The CN Tower issued an international invitation to qualified design and construction teams, tasking them with the challenge of imagining a completely new visitor experience. Their main objective was to present a new viewing attraction that would rekindle interest within the local community, deliver a high impact experience for guests and present the experience as fully accessible.
In collaboration with the architects, the design team determined that the existing level, consisting of a stylistically dated 200 seat restaurant called Horizons, several cramped viewing areas, a staircase leading to the 360 restaurant above, two dark elevator lobbies and some ramshackle quick service food and retail kiosks, should be completely redesigned. The new design would work to showcase uninterrupted views of Canada’s largest and most diverse city, its relationship with the waterfront and the beauty of Lake Ontario. In response to this central idea, the design team imagined a SKY PROMENADE framed with floor to ceiling glass, mirrored ceilings, wrapped in a crisp neutral material palette and bathed in soft coloured light. Hospitality and retail services would be pushed towards the core of the Tower and integrated seamlessly into the environment, resulting in three F&B Hubs that subtly derive design inspiration from the respective vistas. The SKY PROMENADE strategy would also allow the Catering and Events team to isolate the floor plate into a series of segments that could be served individually by the F&B Hubs.
Photography by David Whittaker
