![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/2a_TELUS-Sky_c-BIG.jpg\")
<\/a>Image:\u00a0BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group<\/em><\/p>\nFacing competition from over 300 skyscrapers from around the world, a downtown Calgary residential tower was recently crowned the second-place winner for an international architecture award.<\/p>\n
TELUS Sky<\/a> was granted the second-place Emporis Skyscraper Award according to a press release<\/a> issued by Emporis, an international building and construction data provider based in Germany.<\/p>\n\n The award winners were selected by a panel of global architectural experts from a pool of hundreds of towers that were completed in 2020 with a minimum height of 100 meters. The Emporis Skyscraper Award, which has been running for the last 20 years, is given to buildings based on a series of aesthetic and functional design criteria.<\/p>\n As the third-tallest building in Calgary, TELUS Sky houses a mix of office space and both short- and long-term residential rental apartments.<\/p>\n The 59-storey skyscraper, named after Telus Communications, was developed<\/a> by Westbank<\/a> and Allied Properties REIT. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)<\/a> and DIALOG<\/a>, the architects behind TELUS Sky, are known in Canada for their work on King Toronto Condos<\/a> and Vancouver House<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTELUS Sky stands out because of its extraordinary structure and fa\u00e7ade: it has a rectangular base and with rising height the floor plates gradually reduce in size, creating small terraces and balconies,\u201d states Emporis.<\/p>\n The skyscraper\u2019s north and south fa\u00e7ade is lit up at night by a 160,000-square-foot public art LED lighting installation called “Northern Lights,”<\/a> which was created by Douglas Coupland, a Canadian author and artist. The art piece consists of 600 custom bulbs that wrap around the tower\u2019s window frames to create an infinite number of colours and patterns. Viewers can follow information about the light performance in real time with the help of a smartphone app.<\/p>\n<\/a>Image:\u00a0BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group<\/em><\/p>\n