IBM Canada Head Office Building

IBM Canada Head Office Building at 3600 Steeles East

IBM Canada's head offices are currently located in Markham, Ontario and have been there since the early 1980s. The current building IBM occupies is located at 3600 Steeles Avenue East and was completed in 1995. IBM Canada's previous head office was located across the street at 3500 Steeles Avenue East (now Liberty Centre, Markham).

The building rises from four floors on the west to seven floors at the east side. There is an underground ramp that is accessible from the left-most lane on east-bound Steeles Avenue that provides access to the building's parking area at the rear.

Former head offices 1920-1980s

Prior to the 1980s, IBM Canada was located in a sprawling complex at Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East. There are two main buildings at this site. The building located at 844 Don Mills Road was IBM's Canada manufacturing plant and head office and opened in 1951. After many additions to this building a second building on this site opened in 1967 (1150 Eglinton Avenue East) which became the head office and software research lab. When IBM Canada's head offices relocated to Markham, Ontario from Don Mills, their old site continued to operate as a manufacturing and research facility. Both facilities are now owned and operated by Celestica, an electronics manufacturing service provider, as its global corporate headquarters.

Prior to 1951, IBM Canada offices were located on 300 Campbell Avenue and Dupont Street in the city of Toronto's west end.[1] The plant is now home to Wayspa's Canadian operations (as 298 Campbell Avenue). During this period, and well into the 1950s, the company also maintained a downtown office suite located on King Street East immediately opposite the entrance to the famous "King Eddie" Hotel.

Year Address Architect Notes
1917 300 Campbell Avenue
1951 844 Don Mills Road Clare MacLean Addition to south side in 1954
1962 36 King Street East Clare MacLean
1966 1150 Eglinton Avenue East John B. Parkin Associates

New tenants in former Don Mills head office

The Don Mills location is now the main head office and a manufacturing location for Celestica. Celestica was created in 1993 by IBM Canada, during a difficult financial period where many assets were sold off and various means were used to downsize staffing levels.

The IBM software development facilities were not transferred to Celestica and were eventually relocated to the IBM Toronto Software Lab at 8200 Warden Avenue in Markham in 2001.

References

  1. "Toronto plant in 1920". IBM Archives. IBM. Retrieved 2009-05-18.

Coordinates: 43°49′05″N 79°20′06″W / 43.81806°N 79.33500°W / 43.81806; -79.33500

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