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It’s an exciting time to be a designer in Calgary, says architect Jeremy Sturgess, principal of Sturgess Architecture. But he warned this modern building boom risks relegating some of the older towers in the city’s downtown to second-class status.

“It’s a very positive kind of indication of what’s going on with Calgary. The city is positioning itself as a western centre, beyond just its oil roots. I think it’s becoming, step by step, a more mature and multi-faceted city from what it has been historically,” he said. “I think, specifically, what Brookfield has come up with is something quite strikingly beautiful in its simplicity and elegance.”

Skyscrapers have long been hallmarks of confidence. Mr. Sturgess said Calgary’s designs go beyond being bigger; the city is also creating bold buildings. And although companies have traditionally been more interested in profits than beauty, Mr. Sturgess said the highly competitive oil and gas sector has had to become far more conscious of its office spaces.

“We were involved [in the Bow] and it was said many, many times. The reason that EnCana went to the cost, quite frankly, of hiring such a fantastic design team and building such a remarkable building was because they could no longer get staff on salary alone. They had to create an environment that was better than anything else,” he said.

That puts the pressure on other oil and gas behemoths to follow suit.

“The bottom line is that more and more people will start to demand this, so you’re going to have quite a few second-class buildings downtown as these [other] buildings come along,” he said.

Mr. Nenshi also openly admits his city is competing with Toronto for ever-more-prestigious towers, and the business that comes with them.

“Keep in mind, the scale of what we’re doing here is very, very different than in Toronto. And the number of cranes they’ve got right now — but so much of what they’ve got is residential construction and I love that this city has such an active office construction portfolio,” Mr. Nenshi said. “People are building offices here because business is moving here.”

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