Tag Archives: construction crane

Crane installation imminent at U Condos site

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U Condos Toronto

March 2 2012: A construction crane base pad is being assembled on the site where the 45-storey U Condos west tower will rise

 

U Condos Toronto

March 2 2012: A closer view of the crane pad

 

Crane coming: A construction crane will soon soar above the University of Toronto campus from the vast excavation for the two-tower U Condos development at Bay and St Mary Streets.

Late last week, crews began building a crane base on the site of the project’s 45-storey west tower, between St Mary Street to the north, University of Toronto’s Elmsley Hall and Brennan Hall to the west, and historic St Basil’s Church to the south. At least one more crane will be installed at some point to help build the 50-storey east tower, which will rise just to the northeast of the church, along Bay Street. Besides the two towers, the U Condos development will include multi-level townhouses on the north, east and south sides of the property, along with courtyards, pedestrian passageways, and a park extending south toward St Joseph Street.

 

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Crane comes off YWCA Elm Centre building site

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YWCA Elm Centre

March 7 2011: Two portable cranes remove segments from the main construction crane that helped build the YWCA Elm Centre apartment building

 

Project completion looms closer: You can’t miss the new YWCA Elm Centre apartment building at the corner of Elizabeth and Elm Streets downtown, and not just because it’s located between two very busy downtown landmarks: the Hospital for Sick Children and the Toronto bus terminal. Thanks to the bright blue window and wall panels accenting its 17-storey tower on Elm Street and most of its 10-storey wing along Elizabeth, the Centre is highly visible for blocks in several directions.

On Tuesday, the Centre stood out even more when two portable cranes pulled onto the west side of the property and began taking down the tall white construction crane that had helped build the YWCA complex during much of the past two years. Construction crane removal is always a sign that a building project is nearing completion, and the YWCA website does state that the new facility is expected to open in the middle of this year.

The $80 million complex will be “the largest affordable and supportive housing development for women in Canada” with 300 apartments geared mainly to low-income women and their families, women with addiction and mental health issues, and families of aboriginal ancestry. The Centre also will be “home to YWCA Toronto’s new administrative headquarters and a hub for women-focused events and activities in our city,” the website explains. More information about the Centre and a “virtual tour” of the building is available on the website.

Below are more photos of the YWCA Elm Centre.

 

YWCA Elm Centre

January 3 2011: Southeast view of YWCA Elm Centre from Edward Street

 

YWCA Elm Centre

January 3 2011: South view of YWCA Elm Centre from Chestnut Street

 

YWCA Elm Centre

January 8 2011: East view from the corner of Bay and Edward Streets

 

YWCA Elm Centre

March 7 2011: The yellow crane lowers a large segment that had been detached from the fixed-in-place crane used to build the YWCA facility

 

YWCA Elm Centre

March 7 2011: The bottom half of the fixed crane is visible at right

 

 

Construction crane going up at Cinema Tower site

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Cinema Tower condos

Partially assembled crane viewed from Adelaide Street on Feb. 17 2011


Lights, camera, crane!: A work crew was busy assembling a crane in the Cinema Tower excavation when I walked past the condo construction site at the southeast corner of Widmer and Adelaide Streets this afternoon.

A project of The Daniels Corporation and a design of Toronto’s Kirkor Architects & Planners, Cinema Tower will rise 43 storeys on a site formerly occupied by a parking lot. It will be a new next-door neighbour for another Daniels condominium project,  Festival Tower,  and the adjacent TIFF Bell Lightbox on King Street West.  And in just a few more years, it will have yet another condo tower neighbour when the 43-storey Pinnacle on Adelaide gets built on the parking lot right next door.

With three tall condo buildings crowded together on just one city block, will Cinema Tower be able to distinguish itself and stand out, or will it just blend into the skyline with its neighbours?

“The challenge for each of the neighbouring buildings,” the Kirkor architects explain on their website, “is their response to the TIFF building, especially the height, massing and scale as the City of Toronto defines the Festival Tower as the anchor to the site. The response was to create a tower that provided a facade centred towards Adelaide Street with sheer curved curtain glass resting on a podium that evokes a modern interpretation of the warehouse streetscape of the existing neighborhood.”

I’m anxious to watch Cinema Tower go up;  though I’ve seen only one architectural rendering of the tower so far, I think it brings substantially more class, style and interest to the area than the boring, boxy Festival Tower.

Below are some photos of workers preparing to assemble a crane segment today, along with other pics I’ve taken at the Cinema Tower site in the past three years. There also are two excavation photos from the condo project’s website.

 

Cinema Tower

Cinema Tower rendering on a billboard next to the construction site


Cinema Tower

September 22 2008: CN Tower view of the TIFF Bell Lightbox and Festival Tower under construction on King Street West. The Cinema Tower site is the parking lot in the upper left corner (the two buildings have since been demolished); the Pinnacle on Adelaide will rise on the separate parking lot to the right.


Cinema Tower

September 3 2008: The parking lot that used to occupy the Cinema Tower site


Cinema Tower

Cinema Tower development proposal sign


Cinema Tower

October 20 2010: Early stages of excavation at the Cinema Tower site


Cinema Tower

October 20 2010: Widmer Street view of the Cinema Tower site. When finished, the condo building will block most of this view of the Financial District.


Cinema Tower

Cinema Tower website photo of excavation activity on the condo property


Cinema Tower

Another Cinema Tower website photo of excavation progress. The building in the bottom left corner is the Champs Food Supplies store. The parking lot on the right is the Pinnacle on Adelaide condo tower site.


Cinema Tower

November 2 2010: CN Tower view of the Cinema Tower excavation


Cinema Tower

November 23 2010: Billboards on hoarding next to the condo excavation


Cinema Tower

November 23 2010: Billboards along the sidewalk on Adelaide Street West


Cinema Tower

November 23 2010: Billboards along Adelaide Street


Cinema Tower

November 29 2010: The Champs Food Supplies Ltd store on Widmer Street will be dwarfed by the 43-storey Cinema Tower and Pinnacle condos


Cinema Tower

November 29 2011: Billboards at the Cinema Tower sales office on Adelaide Street


Cinema Tower condos

January 14 2011: Cinema Tower excavation viewed from Widmer Street


Cinema Tower

February 17 2011: Widmer Street closed for Cinema Tower crane installation


Cinema Tower

Work crew prepares a crane segment for assembly


Cinema Tower

Crane segment to be hoisted for assembly above the Cinema Tower excavation


Cinema Tower

Operator of the crane that will hoist the segment onto the construction site crane


Cinema Tower

Crane installation viewed from south end of Widmer Street


Cinema Tower

The partially assembled construction crane above the excavation




Watching T.O. grow

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A construction crane at sunset April 8 2010

Construction season: We Canadians have long joked that our country sees only two seasons: winter and construction. Lately, however, Toronto has been under the influence of a microclimate that produces just one season lasting all year long: construction.

Toronto has been experiencing a building boom of unparalleled proportions since the early 2000s. There have been major construction projects in nearly every downtown neighbourhood, with more on the way. It’s almost impossible to walk more than a few blocks without passing a building site, a sandwich board sidewalk sign advertising a new condo development, or a zoning notice advising the public that a proposal has been submitted to City Hall to develop a specific property. On downtown streets, cement mixers and dusty dump trucks are as common a sight as buses and streetcars. So are scaffolding, sidewalk detours and traffic lane closures. And if you look up, you’re bound to see a nearby construction crane reaching skyward.

Just from my apartment balcony, I can see two office towers, one five-star hotel and seven condo highrises — each more than 30 storeys tall — that have been built in the past two years alone. I can see the tallest skyscraper in Canada, First Canadian Place, getting a $100 million facelift as new cladding is installed on its 72-storey façade.  I can see the historic Maple Leaf Gardens hockey arena being converted into a mixed-use facility featuring a Loblaws grocery store and a student athletic centre for Ryerson University. In just a few weeks I’ll be able to see a new condo tower going up on Bay Street, and by spring I should be able to see as many as five cranes — three for condo projects, one for the Hospital for Sick Children’s new Research and Learning Tower,  and one for a new Women’s College Hospital building.

I think it’s cool to see so much construction activity on the skyline – my balcony view is constantly changing, and there’s always something different to see. But when I walk around downtown and discover how much development is already underway or proposed for the near future, I’m almost blown away. Toronto is growing by great leaps and bounds. I have stumbled across fully-finished new buildings where I saw only a zoning sign or an excavation the last time I passed through the neighbourhood. Or I’ll notice that I can no longer see the CN Tower from a certain area because a tower under construction has completely blocked the view. Entire streetscapes and neighbourhoods change so rapidly, I can barely remember what they looked like before new highrises started going up. I daydream about construction frequently, imagining how the city streets and skyline will  look with dozens of additional skyscrapers.

A few years ago, I began carrying my camera during walks downtown, so I could snap photos of construction projects and sites for proposed developments – just to keep track of what’s going on, and to show friends who used to live here just how much the city has changed since they left. Thanks to my little hobby, I’ve now got thousands of photos of dozens of different building projects. Organizing some of those pics into a blog seemed like a logical next step, so here you have it: The Toronto Blog. If you’re a resident or fan of Toronto, or just an architecture or construction aficionado, I hope you’ll come along as I track the building boom and watch T.O. grow!