CALGARY - Amid fireworks and high praise from Mayor Naheed Nenshi, the 58-storey Bow tower was officially opened on Tuesday.

“As the city continues to grow, as we see more and more skycrapers being built in downtown Calgary, every one of them now has to make sure that they’re meeting this level of quality and that’s pretty exciting," said Nenshi. "As we continue to grow and prosper and change our skyline, I think it’s only going to get even better.

“I want Calgarians to see a point in time. I want them to see that here and now in 2013 Calgary continues to be what we’ve always been — an optimistic city, a city on the rise, a city with its face turned firmly towards the future and I think this building is a beautiful symbol of that.”

Tom Hofstedter, president and chief executive of H&R Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns The Bow, said the overall cost for the building was $1.7 billion.

“It is the second largest development in North America. The first is the Freedom Towers, replacing the old World Trade Center in New York. You can see the scale and the magnitude of this project,” he said.

“For myself personally it’s been seven and a half long years. A lot of dollars. Many cycles. So today it finally came. You’re looking at an amazing building. Just a fantastic contribution to the city of Calgary and I think it will set the standards of buildings to come in the future.”

Ald. Druh Farrell said The Bow has changed forever the landscape of the downtown.

“No corporate building had been constructed east of Centre Street. The site selected by Encana opened the gateway of the east Calgary and also made the work you see in East Village possible. The Bow ignited a discussion about architecture,” she said.

“Along with the changes to our skyline, it’s raised our expectations for all future downtown structures.”

Former Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier called The Bow the final culmination of 236 metres of “absolute beauty.”

“It’s really about teamwork and collaboration coming together between the city, the province, the building owner, the building tenants, many, many hands to make such a spectacular project that clearly has changed the skyline of Calgary for the better. And it really is a grand beauty. 236 metres of absolute gorgeousness. Drop dead beautiful. That will stand the test of time,” said Bronconnier.

“It’s what I’ve always said about Calgary put on your seatbelt and wait because Calgary is a city that continues to grow, continues to prosper. It’s anchoring the west with what’s occurring here in terms of the energy business overall and many other businesses. It really speaks to the maturity of Calgary. You’re seeing it in this building.”

Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, who created the Wonderland statue which is now situated in The Bow’s front plaza, was om attendance as well during Tuesday’s celebrations.

Jim Barnes, project architect on The Bow with Foster + Partners, described The Bow as a fantastic building.

“It’s been a wonderful journey. It’s been a true collaborative effort,” he said.

Plans for the tower were announced in October 2006. It was initially owned by Encana but later sold to H&R Real Estate Investment Trust. Energy giants Encana and Cenovus — with more than 4,000 employees between them — are the building’s main tenants.

Recently, The Bow, at Centre Street and 6th Avenue S.E., was named one of the world’s most spectacular corporate buildings.

The list of “dazzling” buildings was compiled by a jury of experts from Emporis, a German-based database on building and construction projects.

Cenovus occupies floors three to 28 in the building, while Encana is in floors 29 to 55.

Jack Matthews, president of Matthews Development which was in charge of constructing The Bow, said Tuesday was “a proud day in the sense of coming to the end of a long journey.”

He said that on a day like this he reflected back on the different challenges and felt good about the end result.

“There’s a lot of different people that got us here from the conception of the idea to its completion,” he said.

mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com

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