being used by art dealers and cites The Times, in 1971, Hillier organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book about it, The World of Art Deco. The emergence of Art Deco was closely connected with the rise in status of decorative artists, the term arts décoratifs had been invented in 1875, giving the designers of furniture, textiles, and other decoration official status. The Société des artistes décorateurs, or SAD, was founded in 1901, a similar movement developed in Italy. The first international exhibition devoted entirely to the arts, the Esposizione international dArte decorative moderna, was held in Turin in 1902. Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris, including Arts et décoration, Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Sociéte des artistes français, and later in the Salon dautomne. French nationalism also played a part in the resurgence of decorative arts, in 1911 the SAD proposed the holding of a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912
7.
Group of Seven (artists)
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The Group of Seven, also known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, later, A. J. Casson was invited to join in 1926, Edwin Holgate became a member in 1930, and LeMoine FitzGerald joined in 1932. Two artists commonly associated with the group are Tom Thomson and Emily Carr, although he died before its official formation, Thomson had a significant influence on the group. Emily Carr was also associated with the Group of Seven. The Group was succeeded by the Canadian Group of Painters in the 1933, the Art Gallery of Ontario, in its earlier incarnation as the Art Gallery of Toronto, was the site of their first exhibition as the Group of Seven. The McMichael was founded by Robert and Signe McMichael, who began collecting paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries in 1955. Tom Thomson, J. E. H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston, in 1913, they were joined by A. Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris. They often met at the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto to discuss their opinions and this group received monetary support from Harris and Dr. James MacCallum. Harris and MacCallum jointly built the Studio Building in 1914 in the Rosedale ravine to serve as a meeting and working place for the new Canadian art movement. MacCallum owned land on Georgian Bay and Thomson worked as a guide in nearby Algonquin Park, the informal group was temporarily split up during World War I, during which Jackson and Varley became official war artists. A further blow to the group came in 1917 when Thomson died while canoeing in Algonquin Park and he appeared to have suffered a blow to the head and showed no signs of drowning. The circumstances of his death remain mysterious, the seven who formed the original group reunited after the war. They continued to travel throughout Ontario, especially the Muskoka and Algoma regions, sketching the landscape, in 1919, they decided to make themselves into a group devoted to a distinct Canadian form of art which didnt exist yet, and began to call themselves the Group of Seven. It is unknown who specifically chose these seven men, but it is believed to have been Harris, by 1920, they were ready for their first exhibition thanks to the constant support and encouragement of Eric Brown, the director of the National Gallery at that time. Prior to this, many believed the Canadian landscape was not worthy of being painted. Reviews for the 1920 exhibition were mixed, but as the decade progressed the Group came to be recognized as pioneers of a new, Canadian, after Frank Johnston left the group in 1920 to move to Winnipeg, A. J. Casson was invited to join in 1926. Franklin Carmichael had taken a liking to him and had encouraged Casson to sketch, the Groups champions during its early years included Barker Fairley, a co-founder of Canadian Forum magazine, and the warden of Hart House at the University of Toronto, J. Burgon Bickersteth. The members of the Group began to travel elsewhere in Canada for inspiration, including British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia, after Samuel Gurney Cresswell and other painters on Royal Navy expeditions, these were the first artists of European descent who depicted the Arctic
8.
PATH (Toronto)
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PATH is a network of underground pedestrian tunnels, elevated walkways, and at-grade walkways connecting the office towers of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is more than 30-kilometre long, according to Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex in the world with 371,600 square metres of retail space. The PATH networks northerly point is the Toronto Coach Terminal at Dundas Street and Bay Street and its main axes of walkways generally parallel Yonge Street and Bay Street. It was the first underground pathway in Toronto, and is often credited as a historic precursor to the current PATH network. Another original underground linkage, built in 1927 to connect Union Station, the network of underground walkways expanded under city planner Matthew Lawson in the 1960s. Torontos downtown sidewalks were overcrowded, and new towers were removing the much-needed small businesses from the streets. Lawson thus convinced several important developers to construct underground malls, pledging that they would eventually be linked, the city originally helped fund the construction, but with the election of a reform city council this ended. This also converted low-valued basements into some of the most valuable retail space in the country, the first expansion of the network occurred in the 1970s with the construction and underground connection of the Richmond-Adelaide office tower and the Sheraton Centre hotel complex. In 1987, City Council adopted a unified wayfinding system throughout the network, a colour-coded system with directional cues was deployed in the early 1990s. Within the various buildings, pedestrians can find a PATH system map, the signage can be hard to find inside some of the various connected buildings. Building owners concerned about losing customers to neighbouring buildings insisted that the signs not dominate their buildings, the city relented and the result is the current system. Many complain that the system is hard to navigate, PATH provides an important contribution to the economic viability of the citys downtown core. Its underground location provides pedestrians with a haven from the winter cold and snow. In 2011, the City of Toronto released an expansion plan for the PATH. As part of the plan there will be 45 new entry points. Toronto planners have begun work to guide future PATH development and ensure PATH link construction is included in basement levels of key new buildings, more than 50 buildings or office towers are connected through the PATH system. It comprises twenty parking garages, five stations, two major department stores, two major shopping centres, six major hotels, and a railway terminal. Underground city Official website Official PATH map Online Directory of the PATH
9.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
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Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is one of the most popular green building certification programs used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U. S. LEED also has grown from six volunteers on one committee to 119,924 staff, volunteers, LEED standards have been applied to approximately 83,452 registered and certified LEED projects worldwide, covering around 13.8 billion square feet. Many U. S. federal agencies and states and local governments require or reward LEED certification, however, four states have effectively banned the use of LEED in new public buildings, preferring other industry standards that the USGBC considers too lax. Proposals to modify the LEED standards are offered and publicly reviewed by USGBCs member organizations, GBCI also certifies projects pursuing LEED. LEED has evolved since 1998 to more accurately represent and incorporate emerging green building technologies, the pilot version, LEED New Construction v1.0, led to LEED NCv2.0, LEED NCv2.2 in 2005, and LEED2009 in 2009. LEED v4 was introduced in November,2013, until October 31,2016, new projects may choose between LEED2009 and LEED v4. New projects registering after October 31,2016 must use LEED v4, LEED2009 encompasses ten rating systems for the design, construction and operation of buildings, homes and neighborhoods. Five overarching categories correspond to the available under the LEED professional program. Up to 10 additional points may be earned, four points may be received for Regional Priority Credits. Its owner must share data on the energy and water use for five years after occupancy or date of certification. Each of the categories also have mandatory measures in each category. The weighting process has three steps, A collection of buildings are used to estimate the environmental impacts of any building seeking LEED certification in a designated rating scheme. NIST weightings are used to judge the importance of these impacts in each category. Data regarding actual impacts on environmental and human health are used to assign points to individual categories and measures and this system results in a weighted average for each rating scheme based upon actual impacts and the relative importance of those impacts to human health and environmental quality. The LEED council also appears to have assigned credit and measure weighting based upon the market implications of point allocation, in 2003, the Canada Green Building Council received permission to create LEED Canada-NC v1.0, which was based upon LEED-NC2.0. Many buildings in Canada are LEED certified in part due to their Rainwater harvesting practices, LEED certification is granted by the Green Building Certification Institute, which handles the third-party verification of a projects compliance with the LEED requirements. The certification process for design teams is made up of two applications, one including design credits, and one including construction credits. All of the LEED credits in each rating system are assigned to either the design application or the construction application, the design credits include those that are the purview of the architect and the engineer, and are documented in the official construction drawings
10.
Topping out
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In building construction, topping out is a builders rite traditionally held when the last beam is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlayed into an event for public relations purposes. Long an important component of timber frame building, it migrated initially to England and Northern Europe, a tree or leafy branch is placed on the topmost wood or iron beam, often with flags and streamers tied to it. A toast is usually drunk and sometimes workers are treated to a meal, in masonry construction the rite celebrates the bedding of the last block or brick. In some cases a topping out event is held at an intermediate point, in New Zealand, completion of the roof to a water-proof state is celebrated through a roof shout, where workers are treated to cake and beer. The tradition of pannenbier is popular in the Netherlands and Flanders and it stays in place until the buildings owner provides free beer to the workers, after which it is lowered. It is considered if it remains flown for more than a few days. The topping out traditions of the high-steel ironworkers, Topping Off. at the Wayback Machine. Http, //www. stp. uh. edu/vol68/160/news/news4. html Tree symbolizes campus growth, The Daily Cougar, Volume 68, Issue 160, Monday,28 July 2003, Topping Off at the Wayback Machine. National Review, December 23,2003 Richtfest. info A German language site about the topping out ceremonies, Topping out Roberts Pavilion Topping out the new athletic building at Claremont McKenna College
11.
Toronto Star
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The Toronto Star is a Canadian broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. a division of Star Media Group, the Star was first printed on Toronto World presses, and at its formation The World owned a 51% interest in it as a silent partner. That arrangement only lasted for two months, during time it was rumoured that William Findlay Billy Maclean, the Worlds proprietor, was considering selling the Star to the Riordon family. After an extensive fundraising campaign among the Star staff, Maclean agreed to sell his interest to Hocken, the paper did poorly in its first few years. Hocken sold out within the year, and several owners followed in succession until Sir William Mackenzie bought it in 1896 and its new editors, Edmund E. Sheppard and Frederic Nicholls, moved the entire Star operation into the same building used by the magazine Saturday Night. This would continue until Joseph E, holy Joe Atkinson, backed by funds raised by supporters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, bought the paper. The supporters included Senator George Cox, William Mulock, Peter Charles Larkin, Atkinson was the Stars editor from 1899 until his death in 1948. Its early opposition and criticism of the Nazi regime saw the paper one of the first North American papers to be banned in Germany. He championed many causes that would come to be associated with the welfare state, old age pensions, unemployment insurance. The Government of Canada Digital Collections website describes Atkinson as a radical in the best sense of that term, the Star was unique among North American newspapers in its consistent, ongoing advocacy of the interests of ordinary people. The friendship of Atkinson, the publisher, with Mackenzie King, Atkinson became the controlling shareholder of the Star. The Star was frequently criticized for practising the yellow journalism of its era, for decades, the paper included heavy doses of crime and sensationalism, along with advocating social change. From 1910 to 1973, the Star published a weekend supplement, shortly before his death in 1948, Joseph E. Atkinson transferred ownership of the paper to a charitable organization given the mandate of continuing the papers liberal tradition. In 1949, the Province of Ontario passed the Charitable Gifts Act, barring charitable organizations from owning parts of profit-making businesses. It would continue to supply sponsored content to the CRBCs station CRCT, in 1971, the newspaper was renamed The Toronto Star and moved to a modern office tower at One Yonge Street by Queens Quay. The original Star Building at 80 King Street West was demolished to make room for First Canadian Place, the new building originally housed the papers presses. In 1992, the plant was moved to the Toronto Star Press Centre at the Highway 407 &400 interchange in Vaughan. In September 2002, the logo was changed, and The was dropped from the papers, during the 2003 blackout, the Star printed the paper at a press in Welland, Ontario
12.
CN Tower
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The CN Tower is a 553.3 m-high concrete communications and observation tower in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976, becoming the worlds tallest free-standing structure and it held both records for 34 years until the completion of Burj Khalifa and Canton Tower in 2010. Its name CN originally referred to Canadian National, the company that built the tower. Since the name CN Tower became common in usage, the abbreviation was eventually expanded to Canadian National Tower or Canadas National Tower. However, neither of these names is commonly used, in 1995, the CN Tower was declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It also belongs to the World Federation of Great Towers, where it holds second-place ranking and these plans evolved over the next few years, and the project became official in 1972. Key project team members were NCK Engineering as structural engineer, John Andrews Architects, Webb, Zerafa, Menkes, Housden Architects, Foundation Building Construction, and Canron. As Toronto grew rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s, multiple skyscrapers were constructed in the downtown core, the reflective nature of the new buildings compromised the quality of broadcast signals necessitating new, higher antennas that were at least 300 m tall. At the time, most data communications took place over point-to-point microwave links, as each new skyscraper was added to the downtown, former line-of-sight links were no longer possible. CN intended to rent hub space for microwave links, visible from almost any building in the Toronto area. S, the original plan for the tower envisioned a tripod consisting of three independent cylindrical pillars linked at various heights by structural bridges. Had it been built, this design would have considerably shorter. The idea for the level in its current form evolved around this time. One engineer in particular felt that visitors would feel the higher observation deck would be worth paying extra for, Construction on the CN Tower began on February 6,1973, with massive excavations at the tower base for the foundation.7 m. This portion of the construction was rapid, with only four months needed between the start and the foundation being ready for construction on top. To build the support pillar, a hydraulically raised slipform was built at the base. This was an impressive engineering feat on its own, consisting of a large metal platform that raised itself on jacks at about 6 m per day as the concrete below set. In total, the tower contains 40,500 m3 of concrete, through the pour, the vertical accuracy of the tower was maintained by comparing the slip forms location to massive plumb bobs hanging from it, observed by small telescopes from the ground. Over the height of the tower, it varies from true vertical accuracy by only 29 mm, in August 1974, construction of the main level commenced
