The canopies for the main doors weighs 6,100lbs each and were brought to the site in four pieces. They required two cranes to lift each one into place.
There were 130 different trade disciplines on the project.
At the peak there were 1,200 construction workers on site a day.
It was estimated that THE BOW would sway 50mm in any direction while being erected.
1200 (420,000 sq ft) tarpaulins were used to contain heat and for wind protection.
The washrooms were made and furnished off site and then hoisted into place and connected up.
420,000 cubic meters of dirt was removed from the 20 meter deep excavation for the building.
The raft slab pour was the largest continuous building pour in Canadian history.
THE BOW was the largest steel project ever built in Canada. It consisted of 37, 000 pieces of steel and 800,000 structural bolts.
The steel had to be pre-heated to 250 degrees fahrenheit before welding.
Two of the cranes used on THE BOW climbed up the steel structure as it grew.
The Design
Facing south with the curve towards the sun, the building takes advantage of natural daylight and heat.
THE BOW shape maximizes the number of perimeter offices having views of the downtown and mountains.
The Centre Street +15 bridge incorporates dampers to minimize movement during periods of high pedestrian use.
The plaza around THE BOW is the size of a football field.The granite for the plaza surface came from Brazil and was manufactured in China.
At 236m (775ft) THE BOW is the tallest tower in Calgary.
The +15 bridge to Suncor Plaza is the only public connection over Centre Street.
The parkade is the largest in Calgary at 1 million sq ft. It provides 1358 parking spots and provision for 320 bicycles.
THE BOW has Calgary's only loading dock under an active roadway.
If you were to stack all the stairwells in THE BOW on top of each other they would reach to the height of a 348 storey building!
THE BOW used 900,000 sq ft of preglazed glass. Glass near the top floors is designed to take more than 100 pounds per sq ft wind load.
THE BOW has the largest architecturally exposed diagrid structure of its kind.The pattern is repeated every 6 floors
It was the first time a triangular diagrid system had applied in a curved building in North America.
There are 100 miles of piping for mechanical services.
THE BOW has 1.1 million sq ft of carpet tile.
Keeping THE BOW Running
The building automation computer system simultaneously looks at and controls over 7,500 individual pieces of machinery.
The smoke exhaust system for the atrium has the capacity to change the air in four and a half jumbo jets every minute.
There are:
40 elevators in the north block and 3 in the south block parkade as well as 2 escalators
30,000 individual and 20,000 feet of light fixtures operated by 9,000 wireless control devises.
68,000 phone/data jacks fed by 6.7 million feet of cable.
The building has 138 self service coffee bars, 120 washrooms and 150 board and meeting rooms.
If the sprinkler pipes in the building were laid end to end they would stretch from THE BOW to High River.
THE BOW has 5,750 tonnes of cooling - typically a house will have 4 tonnes.