A somewhat out-of-place tower rises high above a kitchen and bath showroom in Mississauga, but this landmark has a fascinating past that long predates the current business on site.
Anyone who has ever ventured through the Queensway and Dixie area at the eastern edge of Mississauga has likely seen the tall tower rising high above the AyA Kitchens and Baths showroom at 1551 Caterpillar Road.
But why does a home renovation business need a huge tower?
The 18-storey structure — far taller than anything else in the neighbourhood — topped with the illuminated AyA Sign, may look like a giant advertisement today, but it is actually a relic from long before the current business moved in.
This large structure is a former elevator test tower originally constructed for the now-defunct Dover Corporation, an elevator manufacturer that operated from 1955, becoming one of the top global elevator companies until it was bought out in 1999.
Dover was based in Toronto for much of the 20th century before relocating to Mississauga in the early 1990s. An existing industrial building between Dixie Road and Etobicoke Creek, just north of The Queensway, was given an overhaul with a distinctively ’90s Postmodern aesthetic, along with the addition of an 18-storey elevator test tower.
However, this new facility would only be in operation for a few years before the company was absorbed by Thyssen Elevator Limited and the site was closed.
While elevators have not been tested on this site for over a quarter-century, the former Dover elevator testing tower remains the only one of its kind in Canada to this day.
Similar operations are now carried out abroad. Dover’s successor, thyssenkrupp Elevator Canada, houses its Canadian nerve centre at 270 Finchdene Square in Scarborough, while elevator testing is conducted off-site at the much larger 420-foot-tall test tower at thyssenkrupp Elevator’s new North American headquarters in Atlanta.
AyA Kitchens and Baths took over the former Dover Elevator tower in the early 2000s, transforming the attached 180,000 sq. ft. building into a technologically-advanced cabinet manufacturing plant and head office, expanding with a kitchen/bath showroom in 2014.
So, what does a kitchen and bath company do with an elevator test tower no longer needed for elevator testing?
Whether you’re a low-level manager, high-ranking executive, or full-on Bond villain, chances are you are thinking “corporate lair,” and you would be correct with that guess.
The former elevator test tower has been transformed into a corporate reception area and showpiece display kitchen offering commanding views of the surrounding cityscape, though no photographs of this space are publicly available.
blogTO has reached out to AyA Kitchens and Baths via email for more information on the tower’s upper interior space.
