The CN Tower marked its 40th anniversary Sunday, and an engineer involved with building the tower emphasized the important role work crews played in bringing the structure to fruition.
“It’s there because of the talents of the people who designed it and constructed it,” Patrick Quinn, a retired structural engineer with WZMH Architects, said.
Quinn worked on the CN Tower four decades ago and calls the 553-metre structure “a work of art.”
“It’s a real landmark for Toronto around the world,” Quinn added.
Early renderings of the CN Tower showed a three pillar design, but Quinn said that was quickly changed.
“There were a tripod of pipes and it looked more like silos than anything else,” he said. “From sketches and starting off with a tripod … the tripod is made into one shaft, a hollow-cored shaft and it takes on a different elegance.”
Construction began February 1973 and more than 1,500 people worked for approximately 40 months to complete the Toronto landmark.
It was opened to the public on June 26, 1976.
Meanwhile, Toronto city officials paid tribute to the landmark on social media.