Bjarke Ingels Group has released newly-commissioned photographs of their Telus Sky Tower in Calgary, Canada. First unveiled in 2013, the mixed-use 60-story residential and commercial project broke ground in 2015 and was completed in 2020. Situated in downtown Calgary among a cluster of corporate office towers, BIG’s scheme incorporates residential units on its upper levels in an effort to create urban activity after the workday finishes.

While the tower’s ground floor adopts the same orientation as surrounding buildings, the scheme undergoes a diagonal shift as it rises, creating terraces and balconies for residents while offering the building its distinctive “pixelated” façade. Above the main entrance, the façade pixels extend beyond the site limits to create a series of canopies and terraces, while at night, a 160,000 sqft art installation, Northern Lights by Douglas Coupland, lights up the north and south façades, creating the largest public art piece in Calgary.

Inside, the defining feature of the scheme’s lower levels is what the design team calls a “vertical canyon,” which extends eleven floors upwards. Adjacent to the connective skybridges weaving through the canyon, tiles on the wall peel open to create pockets for plants. Above, a rooftop garden combines with vegetated terraces on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors to create what BIG calls a “respite from the urban environment of downtown.”

“Telus Sky is designed to seamlessly accommodate the transition from working to living as the tower takes off from the ground to reach the sky,” said Bjarke Ingels about the scheme. “The base and lower floors of the mixed-use tower are clean and rectangular, resulting in large efficient layouts for workspace. As the building rises, the floor plates gradually reduce in size, stepping back to provide slender residential floor plates with nested balconies.”

“In a similar fashion, the texture of the façade evolves from smooth glass at the base of the building to a three-dimensional composition of protrusions and recesses,” Ingels continued. “The resultant form expresses the unification of the two programs in a single gesture — rational straight lines composed to form a feminine silhouette. Surrounded by blocky skyscrapers occupied by petroleum companies, Telus stands like a lady in a cluster of cowboys.”

The update on the Telus Sky Tower comes shortly after BIG’s major Los Angeles Arts District development moved one step closer to construction. November has also seen the firm’s community of 100 3D printed homes begin construction in Texas in collaboration with ICON, while September saw the completion of BIG’s biophilic high-rise in Singapore designed in collaboration with Carlo Ratti Associati.