Scotia Plaza

Scotia Plaza is a 68-storey office tower in the financial district of Toronto, Canada. It is 275 metres tall, which makes it Canada's third-tallest skyscraper and the 52nd tallest building in North America. It was built as the global headquarters of Scotiabank, one of the country's big banks.

The tower has red granite walls, dark-tinted windows framed in granite, and a deep stepped notch near the top. It stands at the corner of Yonge and King streets and is joined to the underground PATH walkway network. It holds about 190,000 square metres of office space and 40 shops.

Old bank, new tower

The tower includes an older building, the Beaux-Arts Bank of Nova Scotia building at 44 King Street West, built from 1946 to 1951. That 27-storey stone building is 115 metres tall and has been protected as heritage since 1975. A 14-storey glass atrium connects it to the new tower.

Inside the atrium is a banking hall with a 40-metre metal structure called the Circle of the Provinces. Under the whole complex lies Scotiabank's vault of gold and other bullion.

Granite and concrete

WZMH Architects designed the modern tower, which was built between 1985 and 1988. Its excavation went 33.5 metres down, the deepest for a building in Canada's history at the time. The granite on the outside was quarried in Sweden, cut and polished in Italy, and shipped to Canada.

The north and south sides step back, so many floors have extra corner offices. Instead of a steel skeleton, the tower uses strong reinforced concrete.

Owners and offices

Olympia and York developed the complex and owned it until the company was closed in 1993 because of overwhelming debt. Scotiabank bought it back over the next five years, then sold it in 2012 for 1.27 billion Canadian dollars.

In 2022 Scotiabank moved its global head office to a newer tower, but it still rents a large amount of space here.

On the globe

The model shows the granite tower with its notch cut into one upper corner. Look at the stepped shape at the top.