Toronto Dominion Centre

The Toronto-Dominion Centre, or Centre, is a cluster of buildings in downtown Toronto, Ontario, owned by Cadillac Fairview, and consisting of six towers and a pavilion covered in bronze-tinted glass and black painted steel. It serves as the global headquarters of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, as well as providing office and retail space for many other businesses. Some 21,000 people work in the complex, making it the largest in Canada.

The project was the inspiration of Allen Lambert, former President and Chairman of the Board of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, with Phyllis Lambert, recommending Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as design consultant to the architects, John B. Parkin and Associates and Bregman + Hamann, and the Fairview Corporation as the developer. The towers were completed between 1967 and 1991, with one additional building built outside the campus and purchased in 1998. Part of the complex, described by Philip Johnson as "the largest Mies in the world", was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 2003, and received an Ontario Heritage Trust plaque in 2005.

Design

As Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was given "virtually a free hand to create Toronto-Dominion Centre", the complex, as a whole and in its details, is a classic example of his unique take on the International style, and represents the end the evolution of Mies' North American period, which began with his 1957 Seagram Building in New York City.