Absolute World - Background

Background

On November 28, 2006, during the 24th annual Mississauga Urban Design Awards ceremony, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion announced that an international design competition was going to be held for the building of the fourth tower for Absolute World that would be the landmark tower for the development located at the northeast corner of Burnhamthorpe Road and Hurontario Street. It also marked the first time in 40 years that an international design competition was held by a private development group for a building in the Greater Toronto Area after the Toronto City Hall competition. Over six hundred registrants and ninety-two submissions from architects in seventy countries took part in this competition. On January 30, 2007, an announcement was made at Atrium at BCE Place in downtown Toronto at 12:00 PM informing the public who the six finalists were along with seven honorary mentions.

Submissions were judged by a panel which included architects, civic leaders and the development team members. Those on the jury included:

• Larry Beasley, co-director of Planning, City of Vancouver
• Colin Fournier, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Bartlett School of Architecture, London
• Sol Wassermuhl, president Page + Steele Architects, Toronto
• Claude LaCombe, EI Richmond Architects, Toronto
• Michael Spaziani, MSAi, Toronto
• Danny Salvatore, president, Fernbrook Homes
• Sam Crignano and Paulo Stellato of Cityzen Development Group, and
• Ed Sajecki, Commissioner of Planning and Building, City of Mississauga.

On January 30, 2007, the six finalists announced included:

• Nicholas Boyarsky, Boyarsky Murphy Architects, United Kingdom
• Michel Rojkind, rojkind arquitectos, Mexico
• Roland Rom Colthoff, Quadrangle Architects Limited, Canada
• Sebastian Messer, Studio MWM, United Kingdom
• Yansong Ma, MAD office, China
• Tarek El-Khatib, Zeidler Partnership Architects, Canada

Each of the finalists were given an honorarium to defray the costs of preparing the final submission design for a tower that would be taller than 50 stories and the tallest building in Mississauga when completed.

The public was invited to vote for the favourite designs which were on display at the Square One Shopping Centre as well as online, along with the judging panel. The voting was to stop on March 22, 2007 with the winning design announced from CN Tower on March 28, 2007 at 10:30 AM. On March 28, at 10:30 AM, Yansong Ma, founder of the MAD office, Beijing/China architectural design firm was announced as the winner. Sales were to start in May 2007 with construction beginning later that year, and anticipated completion in 2009. Within days of the announcement, the building had been nicknamed the "Marilyn Monroe" tower due to its curvaceous, hourglass figure likened to actress Marilyn Monroe. Burka Varacalli Architects, a Toronto firm, was hired as MA local partner in April 2007.

On June 14, 2012, the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a non-profit group of architects and engineers, reported that the towers were among the world's best new skyscrapers.