Herzog & de Meuron has designed a slender new skyscraper for Toronto, Canada, that would be the country's tallest if realized – coming in even taller than Foster + Partners' under-construction One. Named 1200 Bay Street, it would contain retail space, a restaurant, and luxury apartments.
1200 Bay Street was designed in collaboration with Quadrangle and Urban Strategies, and is being developed by Kroonenberg Groep and ProWinko. While we've no word on its exact width, its overall form is certainly slender. It would reach a height of 324 m (1,062 ft) on a site measuring just 890 sq m (2,919 ft). To put this into perspective, it would be the same height as Paris' Eiffel Tower, though the CN Tower would remain Canada’s tallest manmade structure at 553.3 m (1,815 ft).
The interior of 1200 Bay Street would consist of 87 floors. The first 16 floors are envisioned as retail and office areas, with an amenities level above. The floors above that would host a total of 332 residences, ranging from one bedroom apartments to multi-level penthouses. The uppermost three levels would include a large restaurant and sky lounge.
The building would feature operable windows to aid passive ventilation, while wooden shutters would be used to help control the heat and light inside.
"The proposal is a layered expression of the vertical structural elements, interior glazing (thermal envelope), exterior timber roller shades and an outer layer of transparent, open-jointed glass," explains Herzog & de Meuron. "The effect is a building which at times appears transparent and expressive – revealing the scale and activity within the building; and at other times, the reflective outer layer of glass gives the building an abstract quality, emphasizing its dramatic proportion."
We've no word yet as to when 1200 Bay Street is due to begin construction, nor that it's definitely been given the green light to go ahead.
Source: Herzog & de Meuron
