1.5K 
Recent years have been kind to the Calgary skyline, and despite fresh economic slumps, the demand for new housing continues to show resiliency. Though developments like Brookfield Place have pushed the physical properties of the city vertically, other projects have expanded the city's wall of buildings horizontally with a surfeit of glass, concrete and stone. Developer Cove Properties was instrumental in paving the way for a permanent change in the skyline when they proposed two sets of twin towers in the city's Warehouse District.
Neura and Alura, designed by David Symons at S2 Architecture, features a common textured base that ground the towers to the street. With strong vertical and horizontal lines lending a certain simplicity to the glass elevations, the crowns are a little more daring in their expression, with peaked rooflines contributing to the project's recognizable distant silhouette. Aesthetically, the 33-storey towers are mirror images of one another, but twisted 90 degrees to showcase the alternate elevation to a single viewer.
The second set of twins by Abugov-Kaspar, Sasso and Vetro, take their names from the Italian words for stone and glass. Sprouting 34 and 24 storeys from the street, the project marries a range of textural materials that include concrete, brick, Tyndall stone and glass to bring the sculptural buildings to life. Similar to Neura and Alura in its ground-level commercial program, the towers differ in their style and massing. The 502-unit development is oriented to maximize downtown and mountain views, with flying buttress structures and finials adding ornamental pieces to the crown.
In 2006, construction of Sasso was largely complete, while Vetro was just beginning its ascent. Two years later, it would become the tallest residential tower in the city, until it was surpassed by The Guardian. Together, the two city blocks would produce some of the tallest buildings ever seen in the province, and even more remarkable, in a location that had historically been a desert for skyscrapers.
Have an idea for a future Throwback Thursday? Let us know by leaving a comment below!
