Globe: Milestone Year in Office Construction

[building babel]

I think of "good taste" as something money can buy: the result of a status-based marketing ploy aimed squarely at Cheddingtonistas; a security blanket that people who are unable to evaluate good design wrap themselves in: "Look ma! I bought a condo in One St.Thomas! I got good taste!"

 

[alklay]

I gotta agree with you about One St. Thomas. Its more marketing than architecture.

 

[wyliepoon]

I think that courthouse is what you get when you mix the Toronto Style with institutional brutalism.

 

[adma]

So like a 2006 version of the George Drew building?

 

[mark simpson]

or a sibling to the ryerson business building and battery park

 

[wyliepoon]

Update from Calgary... Pengrowth to make Livingstone Place its headquarters.

Link to article


Pengrowth builds $275-million development program

DAVID PARKINSON

Globe and Mail Update

CALGARY — Pengrowth Energy Trust has unveiled a $300-million capital spending program for 2007, which includes $275-million for oil and gas development and $25-million on a new headquarters.

The 2007 capital budget released Friday is roughly in line with the company's revised 2006 budget of $280-million, despite considerably weaker commodity prices. Many Canadian oil and gas producers have either reduced their capital budgets or held them steady for 2007 in light of the weaker markets for oil and gas.

“This year's capital development program of $275-million reflects Pengrowth's ongoing commitment to investing in the trust's assets and providing unitholders with long-term, above average results. It also demonstrates Pengrowth's focus on balancing organic growth with asset optimization and prudent financial management,†said James Kinnear, chairman, president and chief executive of the Calgary-based energy trust, in a news release.

The company said the bulk of the budget, $198-million, is targeted for drilling and well completions.

Pengrowth said it expects 2007 production to average 83,000-87,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day, up from its updated 2006 target of 62,500-63,500 barrels a day contained in its November guidance update. The 2007 production mix will be roughly evenly split between oil and natural gas. It forecast its 2007 operating costs at $13 a barrel.

Pengrowth plans to move its head office into Livingstone Place, a 21-story office tower in the Eau Claire section of downtown Calgary, which is scheduled for completion in mid-2007. The company budgeted $25-million for leasehold improvements at the new space. It said the move to the new headquarters will allow it to house all its Calgary-area employees in a single location.

The company said it expects to sell some non-core properties in the first and second quarters of this year, for expected proceeds in the range of $300-million to $450-million. It said it is currently in talks for these sales, which represent about 7,700 barrels a day of production and 25 million barrels of proven and probable reserves.

Pengrowth said its proven and probable reserves at the end of 2006 totalled 298 million barrels of oil equivalent.

 

[AlchemisTO]

Apart from the Centennial place, which looks kind of like the stillborn 2nd design for B/A, everything else that's been posted here in Calgary is very uninspiring. One thing I noticed about Calgary's skyline was that, despite the height of some of their buildings, the enormous floorplates basically ruined the verticality from far away, and made them looming slabs up close. I prefer thin point towers, which are more often residential skyscrapers.