Best known for its media tower that overlooks the intersection at Yonge and Dundas, Atrium occupies an entire block and includes office towers and a retail concourse. Since completing Phase 1 in the early 1980s, we have designed several extensions and upgrades to keep this building an integral and iconic part of downtown Toronto.

In the design of Phase 1 (the west tower and retail concourse), a tapered drop slab system was used to increase spans between columns, eliminating the need for structural partition walls and satisfying the client’s request for open-concept offices. This was an innovative and early use of this type of drop slab in Canada. Phase 1 also included underground access to Dundas subway station and the Eaton Centre across the street.

Further developments include the completion of the east tower in the mid 1980s and the addition of the media tower in 1999. The media tower consists of five vertical steel trusses that reach 14 storeys high and supports a constantly changing series of digital and analogue advertisements. The trusses are anchored to the roof of 306 Yonge, a small heritage building that was being integrated into Atrium at the time. The Atrium’s media tower was the first of several media towers that now light up the square.