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200 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario CanadaPrint this page   •   Share this page   •   Map This

This skyscraper is one of the great visual spectacles in the Toronto skyline. It has the ability to bend, refract, reflect, and play with light in a way that other buildings aren't prepared to. That's because its exterior is covered in gold leaf. Its visage has been compared to a huge ingot of Spanish bullion, though New Spain never extended this far north. It's not just the façade that helps with this dance of light. The Royal Bank Plaza is composed of two triangular towers (one 41-stories, the other 26-stories) that help take advantage of the sun's low angle at this northern latitude and bounce the light around at unusual angles. Incidentally, the sun is the reason there is gold on this building in the first place. The skyscraper has 14,000 windows and because of that, incredibly high heating and cooling bills. Having 2,500 ounces of 24-carat gold baked into the glass helps insulate the building and makes up for the installation cost, though the bank got the original gold for less than CAN$100.00 an ounce. No one has ever stolen one of the windows even though each contains about CAN$70.00 worth of gold. That is because the process that puts the gold into the glass makes it worthless at the same time. It is not possible to separate one material from the other.

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  bellissima! Toronto e una citta piu bello nell tutto il mondo.

Marco Peron - Saturday, February 11th, 2006 @ 6:17pm