The new 707 Fifth AAA office tower in downtown Calgary, Alberta, features a distinctive, curved glass appearance with high energy-efficiency and a comfortable interior.

With its triple-glazed, curtain wall system, the 27-storey, 564,000-square-foot (52,400m²) building is targeting LEED Gold certification. The curtain wall relies on state-of-the-art, bent, triple-pane insulated glazing units (IGUs) with two low-e coatings.

World-renowned architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill designed the iconic, energy-efficient structure. The building’s façade combines convex and concave forms to shape elliptical and undulating elevations. The floor-to-ceiling glass maximizes internal daylighting and comfort, minimizes unwanted solar heat gain and heat loss, and provides panoramic views of the city and the Rocky Mountains.

The building’s lead tenant is PetroChina, whose employees and visitors have a choice of nearby transit solutions and a breadth of on-site amenities, retailers and restaurants. The soaring 30-foot-tall lobby and interconnected winter garden provide an attractive, year-round setting.

Bringing the vision to reality, construction manager EllisDon worked closely with Contract Glaziers West Inc to engineer the custom, high-performance, unitized, structurally glazed, aluminum-framed curtain wall system, and to manufacture and install it to precise specifications.

Before beginning construction in 2014, EllisDon’s virtual design and construction team produced three-dimension conceptualizations using building information modeling (BIM) tools.

According to the construction manager, this visualization of the project led to “a complex, yet achievable coordination process” guiding the way to its successful conclusion.

The project was completed on time in for a grand opening in April 2017. Total construction costs are estimated at $200 million.