Calgary Tower, Calgary (must see)

Rising above downtown like a confident exclamation point, Calgary Tower reaches 191 metres into the prairie sky. It first appeared in 1967 under the name Husky Tower, built as part of a downtown renewal push and timed neatly with Canada’s centennial celebrations. The project was a joint effort between Husky Oil and Realty Company Limited, and a few years later, in 1971, the tower was officially renamed—simple, direct, and very Calgary. It also earned early bragging rights as a founding member of the World Federation of Great Towers, which is exactly what it sounds like.

The tower was designed by W. G. Milne & A. Dale and Associates and took just fifteen months to complete, a quick turnaround for something this tall. Structurally, it’s no lightweight: the tower can handle winds of up to 161 kilometres per hour and is engineered to withstand earthquakes. One of its quiet engineering feats is the central column, poured continuously over 24 straight days without stopping—a detail easy to miss, but impressive once you know it.

Up top, the views do most of the talking. The observation level gives you a full sweep of the city grid, the rivers, and, on clear days, the distant outline of the Rocky Mountains. If you prefer your skyline with a side of dinner, there’s the revolving Sky 360 restaurant, where the city slowly turns beneath your table while you stay comfortably seated. It’s multitasking at its finest: eat, relax, and sightsee all at once.

At ground level, the tower plugs straight into Calgary’s +15 Skyway network, an elevated indoor walkway system that keeps downtown connected year-round. From here, you can walk indoors to places like the Fairmont Palliser Hotel, One Palliser Square, and EnCana Place. Whether you head up, dine around, or drift off through the skywalks, the Calgary Tower is less a stop-and-go landmark and more a smooth transition between the city’s past ambitions and its modern rhythm.