Location: Calgary, Canada
Area: 12077 square meters
Year: 2026
Industry: Energy
Category: Business

Overview

This renovation project transforms a six-storey elliptical tower. As a strategic reimagining of a traditional downtown office, the project leverages the building’s original curved floor slabs to create a hybrid workplace for approximately 550 employees. It optimizes natural daylight, spatial connectivity and circulation systems, translating corporate strategy and organizational culture into tangible spatial experience.

The Challenge

The inherent floor geometry of the elliptical tower tended to cause fragmented spatial planning. The design needed to break the traditional pattern where window-side workstations monopolized daylight and achieve equitable distribution of natural light. Circulation routes had to accommodate both spontaneous interaction and quiet focused work.
The space required scalability to support hybrid working. Besides, the layout of support functions needed rearrangement, with acoustic and material strategies to cater to diverse working preferences, including neurodiverse users.

The Solution

- The curved floor slabs serve as the core organizing framework. A consistent modular plan is implemented across six floors to improve wayfinding and allow the space to adapt to evolving corporate needs.
- A continuous internal stair acts as a vertical social connector. Natural daylight and views are distributed throughout the whole floor plate instead of being limited to window perimeters.
- A dual-path circulation strategy is adopted: informal meeting nodes encourage interaction, while quiet window-side corridors support focused work.
- Warm wood tones, refined lighting and restrained natural finishes are selected. Acoustic solutions including glass partitions and ceiling treatments separate collaborative and quiet work zones.

The Results

The renovated elliptical tower eliminates the original fragmented layout and delivers equitable daylight access. The dual circulation system supports both social interaction and focused work. The scalable space is well-suited for hybrid work. Re-positioned support functions raise the visibility of operation teams. Warm materials and acoustic zoning enable diverse working styles. The project demonstrates that aging downtown towers can undergo strategic revitalization to strengthen cross-departmental connections and embed AltaGas’s corporate culture into employees’ daily workplace experience.