The World Exchange Plaza is an office / retail building in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It covers an entire city block between Metcalfe and O'Connor south of Queen Street. The first phase of the project was completed in 1991. The twenty-storey building was unusual in Ottawa for its visual flair. The eastern side was marked by a large plaza modeled after the Roman Coliseum. The building opened in the middle of a deep recession and initially had trouble being filled. The 1990s boom solved this and work began on a second tower, which was completed in 2001. This second tower greatly increased the available office space, but also made the structure far less visually arresting.
The two towers hold offices for a variety of companies, including Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG), CTV, The Manning Centre for Building Democracy, Microsoft, Accenture, Telus, EDS, Ogilvy Renault, RBC Dominion Securities, TD Canada Trust, MTS Allstream, and CPAC. Atop of one tower is the TD logo and atop the other is the BLG logo.
The World Exchange Plaza shopping mall is located in the base of the structure. It is home to a number of stores and an Empire Theatres movie theatre, one of only two cinema complexes in the downtown core. The mall is also noted for the life size models of narwhals and belugas that hang from the ceiling.
The complex is currently owned by Bentall Kennedy.
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or exchange:
“Let us be different in our homes. Let us realize that along with food, shelter, and clothing, we have another obligation to our children, and that is to affirm their “rightness.” The whole world will tell them what’s wrong with them—out loud and often. Our job is to let our children know what’s right about them.”
—Adele Faber (20th century)
“... the subjective viewpoint is the only one to use regarding a library. Your true library is a collection of the books you want. You may have deplorably poor taste or bad judgment. Never mind. Correct those traits before you exchange your books.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)