August 15 2012:  Construction of Fly Condos viewed from Bathurst Street to the southwest. From this perspective, there appears to be considerable wide open space on the condo building’s north and west sides …

… thanks to a large surface parking lot on Fly’s west flank …

… and another large parking lot to its immediate north and northwest …

… however on its south side, Fly shares close quarters with three CityPlace condo towers, including the east Apex building, left, and the two oval Matrix towers on Front Street …

… while Fly’s east side rises almost smack against the Element condo highrise to its east

Close quarters: At this time last summer, the underground parking levels of Fly Condos were still in the early stages of construction, with months to go before the building reached grade. As of this week, the building has climbed 23 stories above the street — just one level shy of its final floor count. In the process, Fly has made a mini condo tower canyon on Front Street West look and feel even more cramped and crowded than it had been before.

Right now, there’s lots of open space to the north and west of Fly, since the surrounding land is occupied by large surface-level parking lots (who knows for how much longer before they’re redeveloped into condos, too). But it’s a completely different story on Fly’s other two sides.

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