Author Archives: TOblogeditor

Demolition underway at Bloor Street site for 32-storey Exhibit Residences stacked cube tower

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Exhibit Residences

February 3 2013: You can’t see it from the street, but demolition is well under way inside the buildings behind the fences and hoarding at 192, 194 and 200 Bloor Street West, where developer Bazis Inc. will build its distinctive “twisting cube” Exhibit Residences condo tower 

 

Exhibit Residences condo tower

This artistic rendering depicts how Exhibit will appear when viewed from Philosopher’s Walk on the south side of Bloor Street. The  32-storey condo tower was designed by Rosario Varacalli of Toronto’s r. Varacalli Architect Inc.

 

Restaurant razing: Three Bloor Street West buildings that once housed busy budget-friendly restaurants, including a controversial McDonald’s outlet, are being razed to clear the site for construction of the Exhibit Residences condo tower, which will cut a distinctive figure on the Yorkville skyline with its striking stacked cube design.

Four popular restaurants once occupied the low-rise buildings: Pho Hung and China Garden at 200 Bloor West, a Gabby’s Bar & Grill at 194 Bloor West, and an open-all-night McDonald’s at 192A Bloor West. Gabby’s has since relocated two doors down the street to 192 Bloor West (which originally was expected to be part of the condo redevelopment property, but was dropped from the site plan during revisions to the project proposal). Pho Hung closed last June, but its sister Vietnamese restaurants remain open in Mississauga and on Spadina Avenue in Toronto’s Chinatown.  As reported in the Toronto Star, the McDonald’s closed nearly a month ago — on January 6 — after operating on the site for 41 years. But it will eventually return to occupy new street-level premises in the forthcoming condo tower.

 

 Exhibit Residences condo tower location

February 12 2011: The McDonald’s outlet operated for 41 years at 192A Bloor West. The City-owned property had been leased to McDonald’s for only $15,5000 in annual rent. The 192 Bloor West building with the Gabby’s Bar & Grill is not part of the Exhibit Residences condo property, and will remain as is, but the 3-storey structure with the Stretch Fitness centre sign at 194 Bloor West is part of the redevelopment site and is being demolished along with the McDonald’s building.

 

 

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Exterior work nearly complete at 77 Charles

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77 Charles West

January 26 2013: A view of the 77 Charles West luxury condo building from one block to the north at the intersection of Sultan and St Thomas Streets. Work on the building’s green glass exterior is nearly complete and, inside, model suites are available for viewing.

 

Nearly finished: When I last reported on the 77 Charles West condo project in an August 13 2011 post, windows and cladding were just being installed on the midrise building’s ground floor.  Now, the midrise condominium is almost ready for occupancy.

As of this month, the building is completely glassed in, finishing touches to the exterior are nearly complete (apart from one northwest-facing balcony which appears to be getting a major alteration, and parts of the building frontage along Charles Street which still await landscaping), work on the condo suite interiors is well underway, and developer Aspen Ridge Homes has opened a model suite for exclusive private viewings. Residences are still available for purchase, at prices starting from $2.1 million.

 

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Promotions start for controversial 365 Church condo tower in low-rise McGill Granby Village

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365 Church condo

January 28 2013: This sandwich board sign with a rendering of  the forthcoming 365 Church condo by Toronto developer Menkes …

 

 365 Church condo

… has appeared on the development site, currently a surface parking lot at the northeast corner of Church & McGill Streets …

 

365 Church condo

… while this “pre-sale” promotional flyer has been distributed to hundreds of households in the area by a Thornhill, Ont.-based real estate brokerage firm.

 

Sales launch approaching: Promotional activity has begun to rev up for the 29-storey 365 Church condo tower that will rise in the heart of the McGill Granby Village low-rise neighbourhood near Church & Carlton Streets.

A “coming soon to this location” sandwich board sign, bearing an architectural rendering of the rectangular glass building that Menkes plans to build at 365-375 Church Street, was set up just in the past couple of days in the parking lot that presently occupies most of the development site. And last week, a Thornhill, Ontario real estate brokerage firm distributed flyers promoting a website and “pre-sale seminar” for the 365 Church project to hundreds of households in the surrounding area.

But an official full-scale sales launch for the project could be weeks or even several months away, since a legal proceeding concerning the development is due to be heard by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) in mid-March. 

 

 

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U Condos construction reaches street level

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UCondos

This was how the U Condos construction site looked on January 21 of last year.  As the yellow foundation drilling machine continued its work …

 

U Condos

… an enormous mound of soil (upper right) still had to be excavated from the site …

 

U Condos

… but one year later (January 26 2013, to be exact), underground parking levels have filled in the giant L-shaped excavation, and construction of the 2 condo towers and 19 town homes has reached ground level. Building forms for support columns for the ground level of the West Tower (left) already rise above grade.

 

 

Above is a link to a Flickr album containing three dozen photos of U Condos construction since the beginning of December. Click the image once to view a small-format slideshow, or click twice to access the album and view full-size photos instead.

 

Goldring Student Centre enhances streetscape on U of T’s Victoria University campus

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Golding Student Centre

August 14 2011: Excavation was still in early stages when I shot this photo just two and a half months after the official groundbreaking for the Goldring Student Centre at Victoria University on the University of Toronto campus …

 

Goldring Student Centre

… today, 1.5 years later, construction crews have nearly finished applying stone cladding to the exterior of the 3-storey structure on Charles Street West

 

Goldring Student Centre

Architectural illustrations on a billboard at the construction site show how the new Goldring Student Centre and its landscaped quad will look when complete. The building was designed by Toronto’s Moriyama & Teshima Architects. 

 

Looking good: A new student social centre and meeting facility is shaping into a handsome addition to the Charles Street landscape on the Victoria University campus at U of T.

As installation of exterior stone cladding nears completion at the Goldring Student Centre, the 3-storey building already looks completely at home in its surroundings, fitting in well with the McKinsey and Company building next door and the Isabel Bader Theatre across the street — both of which also boast attractive stone finishes. I love the look of both those buildings, and think the new Goldring Student Centre nicely complements its neighbours and enhances the streetscape along Charles West.

 

 

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Hope for new public park dims as Ontario Gov’t sells 11 Wellesley West lands for redevelopment

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11 Wellesley West

Up to three office towers or highrise residential buildings could be in store for lands behind this wooden hoarding at 11 Wellesley Street West, seen here from the northeast at the corner of Wellesley and St Nicholas Streets. Last week, a deal was supposed to close under which the Ontario Government would sell the property and pass ownership to a so-far undisclosed buyer, at a so-far unknown price, for redevelopment purposes. The closing apparently has been delayed until February. See report below for further details.

 

11 Wellesley West

Hoarding along Breadalbane Street at the southwest corner of the 11 Wellesley West site. Since at least early 2011, downtown residents and neighbourhood associations have been pressing the City and provincial governments to create a new park or public greenspace on the vacant 2-acre property between Bay and Yonge Streets.

 

Hopes fading: A real estate transaction that was scheduled to close yesterday may dash many downtown residents’ dreams for the creation of a new public park on a vacant Wellesley Street West site surrounded by thousands of existing condo and apartment units, with thousands more on the way. But the local City Councillor has pledged to continue fighting for green space on the location.

Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam told Tuesday night’s annual general meeting of the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association (CWNA) that Wednesday January 23 was the scheduled closing date for the sale of empty provincially-owned land at 11 Wellesley Street West. Barring an unforeseen event, she said, title for the land would rest in the hands of its new owner by 4.30 p.m. Wednesday.  [Editor’s Note: CWNA board of directors member Paul Farrelly posted this update on the CWNA’s Facebook page January 26: “Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam has been recently advised by the developer that the transaction will not close until the end of February. A visit on Thursday to Land Registry revealed a new construction lien for $650,000 was put on the property by a construction company on Jan 13,2013, but its not clear whether that has anything to do with the delayed closing.”]

Many in the CWNA audience had been hoping Councillor Wong-Tam would announce significant positive developments in her work to obtain at least some of the land for City park space, but she had no such good news to report in her brief update on the subject.  She could say only that the City will continue its efforts to secure part of the property from its new owner. The buyer has not yet been publicly identified.

 

 

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Days numbered for former Bistro 990 building as demolition crews prep site for new condo

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1000 Bay Condos

January 19 2013: The former Bistro 990 restaurant building — once a popular Toronto International Film Festival hangout for celebrities and Hollywood movie industry moguls — is being prepared for demolition to make way for construction of a condo highrise

 

 1000 Bay Street Condos location

This development proposal sign, seen on the site one year ago, describes the 32-storey condo tower that Cresford Developments will construct on the property

 

1Thousand Bay condos Toronto

This illustration, from the Cresford website, depicts how the 1Thousand Bay building will look. The condo was designed by Toronto’s architectsAlliance.

 

Bye bye bistro: The building that housed the once-famous Bistro 990 restaurant for nearly a quarter of a century will disappear from the Bay Street landscape soon to make way for construction of the 1Thousand Bay condo tower.

 

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ETFO office construction nears completion

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ETFO office building

January 16 2013: Construction of the new ETFO office building at Huntley & Isabella Streets is in the final stages with completion anticipated for this coming March

 

ETFO office building

January 16 2013: A view of the 4-storey building from the east, along Isabella Street

 

End in sight: While the bitter contract dispute between the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the provincial government continues to drag on with seemingly no progress or end in sight, the same can’t be said about construction of the new ETFO’s new headquarters at Huntley & Isabella Streets. Building contractors have been making steady progress there, and the new offices are on target for completion this coming March, less than two years after construction commenced.

The ETFO is the largest teachers’ federation in Canada, representing more than 76,000 elementary school teachers and educational professionals across the province.  The organization has been operating from premises in an office building at 480 University Avenue near Dundas Street for years, but had outgrown those premises. ETFO acquired a site at the southeast corner of Huntley and Isabella Streets, in the 180-year-old Upper Jarvis neighbourhood, and hired Toronto’s Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB Architects) to design environmentally-senstive new headquarters that would fit nicely into the predominantly residential area.

 

 

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RCMI Residences rising higher

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RCMI Residences

January 10 2013: Looking up from the University Avenue median at construction progress on the RCMI Residences tower at 426 University Avenue

 

Approaching 30: Won’t be much longer before construction of the RCMI Residences condo tower starts to soar above Zurich — the Zurich Insurance Canadian headquarters at 400 University Avenue, that is.

When I passed by the RCMI Residences building site this afternoon, workers told me that tower construction is now up to the 29th floor, on its way to 44.  (I am certain they were mistaken about the final floor count; the project was approved on October 26 2009 by Toronto City Council on the basis of a September 18 2009 city planning report for a proposed 42-storey mixed-use building.)

 

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Milan Condominium rising higher in Yorkville

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Milan Condos

December 30 2012: Church Street view of construction progress on The Milan Condominium, which has climbed more than 15 floors near the northeast corner of the Church Street-Yonge Street-Davenport Road intersection. Only 8 months ago …

 

Milan Condos

… construction was just beginning to approach ground level at the east end of the project site, formerly occupied by a parking lot for the Canadian Tire flagship store on Yonge Street (white building at rear left)

 

Milan Condos

May 6 2012: Looking toward the Church-Yonge-Davenport intersection of Yorkville from the east end of The Milan Condominium construction site

 

Steady climb: The Milan Condominium continues to make its mark in Yorkville. As the tower steadily climbs taller on a former parking lot site near the northeast corner of Yonge and Church Streets, it is completely changing the look and feel of the area in the process.

Construction was still below grade last May, but during the summer the building began making its presence felt as The Milan’s podium reached three levels on its way to eight.  The tower has since passed 15 floors, and now commands attention from the east, north and west. I have crossed the Church-Yonge-Davenport intersection several times in the past two weeks, and on each occasion have overheard other pedestrians making positive comments about how different the corner looks with The Milan on the rise. (I haven’t heard any negative feedback about the building, but have heard passersby remark that it’s a huge improvement over the unsightly parking facility that previously occupied the site.)

 

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Pit Stops: Photo roundup of below-ground and at-grade construction activity at 21 downtown condo, office & university building sites

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Picasso on Richmond condos

As 2012 drew to a close, some noteworthy downtown building projects had reached different stages of at- and below-grade construction progress. At some sites, like this one for the Picasso on Richmond condo tower, preliminary foundation drilling work was in full swing …

 

Studio on Richmond condos

… while at others, like this one for the Studio on Richmond and Studio2 condo towers just two blocks east of Picasso, site excavation was ongoing.

 

The Yorkville condos

Over the same period of time, underground parking levels were taking shape at some building sites, like this one for The Yorkville condo project on Davenport Road …

 

X2 Condos

… while over on Charles Street East, construction had reached a milestone mark at X2 Condos, where building had started on the ground level of the tower

 

Fall photos: Until condo and office tower construction starts to climb above street level, it can be difficult to track how quickly work is progressing on the dozens of new buildings going up in Toronto’s downtown core. Ground-level views of building sites are often obscured by hoarding and security fences, plus concrete delivery trucks, dump trucks and other construction vehicles maneuvering into and out of staging areas adjacent to construction zones. I find it’s a big challenge to monitor ongoing progress at places where underground levels are taking shape, let alone keep an eye on sites where shovels are just breaking ground or preliminary work is being undertaken to prepare for full-scale construction. The vast number of projects scattered throughout the downtown core certainly doesn’t make the task any easier.

 

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Aura condo construction approaches 50th floor

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Aura condos

December 14 2012: Early morning sunshine glints off the east face of the Aura condo tower under construction at the NW corner of Yonge & Gerrard Streets

 

48 of 78: Bright sunny days have been few and far between in Toronto lately. But thanks to the Aura condo tower under construction at College Park, I can immediately tell if the morning sky is clear without looking out a window or even getting out of bed, for that matter. That’s because my apartment gets completely flooded with brilliant sunlight reflected by the glass windows and cladding on Aura, several blocks to the southwest.

Last week, Aura passed the two-thirds point of construction when work started on its 48th floor. The tower will ultimately rise 78 storeys, becoming the tallest residential condominium building in Canada.

 

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Massive retail complex with condo tower in the works for SE corner of Yonge & Gould Streets

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335 Yonge Street

This illustration, from an online CBRE flyer, shows a mixed-use condo, retail and commercial development project being planned for the southeast corner of Yonge and Gould Streets

 

335 Yonge Street 335 Yonge Street December 25 2012 518 px IMG_0705

December 25 2012: The redevelopment site includes the vacant corner lot at 335 Yonge St., where the Empress Hotel heritage building once stood, and the adjacent 3-storey HMV retail building at 333 Yonge. At rear is the hulking 10 Dundas East restaurant, retail and cinema complex, formerly known as Toronto Life Square, that occupies the remainder of the block bounded by Yonge, Gould, Victoria and Dundas Streets.

 

335 Yonge Street

December 21 2010: A view of the historic Empress Hotel building at 335 Yonge Street only two weeks before it was destroyed in a fire set by a serial arsonist

 

335 Yonge Street

January 7 2011: A demolition machine razes the fire-ravaged remains of 335 Yonge only four days after the heritage building was set ablaze

 

Arsonist sentenced, redevelopment proposed: Only days after an arsonist was sentenced to prison for torching a heritage building at the southeast corner of Yonge and Gould Streets, signs have been posted on the property to advertise potential leasing opportunities in a major retail and condo redevelopment project being considered for the prime downtown site.

On December 14, convicted “serial arsonist” Stewart Poirier, 53, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for setting a blaze that destroyed the historic Empress Hotel building at 335 Yonge Street. The 124-year-old building, which was a city-designated heritage property,  was consumed by a 6-alarm fire in the early morning hours of January 3 2011. The fire-charred ruins were demolished that same month and the property has sat vacant ever since, being used from time to time as a construction staging area for the new Ryerson University Student Learning Centre being built on the opposite side of Gould Street. In the nearly two years since the fire, speculation has run rampant about what type of redevelopment the property’s owner, Lalani Group, might propose for the site. Potential plans for the property now seem to be coming into focus.

 

 

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Construction underway on completely sold-out Pace condo tower project at Dundas & Jarvis

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Pace Condos

December  13 2012: “Sold Out” signs dominate the hoarding around the Pace Condos construction site on the southwest corner of Dundas and Jarvis Streets

 

Pace Condos

December 13 2012: A foundation shoring machine towers above the hoarding along the Dundas Street sidewalk next to the Pace Condos site

 

Sales success: Construction is in full swing on a 42-storey condo tower development that could help revitalize a scruffy southeast downtown neighbourhood that is home to dozens of shelters and social service agencies serving one of the country’s largest low-income communities.

Shoring and foundation drilling machines have been stirring up dust at the southwest corner of Dundas and Jarvis Streets, where Pace Condos will gradually climb skyward over the next three years. The Great Gulf project at 155 Dundas East — which was approved by Toronto City Council just over one year ago — has been a tremendous sales success for the developer. The 384-unit building is completely “sold out,” according to bold signage posted on sidewalk hoarding along the Dundas and Jarvis perimeters of the construction site.

 

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U Condos construction approaches grade

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U Condos

December 6 2012: A view of the U Condos building site, looking northeast toward the intersection of Bay Street and St Mary Street, as construction of the project’s underground parking floors approaches ground level. A row of 3-storey “urban townhomes” will rise in the immediate foreground — the southern flank of the 2-tower condo complex.

 

U Condos

December 6 2012: Construction progress at the southwest corner of the U Condos property, where the 45-storey west tower will rise. Townhomes will extend across this side of the site.

 

U Condos

December 6 2012: Looking southeast from St Mary Street toward the site where the 50-storey east tower will rise. Concrete will soon be poured atop the building forms in the foreground, which are nearly at street level.

 

U Condos

From the U Condos website, this photo offers an October 2012 aerial view of the construction

 

Making grade: As autumn draws to a close, construction of the U Condos tower and townhouse complex is drawing closer to ground level.

Forms have been put in place along much of the west half of the property to prepare for concrete pours that will create the ceiling of the P1 level. That area is where the 45-storey West Tower will rise, as well as a row of “urban townhomes” along on the north and south perimeters of the property. Although similar building forms haven’t yet been installed on the east half of the site, where the 50-storey East Tower will soar skyward above more townhouses along Bay Street and St Mary Street, construction progress on that part of the project isn’t far behind.

Although the two tall towers will become skyline landmarks at the east (Bay Street) end of the University of Toronto campus, the 19 townhouses that will enclose the complex will ensure that U Condos stands out at street level, too. Indeed, they will give the U Condos project a unique look on Bay Street, sharply distinguishing the complex from all nearby condo, apartment and office highrises.

 

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