Monthly Archives: April 2012

Crane removed at ETFO office construction site as concrete pour, steel frame installation concludes

ETFO office building Toronto

April 29 2012: The yellow and black portable crane assists with the removal of the white construction crane from the ETFO office building site on Isabella Street

 

ETFO office building Toronto

April 29 2012: The operator’s cab for the construction crane is slowly lowered to a flatbed truck waiting on Isabella Street

 

ETFO office building Toronto

April 29 2012: A southwest view of the 4-storey building, which is being designed to achieve LEED platinum certification

 

ETFO office building

This artistic illustration, one of several renderings that appeared on a New Building Construction page of the ETFO website,  suggests how the building will look once construction is complete in March 2013. The organization’s headquarters was designed by Toronto’s  Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects.

 

Nicely framed: When I last reported on construction progress at the new Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) headquarters on December 8 2011, the building’s ground floor was still beginning to take shape. Only four months later, construction crews have finished pouring concrete and assembling steel framework for all four floors of the structure, and have also installed windows along sections of the first floor. And just this weekend, crews disassembled and removed the big white construction crane that had towered above the site since the middle of last August.

 

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Planners studying revised design for mixed-use highrise complex proposed for King & Spadina

 401 King Street West

This artistic illustration, provided courtesy of Core Architects Inc., shows the 2-tower condo, retail and office development now being proposed for the southeast corner of King Street and Spadina Avenue …

 

401 King West  original redevelopment proposal rendering

… in place of the single 39-story tower complex originally proposed for the site, depicted in this rendering provided by Core Architects Inc.

 

401 King Street West heritage building

The facade of this 6-storey listed heritage building at 401 King Street West …

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401 King Street West

will still, as in the original plan, be incorporated into the new complex, as depicted in this rendering from Core Architects Inc.

 

401 King West condo development site

The new complex of two towers – rising 21 and 37 storeys, respectively, on an 8- to 11-storey podium – will totally transform the corner site, currently occupied by the 6-floor heritage-listed brick building and a 1-level liquor store.

 

New proposal: Will a condo, retail and office complex with two highrise residential buildings better suit the King & Spadina neighbourhood than a project with only one tower? That’s one of the questions that city planners will be grappling with as they assess a revised development proposal for a property on the southeast corner of the busy King-Spadina intersection.

The site, most of which is occupied by a 1-storey liquor store constructed in 2009 at 415 King West, could clearly handle highrise redevelopment. But it’s the shape, size and density of any new structure to be built there that has been a sticking point with city planners, the local councillor and area residents.

 

 

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Public meeting Tuesday for Ten York condo plan

 

illustrations of proposed Ten York condo tower Toronto

Images from developer Tridel’s website show the 75-storey Ten York condo tower that has been proposed for a former parking lot site wedged between Lake Shore Boulevard, the Gardiner Expressway, Harbour Street & York Street

 

Tight squeeze: A community consultation Tuesday evening will let members of the public tell city planners what they think of Ten York, the proposed 75-storey condo tower that made national headlines when the project was unveiled late last fall.

The public session starts with a 6.30 p.m. open house followed by a meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. at the PawsWay Toronto Centre at 245 Queen’s Quay West.

Typical community consultations include a brief presentation during which a representative for a developer (often, the building architect) describes highlights of a highrise condo proposal and shows slides illustrating the shadow impacts the tower is expected to have on its neighbourhood. That’s usually followed by a comment, question and answer period chaired by the city planner in charge of the file. City planners consider community input when making final recommendations on actions Toronto City Council should take with respect to planning applications.

 

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