Toronto skyline Daniel Libeskind has redesigned the internationally recognized Royal Ontario Museum, North America's fifth largest. Libeskind reinvented Canada's largest museum as a series of enormous “crystals” that will rise dramatically five storeys from the street surface. Frank Gehry's redesign of the Art Gallery of Ontario will completely alter the museum inside and out. The new front façade of the gallery will become an exercise in transparency, with the upper level transformed into a new sculpture court. A recent arrival on the Toronto skyline is Will Alsop’s “tabletop” at the Ontario College of Art and Design on McCaul Street. This spectacular structure consists of a two-storey rectangle suspended about 40 metres (130 ft) above ground on brightly coloured steel legs. In June 2006, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts opened as the new home of the Canadian Opera Company and The National Ballet of Canada. Designed by Diamond + Schmitt, the 2,000 seat opera house has a European style tiered horseshoe-shaped auditorium. The University of Toronto campus is another site of major change. Since 2001, Canada’s largest university has expanded adding many new buildings. Included are a number of residences and faculty buildings designed by the noted Norman Foster and Behnisch Architekten. The main buildings, the Leslie Dan Pharmaceutical Building (Foster) and the Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (Behnisch), are lantern-like towers that bring the university happily into the modern age. Other major projects have recently taken place at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the Royal Conservatory of Music and the National Ballet School of Canada. These were designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB), a firm that is playing a major role in transforming Toronto architecture. KPMB are also responsible for the design of Bell Festival Centre, a major new cultural facility dedicated to the celebration of film and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Panoramic view of downtown Toronto from Panorama Lounge in the Manulife Centre. Lake Ontario can be seen in the distance. [edit] Notable structures Brookfield Place (formerly known as BCE Place) is an office complex in downtown Toronto, which consists of two towers, the Bay Wellington Tower and the TD Canada Trust Tower, linked by the six-storey Allen Lambert Galleria. BCE Place is also the home of the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Allen Lambert Galleria, sometimes described as the "crystal cathedral of commerce", was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It is one of the most photographed spaces in Toronto's financial district, and is heavily featured as a backdrop for TV and film productions. Commerce Court is a cluster of four office buildings located in the financial district on King Street and Bay Street. The first building, now known as Commerce Court North, was built in 1930 as the headquarters of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a precursor bank to the current main tenant. Designed by the firm Pearson and Darling, the 34-storey tower was the tallest building in the British Empire/Commonwealth of Nations until 1962. At the time of its construction, the building was one of the most opulent corporate headquarters in Canada. In 1972, three other buildings were erected, thus creating the Commerce Court complex: Commerce Court West designed by I. M. Pei (the tallest building in the complex, at 57 storeys, and the tallest building in Canada from 1972-1976), Commerce Court East (14 storeys), and Commerce Court South (5 storeys). Mies van der Rohe's Toronto Dominion Centre (66 Wellington St W), is a black modernist complex of six imposing towers. The tallest office building in the city, as well as the entire country is First Canadian Place, which is 72-storeys high, was constructed in 1976 and has an antenna height of 355 metres (1,165 ft). The City Hall is one of the most distinctive landmarks of the city. Designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell and engineered by Hannskarl Bandel, the building opened in 1965; its modernist architecture still impresses today. It was built to replace Old City Hall which was built in 1899. The CN Tower is among the most notable structures in Toronto. It is the world's second tallest free-standing structure after the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The CN Tower is used as an observation tower, as well as a communications tower. [edit] External links Cultural renaissance projects v • d • e

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