Toronto BMW

Toronto, ON

Toronto’s Don Valley Parkway leads into the city’s downtown core, carrying nearly 100,000 commuters daily. Any new buildings adjacent to it must abide by stringent setback rules established by the Toronto and Regional Conservation Authority. BMW wanted to be strategically sited with maximum visibility adjacent to the highway to tempt potential customers driving by. To establish this presence, BMW took a six-story former soap factory with close proximity to the highway and gutted it. Then, the transformation began to optimize the impact of the BMW experience.

On the 10-acre site, BMW Toronto created an innovative luxury car dealership with a configuration that is unprecedented in the automotive industry. With structural glazing on three sides, the building stands like a billboard taking full advantage of the exposure to the nearby highway. Clean sight lines, wide expanses of vision glass and unique feature areas have all contributed to create a billboard where walls disappear and facades become huge screens on which multiple images unfold. During the day, the glass appears darkly translucent. Six display windows framed in white are featured in the middle of the front “screen” displaying the latest offerings from BMW. At night, the showroom is illuminated for all to see. 

Everything was oversized, with glass spans 10' wide by 14' high. When in transit from the plant to the BMW site, it was critical that all components stay intact. For the viewing windows on the fourth and fifth floors, getting the glass into position and installed were additional challenges. The butt-glazed feature wall was created using glass support fins, ‘spiders’ and structural silicone sealant. The complexity and demands of the job left no room for problems of any type so Applewood/JTI turned to Tremco for all the glazing components. From past experience, they knew compatibility was assured, schedules would be met and Tremco would take full responsibility for the job.