The PwC-YMCA Tower is at the heart of one of the largest urban developments in North America, four times the area of Hudson Yards in New York. The Master Plan creates an entirely new kind of neighbourhood around an urban park, It is mixed use, pedestrian-friendly and transit-centred.

The Tower is part of SmartVMC – a master-planned district of 100 acres.

The “PwC” part of the Tower is a mid-rise Class-A office building situated on the northern half of SmartVMC with PwC Canada as the primary tenant. Designed to accommodate state-of-the-art workplaces, the Tower also offers fast access to a new subway station and two separate bus terminals. The Tower’s architecture marries two volumes: a nine-storey office tower to the south and a three-storey podium to the north. The building’s podium is wrapped entirely in a seven-metre ribbon of fins made of gold anodized aluminum, and linked to two terraces. One of these is next to SmartVMC’s 8-acre urban park and the other faces what will be a major urban park to the west.

The podium deserves special mention because it contains the VMC Centre of Community, which acknowledges the central role that physical and social wellness play in the workplace. In the Centre is a flagship 100,000 square foot YMCA with a gym and a 25 metre pool; a 75-child daycare centre; a new branch of the Vaughan Public Library; and a community dance centre and office employment space. All of this in addition to the headquarters of PwC in Vaughan.

The Tower is targeting LEED Gold certification and is already a major force in making Vaughan’s SmartVMC District a true 21^st -century community.