Since our last update on the Parliament Street Data Centre development in Toronto's Corktown area, more of the vibrant slatted cladding has been put up on the building as the team has finished the south side, completed much of the east side, and moved on to the building's north side. Will the project be entirely gift-wrapped in time for Christmas? Probably not, but the five-storey, 22,000 square-metre (236,000 square-foot) development already looks like a present for the revitalizing area of Toronto.

Very different from most other structures currently rising in Toronto as it is mainly windowless due to the computer machinery that will be housed inside the structure, the WZMH Architects design for the data centre's exterior easily rises to the task of engaging its surroundings. The flush-mounted and extended terracotta and black slatted cladding, an homage to the early days of computing, is meant to resemble a "punch card", a early computer technology that was used to transfer data.

Parliament Data Centre, image by Jack Landau

In the southeast-facing image above, the team has begun to clad the building's north side, which one can expect will be a mirror image of the treatment on the building's south side, seen below.

Parliament Data Centre, image by Jack Landau

While the data centre will house many machines and not so many people, there are some windows on its exterior, notably along on the ground floor where the offices will be, and those forming a glass cube on the building's southwest corner. Just over half of the building's area will be used as 'white space' for the servers, with another floor being dedicated to the power and ventilation systems. The white space will be a cool and dry environment with no sunlight to keep the servers running smoothly.

Parliament Data Centre, image by Jack Landau

The Parliament Street Data Centre's lead tenant will be California based Equinix, with this location serving as their 'TR2 IBX Data Centre'. The California-heaquartered company currently runs 101 data centres on 5 continents. They will use 35 per cent of the building's 2,450 cabinets.

Parliament Data Centre, image by Jack Landau

Below we are facing northwest, with a view of the south and east sides of the building. The building's predominantly black frontage on Parliament Street gradually shifts until it is only shades of terracotta on the east side.

Parliament Data Centre, image by Jack Landau

For more information about the Parliament Street Data Centre, check out our dataBase file for the building, linked below. Choose the associated Forum thread link to get in on the conversation, or you can leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.

Related Companies:  Trillium Architectural Products, WZMH Architects