Category Archives: city icons and landmarks

Glass cladding installation adds shape & sheen to new Bridgepoint Hospital being built in Riverdale

July 13 2011: Glass cladding gradually encloses floors of the new Bridgepoint Hospital under construction in Riverdale (seen here looking to the northeast from the Gerrard Street bridge above the Don Valley Parkway)

July 13 2011: Cabbagetown view of cladding along the lower west wall

July 13 2011: Closer view of cladding on the lower west wall

July 13 2011: A glass wall segment on the west side of the building

July 13 2011: Cladding installation on the building’s southwest corner

July 13 2011: Cladding along the south side of the building, facing Gerrard Street

July 13 2011: Glass cladding installation in the southeast corner

July 13 2011: A cloud reflects in a panel on the south side of the building

July 13 2011: A construction worker appears to emerge from clouds as he works behind one of the newly installed glass wall panels

July 13 2011: Glass cladding installation along the east side of the hospital building

Glass goes on: One long-familiar city landmark is set to disappear while a notorious historical building under restoration close by is going to get a new lease on life serving a function completely different from its original purpose. The Bridgepoint Health hospital building near the northwest corner of Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Streets has been a landmark for decades. Standing on a Riverdale hillside overlooking the Don Valley, the distinctive semicircular building has been seen daily by thousands of commuters driving up and down the Don Valley Parkway, or crossing over the valley and the Don River on either the Bloor Street Viaduct or one of the east-west bridges farther south that connects Riverdale to downtown. But construction of a new hospital building has been taking attention away from the curved structure for months — and in two years’ time, the old Bridgepoint building will disappear from the landscape altogether.

Originally established in 1860 as a House of Refuge for “incurables and the indigent poor,” Bridgepoint evolved into an institution renowned for specialized care, research and education for complex chronic disease and multiple lifelong illnesses. In the process, it outgrew its dated and inefficient building, and desperately needed to redevelop its facilities to better cope with steadily increasing demand for care and services. In 2006, the City of Toronto approved a Community Master Plan that gave Bridgepoint the green light to construct a new 472-bed hospital facility as part of a comprehensive neighbourhood redevelopment program that will revitalize a vast swath of land northwest of the Broadview-Gerrard intersection, including the historic Don Jail and two heritage buildings nearby.

Converting the historic jail into part of a state-of-the-art health care facility is arguably one of the most intriguing elements of the Bridgepoint redevelopment. Built in 1864, the Don Jail was designed by William Thomas, the same architect who designed Toronto’s St. Lawrence Hall on King Street East at Jarvis Street. The jail was closed in 1977; a “new jail” has been operating right next door ever since, but will itself be closed and then demolished once a new detention centre has been opened in Etobicoke. Restoration work on the “old” Don Jail started last year and is currently in full swing. According to the Preserving the Historic Don Jail information page on the Bridgepoint website, the building exterior is being restored and preserved, and will be linked to the new hospital building by a modern glass bridge. Inside, the building’s rotunda will be restored to its original splendour. The rotunda once featured a glass floor, which at some point was covered over, along with a skylight, which was similarly tiled in. Both will be uncovered during the restoration process, and the rotundra will become a publicly-accessible space for community and hospital events. “On the second level, walkways run the circumference of the rotunda and are held up by wrought-iron gargoyles (dragons and snakes). The walkways, the gargoyles and the wrought-iron railings along the walkways will all be preserved. As well, a group of cells in the basement and the gallows will be retained in their original state for historical purposes,” the website states.

When complete, the Bridgepoint campus will include the new hospital, the Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, Bridgepoint Family Health Team primary care services, and the Bridgepoint Health Foundation. Toronto firms Stantec and KPMB Architects developed the “design exemplar” for the Bridgepoint request for proposals process, while the project’s architects of record — HDR Architects and Diamond + Schmitt Architects — worked from that exemplar to develop a final design that met compliance requirements. Construction of the new hospital commenced in 2009 and is scheduled for completion in 2013. Renovation of the Don Jail began last year and is expected to finish in 2012. Demolition of the existing hospital, along with the Toronto Jail facility to the east of the Don Jail building, is anticipated to take place between April and June of 2013.

Below are renderings of the new hospital building as they appear on the Bridgepoint website, along with photos I’ve taken showing construction progress at various stages.

September 26 2010: Riverdale Park view of the current Bridgepoint Hospital

This architectural rendering from the Bridgepoint Health website offers an aerial view suggesting how the Bridgepoint campus in Riverdale will look in several years with the new hospital (left), and the restored historic Don Jail (right)

This architectural rendering from the Bridgepoint website suggests how the hospital will look when viewed from the southwest on Gerrard Street

Another architectural rendering, from the project website, showing a Gerrard Street view of the new hospital and restored Don Jail

Also from the project website, a rendering that depicts how the hospital will appear when viewed from the northeast, in Riverdale Park

Above is a rendering of the hospital viewed from the east, while below …

… is a rendering showing a view of the hospital from one of the footbridges that crosses the Don Valley to the northwest of the project site

April 27 2010: From the Bridgepoint website, an aerial view of the excavation underway immediately west of the present hospital and the Don Jail

October 27 2010: A photo I took from Cabbagetown, to the west, of three construction cranes at the Bridgepoint hospital construction site …

… and, from the Bridgepoint Health website, a photo showing an aerial view of the construction site on the very same day

Bridgepoint redevelopment proposal sign posted on Gerrard Street East

March 27 2011 : Bridgepoint hospital construction sign on Gerrard Street

March 27 2011: Riverdale Park view of the north side of the semicircular Bridgepoint Hospital. This building will be demolished — likely in early 2013 — after the new hospital is finished and occupied.

March 27 2011: Riverdale Park view of the present hospital, left, and the new facility under construction next door to its immediate west

March 27 2011: Riverdale Park view of construction of the hospital’s north side

March 27 2011: The present hospital building, seen from Broadview Avenue

March 27 2011: Construction viewed from the southwest on Gerrard Street

March 27 2011: Construction progress viewed from the parking lot situated to the southeast of the building site

March 27 2011: View from the southeast of ground floor construction progress

March 27 2011: Construction progress on the south side of the building

March 27 2011: Looking up at the southeast corner of the new hospital building

March 27 2011: Parking lot view of the southeast corner of the new building (left), the present hospital (center) and the west wing of the Don Jail (right)

March 27 2011: Looking northeast from the parking lot at restoration activity underway on the exterior of the historic Don Jail building

March 27 2011: Exterior restoration work on the Don Jail’s west wing

March 27 2011: The central rotunda section of the Don Jail

March 27 2011: The Don Jail’s main entrance and rotunda will be accessible to the public for community uses and public gallery space. it also will be used for hospital events and lectures.

March 27 2011: Architectural details on the front of the Don Jail building

March 27 2011: The “Father Time” sculpture above the Don Jail main entrance

March 27 2011: The upper southeast corner of the Don Jail, built in 1864

March 27 2011: The east wing of the “old” Don Jail and the adjacent “new” jail, which will be closed and then demolished once a new detention centre has been constructed in the west end of the city

March 27 2011: Gerrard Street view of the Don Jail and the “new” jail (right).

March 27 2011: Two historic houses will be retained on the Bridgepoint property along Gerrard Street. New park grounds will enhance this area.

March 27 2011: The west side of the jail’s former gatekeeper house. The building will be retained and incorporated into the new park area.

March 27 2011: The former Governor’s House at 562 Gerrard Street East will be retained and restored as part of the Bridgepoint redevelopment project

March 27 2011: The Governor’s House sits next door to the Riverdale branch of the Toronto Public Library. The library entrance, at the northwest corner of Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street East, is seen here.

March 27 2011: Gerrard Street view of construction on the southwest corner of the hospital building

March 27 2011: Bridgepoint hospital construction progress viewed from the Gerrard Street bridge above the Don Valley Parkway

March 27 2011: Hospital construction viewed from the Gerrard Street bridge

March 27 201: Bridgepoint Hospital construction progress viewed from from a park below the Cabbagetown neighbourhood on the west side of the Don Valley

June 21 2011: Riverdale Park view of the Bridgepoint Health hospital buildings

June 21 2011: Construction progress on the south end of the new building

June 21 2011: Exterior restoration work on the Don Jail building

June 21 2011 The exterior of the Don Jail is being restored and preserved. The Jail will be connected to the new hospital by a modern glass bridge.

June 21 2011: Restoration activity on the east wing of the Don Jail

June 21 2011: Hospital construction progress viewed from the southwest

June 21 2011: Construction progress viewed from the Gerrard Street bridge

July 13 2011: The new hospital rises above Gerrard Street. Below is an online album containing dozens more photos of the hospital construction.

City Scene: A proud architectural icon

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July 3 2011: The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) on Bloor Street sports a giant rainbow flag to celebrate Toronto Pride

City Scene: Reflections of the CN Tower

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July 1 2011: Toronto’s iconic CN Tower reflects in windows on the west side of the new 26-storey PwC office building at 18 York Street.

City Scene: A northeast view of Toronto’s skyline

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The Toronto skyline as seen from Broadview Avenue this morning, looking west from the hillside above Riverdale Park

Pre-Thanksgiving opening in sight for Loblaws store under construction inside Maple Leaf Gardens

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June 14 2011: Carlton Street view of Maple Leaf Gardens, looking northwest

Talking turkey: If all goes according to plan for the Maple Leaf Gardens revitalization project, downtown residents will flock to the historic hockey shrine to shop for Thanksgiving turkeys this fall. Construction of a 70,000 square foot Loblaws grocery store inside the Gardens fell behind schedule this year (it was supposed to be open by now), but I’ve been told that Loblaws anticipates work will finish within the next three months. The goal is to open the store by summer’s end so Loblaws can cash in as shoppers rush to fill their kitchen cupboards for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. On the other hand, a completion date remains far from certain for the Ryerson University Sports and Recreation Centre, which is being built on two levels directly above the Loblaws store, since substantial construction work remains to be done there. When I got a peek inside the ground level of the Gardens a few days ago, I didn’t think the Thanksgiving target would be achievable. When I asked one of the site supervisors if work would be finished by October, he chuckled and said: “As we say in construction, ‘it will be finished when it’s finished.'” But another man in a white hard hat told me that once the “shell” of the grocery store is finished, which he said should happen soon, the grocery store interior will take shape rapidly.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot happening outside the Gardens, too. Scaffolding that has shrouded much of the building’s south wall along Carlton Street is gradually being dismantled as crews complete window installation and work on the brick facade. From street level, the most noticeable change has been the removal of the long blue and silver Maple Leaf Gardens marquee above the main entrance; it will be replaced. Just around the corner, southbound traffic on Church Street is disrupted frequently when portable cranes pull up to hoist steel bars and other building materials for the Ryerson sports complex onto the Gardens roof (a supervisor said that’s how most construction supplies must be loaded into the Ryerson section of the Gardens now that the grocery store has filled out most of the ground level). The dome atop the Gardens roof is being refurbished, too, and once that is done, a new maple leaf logo will be painted on the broad white surface and Canadian flags will be raised to flutter from the empty rooftop flagpoles. Below are photos I have shot since late April of construction activity outside and on top of Maple Leaf Gardens. To view photos of earlier stages of construction, check out my posts from April 14 2011, March 29 2011, and February 2 2011.

April 29 2011: Roof work underway on the north side of the Gardens’ dome

April 29 2011: Another view of revitalization work on the roof of the Gardens

April 30 2011: Scaffolding covers the middle third of the Maple Leaf Gardens south wall along Carlton Street. The Canadian flags and the blue and silver marquee above the main entrance will be removed as work proceeds on the building.

April 30 2011: Scaffolding rises from the marquee above the main entrance all the way to the top of the building’s south wall.

April 30 2011: A view of the main entrance before the marquee is removed

April 30 2011: Window replacement and brickwork is underway behind the shrouds

April 30 2011: The sidewalk and one westbound lane on Carlton Street have been closed so crews can finish exterior work on the Gardens

May 13 2011: Construction workers on the roof of Maple Leaf Gardens

May 13 2011: Workers atop the dome’s northeast corner above Church Street

May 13 2011: A truck pumps concrete through the Maple Leaf Gardens roof and into the Ryerson University sports complex being built on the upper two levels

May 13 2011: Concrete pumper above the southeast corner of Maple Leaf Gardens

May 13 2011: Pumpcrete vehicle delivering concrete for the sports complex

May 13 2011: The long boom of the Pumpcrete truck rises to the roof

May 13 2011: A closer view of the Pumpcrete machine

May 13 2011: A concrete truck outside the Gardens’ Carlton Street main entrance

June 1 2011: A crane hoists a load of steel bars to the roof of the Gardens

June 1 2011: A worker guides the load to the rooftop

June 3 2011: With the roof recovered, brickwork proceeds on the north wall

June 3 2011: Workers replace a window on the Wood Street wall of the Gardens

June 14 2011: A crane hoists building materials to the roof of Maple Leaf Gardens

June 14 2011: Another load of construction material rises to the rooftop

June 14 2011: Two construction workers watch as the crane hoists its load

June 14 2011: Workers watch and wait while the crane hoists supplies to the roof

June 14 2011: Scaffolding rises up the south side of Maple Leaf Gardens

June 14 2011: The scaffolding is gradually being removed as brickwork is finished

June 14 2011: A metal frame (bottom) is all that remains of the long blue and silver marquee that used to hang above the Gardens’ Carlton Street entrance

June 14 2011: Another view of scaffolding above the Carlton Street entrance

Construction of underground parking facility will create new public spaces for Harbourfront Centre

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From the Centre’s website, this artistic illustration suggests how the revitalized Harbourfront Centre will look with new public parks and amenities on the space formerly occupied by a large above-ground parking lot

April 21 2011: Excavation of the existing above-ground parking lot is underway to build a new below-ground parking facility

Site transformation: You can’t walk very far in downtown Toronto without encountering a “revitalization” project of some kind. Whether it’s public spaces like Nathan Phillips Square or the “mink mile” on Bloor Street, retail complexes like the Toronto Eaton Centre, transportation facilities like the Union subway station, or office towers like First Canadian Place, massive renovation and reconstruction projects are either underway, close to completion, or just getting started. Harbourfront Centre is no exception. The 10-acre cultural landmark is getting a major makeover that will create significant new public spaces at one of the city’s most popular waterfront attractions. The most visible work at the moment is excavation of the Centre’s large above-ground parking lot, which will be rebuilt — underground. That move will free up a tremendous amount of space to create new park and public amenity areas around the Harbourfront Centre facilities, which draw more than 12 million visitors annually. Although the parking lot is now a large, closed-off construction zone, it’s business as usual at the various Harbourfront Centre buildings, including Queen’s Quay Terminal, York Quay Centre, The Power Plant and the Enwave Theatre. Completion of the new underground parking lot is scheduled for next spring. Below are some recent photos of the revitalization activity underway at Harbourfront Centre.

November 9 2011: The former parking lot for Harbourfront Centre has been cordoned off with fencing and hoarding as the revitalization project gets underway

November 9 2011: Construction hoarding around the former parking site

A billboard on hoarding around the Harbourfront Centre construction site

Another billboard at the Harbourfront Centre construction site

A diagram showing how the Harbourfront Centre site will be transformed

April 21 2011: Construction site hoarding along Queens Quay Boulevard

April 21 2011: Looking from Queen’s Quay Boulevard toward excavation activity at the northeast corner of the site

April 21 2011: Excavation activity at the northeast corner of the property

April 21 2011: Excavation activity along the eastern perimeter of the property, next to the Queen’s Quay Terminal building

April 21 2011: Construction of the new underground parking facility is expected to finish at around this time in 2012

May 8 2011: Looking northwest at the Harbourfront Centre construction site from the driveway next to the Queen’s Quay Terminal building

May 8 2011: Landscape reconstruction activity north of the lakeside amphitheatre

May 8 2011: Another view of landscaping activity behind the amphitheatre

Toronto finally gets a “wow factor” attraction with CN Tower’s EdgeWalk for extreme thrillseekers

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CN Tower’s new EdgeWalk thrill attraction opens August 1

Harnessed to overhead safety rails, thrill seekers will be able to lean over the edge of the CN Tower roof for the ultimate bird’s eye view of Toronto — from 116 stories (1,168 feet) above the ground

May 8 2011: EdgeWalk safety structure being installed on CN Tower

On the edge: I knew something big was in the works when I saw something I had never noticed before on the roof the main CN Tower observation deck pod last weekend. I was walking along Wellington Street West when a glint of sunshine off dozens of white metal posts protruding from the pod roof caught my eye. My camera’s zoom lens confirmed that something was being constructed on the roof, but what was it? A new window cleaning platform? Probably not. A new addition to the tower’s night-time exterior light show? I doubted that, too. Roof repairs? Perhaps — I could see what appeared to be blue tarps hanging over the edge of the pod. When I got back home, I double-checked other CN Tower photos I had taken recently to see how long the posts had been up there. They didn’t appear in any of my pics from late March, so I figured that construction had started during April so whatever was being done could be finished before Toronto’s summer tourist season gets into full swing. The CN Tower website didn’t mention anything new, so on Monday morning I emailed the tower one of my pics to ask what was going on. I got my answer when I returned home a few hours later and logged into facebook, where my news feed was filled with links friends had provided to an online Toronto Star report about the CN Tower’s new EdgeWalk extreme thrill attraction.

Opening August 1, EdgeWalk at the CN Tower will offer Toronto adventure seekers the ultimate adrenaline rush. Securely harnessed to an overhead safety rail, groups of six to eight daredevils will get to spend nearly half an hour taking a “hands-free” walk along a 5-foot-wide, 492-foot-long ledge circling the roof of the tower’s revolving restaurant, the 360.The harness system will let them lean perilously over the roof edge to see how far they can push their personal thrill boundaries while testing the limits of their anxious loved ones (It puts a whole new spin on the expression, “Look ma, no hands!”).

Though I noticed the EdgeWalk support structure only this past weekend, the project has been in the works for nearly 10 months. Design took four months, while fabrication took another three. Installation is expected to take around two months. Comprised of 36,000 pounds of steelwork, the EdgeWalk structure includes 112 pieces of 5-by-4-foot galvanized steel grated floor and 36 support arms. These arms are linked to two side-by-side 450-foot rails plus two 50-foot rails leading outside; one will be used for the tour group leader, while the other is for each group of EdgeWalkers.

The walks will last 20 to 30 minutes, but with pre-walk safety briefing, the whole EdgeWalk experience will take about 1.5 hours. The tower will offer two to three walks per hour, with up to 30 walks per day. The attraction will operate roughly from May or Otober, and the number of actual walks conducted will vary depending upon weather and sunrise/sunset times. Tickets will cost $175 and will go on sale beginning June 1.

Though this is an adventure I don’t have the guts to try myself, I think it’s a great new feature for the 35-year-old CN Tower — and a long-overdue new tourist attraction for Toronto. For years, I’ve seen newspaper and international travel magazine articles raving about Sydney, Australia’s famous Harbour Bridge Climb, and last year I saw a television program that profiled the SkyWalk and SkyJump at the Sky Tower in Aukland, New Zealand. Toronto didn’t have anything even remotely comparable, and I thought the city needed a new drawing-card with a tremendous “wow factor” to put itself on the map. The best “wows” the city had to offer were already at the CN Tower — the Glass Floor, which was installed in 1994, and the world’s highest glass floor-panelled elevator, which opened in 2008. I checked out the TripAdvisor.com Toronto forums to see what local residents were recommending to visiting tourists, and thought the list was pretty sad. It included the Eaton Centre and the St. Lawrence Market, both of which might wow shopping enthusiasts and foodies, along with Casa Loma, Harbourfront and the Toronto Islands. The only attractions I’ve seen mentioned favourably in international travel publications have been the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Though the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal was named as one of “The new seven wonders of the world” in the April 2008 issue of Condé Nast Traveler magazine, I thought the city still needed something more — something really big and exciting — to catch international attention. EdgeWalk ought to do it.

Below is a CN Tower ad for EdgeWalk, along with some of my recent pics of the tower.

From the CN Tower website, an advertisement for EdgeWalk at the CN Tower

March 29 2011: Installation of the EdgeWalk structure hasn’t yet started, as this photo of the CN Tower — shot from Concord CityPlace to its west — indicates

March 29 2011: No signs of any EdgeWalk structure on the northeast side of the CN Tower, either, seen here peeking from behind The Ritz-Carlton Toronto

May 8 2011: EdgeWalk’s newly-installed steel support arms caught my attention

May 8 2011: A closer look at the EdgeWalk steel support arms

May 8 2011: CN Tower viewed from the corner of King & Bay Streets

Will Bloor Street transformation project finally finish before June 16 “red carpet” opening party?

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September 21 2008: A Bloor Street transformation project banner on security fencing along a construction area near the corner of Bloor & Church Street

May 13 2009: Sidewalk construction outside the Hudson’s Bay Centre

May 13 2009: Bloor Street traffic is squeezed down to two lanes during construction activity outside the Holt Renfrew Centre

November 22 2009: The transformed streetscape outside the Hudson’s Bay Centre

July 25 2010: Bloor Street East looks beautiful with new sidewalks, trees, lush plants and gorgeous flowers between Park Road and Church Street…

… but on the same day, it’s a different story west of Yonge Street, where there is still a huge construction zone in front of the Holt Renfrew Centre

October 3 2010: Construction between Bellair Street and Avenue Road

December 21 2010: This tongue-in-cheek sign at a tree planting location got only one thing right: The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t make it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But as of May 1, there still weren’t any new “leafs” on Bloor Street

April 30 2011: Trees should soon be planted outside the Manulife Centre

April 30 2011: The cheery spring flowers brighten the south side of Bloor between Yonge and Church, but some trees still haven’t been planted…

…while the long stretch of sidewalk adjacent to the site of the future One Bloor condo tower won’t be replaced until construction is finished. That means a few more years of waiting before the Bloor Street transformation is complete…

…but at least the long-overdue sidewalk replacement outside 120 Bloor Street East, seen here on May 1, will be finished soon

Mink Mile Makeover: After four long years of digging, delays and detours, controversy, cost-overruns and even courtroom drama, the $25 million Bloor Street Transformation Project is nearing completion. With luck, the Mink Mile will look marvellous during the big “red carpet” street party that the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area (BIA) will be throwing on June 19 to celebrate the new streetscape. I will be among countless Torontonians breathing a collective huge sigh of relief when the City and the BIA confirm that the project is finally finished. After all, it’s about time!

The upscale shopping section of Bloor Street has desperately needed a major makeover for years. The drab streetscape with its narrow white concrete curbs and pavement looked cheap, not chic, and totally lacked any sense of importance, elegance or sophistication — characteristics one would expect for an area that’s often described as Canada’s “premiere” shopping street. Its banal appearance didn’t complement the beautiful luxury goods and fashion boutiques lining both sides of the boulevard. And it certainly didn’t suggest that Toronto is the world-class city it constantly claims and aims to be. I almost felt embarrassed telling visitors from other countries that Bloor Street was the city’s go-to destination for Prada, Cartier, Louis Vuitton and other high-end luxury retail purveyors. Apart from the expensive shops, there was nothing noteworthy or special about Bloor — it was just a typical, tired-looking downtown Toronto street.

So I was thrilled when I heard that the City and the Bloor-Yorkville BIA were teaming up to revitalize part of the Bloor Street strip, and even happier to see the $20 million project break ground in July 2008. Designed by Peter Clewes of Toronto’s architectsAlliance (in joint venture with Brown + Storey Architects), the two-year project promised to give the City a sophisticated streetscape that would finally match its Mink Mile moniker. I looked forward to seeing the wide granite sidewalks with raised planting beds for trees, flowers and shrubs, the new street furnishings and lighting, and the new public art. I felt it was just what Toronto needed to do to transform Bloor Street into a stylish shopping destination on par with high-end shopping districts in major cities around the world.

The project was scheduled for completion in phases over a two-and-a-half-year period, concluding by the end of 2010. However, in typical Toronto fashion, the transformation work got mired in delays, cost overruns and controversy. The project made headlines early on when several Bloor Street businesses launched a lawsuit against the City and the BIA, claiming in part that the project lacked proper prior community consultation and environment assessments. But as was reported in an October 30 2008 article on insidetoronto.com, the Ontario Divisional Court found no improprieties and ruled the project could proceed. Then construction delays started to drag things out considerably. As the Toronto Star reported on May 12 2010, “unforeseen construction problems” put the project months behind schedule and 23% over budget ($4.5 million). More than half of the cost overrun was blamed on Toronto Hydro, which encountered problems and delays burying hydro chambers under the street.

In November 2010, word went out that the work on Bloor Street had finally finished. In a November 23 2010 story, the online publication Building said the transformation project had been finished just in time for the Christmas shopping season, while in a November 29 2010 press release published on its website, Tourism Toronto stated that “Bloor-Yorkville has enhanced its reputation as Canada’s premiere shopping district with the completion of the Bloor Street Transformation Project.” That news struck me as odd, since I had walked along Bloor Street several times in November and noticed that much work remained to be done. Tree and plant installation had not even started west of Yonge Street, and signs said that wouldn’t happen before spring 2011; meanwhile, a big unrenovated stretch of sidewalk remained as a tremendous eyesore outside the office building at 120 Bloor Street East.

It’s now spring 2011 and there are signs the long-awaited tree and flower planting west of Yonge Street will take place very soon; apparently the BIA is aiming to get all the greenery in the ground by the end of this month. And over at Bloor and Church, crews are finally tackling the ugly section of sidewalk that wasn’t renovated along with the rest of the block.

Though the June 26 street party might suggest the transformation is a done deal, it won’t truly be over for a long time yet. A long section of sidewalk at the southeast corner of Bloor and Yonge hasn’t been touched because that’s where construction is supposed to start sometime later this year or next on the One Bloor condo skyscraper. There’s no point renovating that sidewalk, I suppose, if it’s just going to be covered by hoarding for years and possibly even damaged by construction vehicles and equipment.

Notwithstanding that one missing piece, was the Bloor Street renovation effort really worth the time, trouble, aggravation and pricetag? While I’m sure many frustrated and construction-weary Bloor-Yorkville-area business owners and residents don’t believe so, I think the new streetscape is a wonderful civic investment that will eventually pay off many times over. And even though I don’t patronize those über-expensive designer boutiques, I love walking along the renovated street, and can’t wait to see how it looks and feels this summer once all the trees, plants and flowers are in full bloom.

The only thing I’m not happy to see is the abrupt end of the beautiful streetscape a few dozen meters east of the intersection of Bloor and Church Streets. From there to Jarvis Street and farther east to Sherbourne Street, the street looks dull and, in places, downright tawdry and tacky. The City replaced some dead and dying trees on the south side of Bloor Street with paving stones instead of replacement saplings, and though a few new park benches have been installed on the sidewalks between Church and Sherbourne, ugly and rusting metal planter boxes bring a trailer park trashiness to the eastern end of Bloor. The City should have extended the streetscape improvements all the way to Sherbourne; after all, that intersection is one of the gateways to the exclusive Rosedale residential district. But the City’s failure to do so is typical of its usual half-assed approach to civic improvement. I suppose we’re lucky we wound up with even just a few blocks of attractive, world-class streetscape. We could use a lot more, but this is Toronto, after all.

Below are several more recent photos of Bloor Street.

July 25 2010: Many Bloor Street merchants were furious with the construction delays, but at least Holt Renfrew took matters in stride.

May 13 2009: This photo shows how awful the sidewalk looked before renovations reached the north side of Bloor Street at Yonge Street, outside the CIBC tower.

November 22 2009: Only half of the block between Park Road and Church Street was renovated in 2009; the broken and missing paving stones were left untouched on this wide stretch of sidewalk outside 120 Bloor Street East

April 30 2011: At long last, the eyesore stretch of sidewalk outside 120 Bloor Street East has finally been ripped up, and will be replaced with granite pavers

May 1 2011: The Bloor Street transformation looks wonderful — except outside the Toronto Marriott Bloor-Yorkville Hotel at 90 Bloor East, where a long section of the old concrete sidewalk remains and completely spoils the new streetscape.

May 1 2011: This strip of sidewalk outside the Bloor Street Marriott hotel is a prime example of the City of Toronto’s half-assed approach to civic improvement

April 30 2011: Yellow pansies brighten the southeast corner of Bloor and Church Streets, but the street transformation ends here. From just a few meters past this planter box all the way to Sherbourne Street, the east end of Bloor looks blah.

May 1 2011: Sidewalk renovations didn’t continue along the south side of Bloor Street to either Jarvis or Sherbourne Streets. Instead, the city merely uprooted some dead and dying trees and replaced them with paving bricks, like those seen here outside St. Paul’s Bloor Street Anglican Church at 227 Bloor East.

May 1 2011: A rusting metal planter box on the south side of Bloor Street near Jarvis Street contrasts sharply with the gorgeous granite planters two blocks west

City Scene: Looking up — and down — at CityPlace

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Looking both ways: The CN Tower is viewed through a gap between condo highrises at Concord CityPlace in this photo from March 29 2011 (above). The photo below, taken on November 2 2010, shows the view from the exact opposite direction — from one of the observation decks on the CN Tower.

Revitalizing Maple Leaf Gardens: from the rooftop to the basement, on the inside and out

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April 14 2011: A worker walks on the roof of Maple Leaf Gardens below a row of platforms that descend the building’s big white dome

Top to bottom, inside and out: Construction crews were tackling the giant Maple Leaf Gardens revitalization project on three fronts today: on the roof, outside walls, and in the cavernous interior. But they still have a very long way to go before the inside begins to even remotely resemble the Loblaw grocery store and Ryerson University Sports and Recreation Centre that will occupy the historic building. My last glance inside the Gardens was late last month, when an open construction entrance gave me the chance to take a few photos which I published in a March 29 2011 post. When I passed the Gardens again today and got another peek inside two different construction entrances, I could see machines pumping concrete into forms for upper-level floors and walls, while crews removed segments of a disassembled construction crane from the building. But from those vantage points, it was difficult to tell if much progress has been made in the past three weeks; the interior didn’t look substantially different than last time. Progress has been more visible outside, where work is underway on the roof and on the Gardens’ facades along Church and Carlton Street, where holes are being knocked in the walls, presumably to create windows for the Loblaws store. Below are several pics of today’s revitalization activity.

Maple Leaf Gardens exterior wall work at the corner of Church & Carlton

Workers watch as a machine tears a hole in the Gardens’ SE corner

The wall was exposed last week; today it was being taken apart

The view inside the construction entrance at the Gardens’ northeast corner. Concrete is being pumped for the floor of the third level above street grade.

Construction equipment inside the north end of Maple Leaf Gardens today included an excavator (foreground), concrete pumper (center) and crane (right)

The north side of the Maple Leaf Gardens interior, along Wood Street

A concrete delivery truck and pumper wait their turn outside the Wood Street construction entrance to Maple Leaf Gardens

Construction vehicles on Wood Street outside Maple Leaf Gardens

Platforms descend the SE corner of Maple Leaf Gardens’ domed roof

Nathan Phillips Square revitalization on track, but square needs major spring cleanup & decluttering

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A sunny April 9 afternoon at Toronto City Hall’s Nathan Phillips Square

Scruffy Square: I have passed through Nathan Phillips Square several times since Christmas while busloads of tourists were arriving for a quick City Hall visit. It’s been interesting to watch the out-of-town visitors stream from their buses on Queen Street and wind their way toward the ever-popular winter skating rink/summer reflecting pond and fountain. Many look disappointed when they discover that renovation and construction work on several different parts of the Square make it difficult to get nice photos of Toronto City Hall. They wander around, searching for spots away from construction activity, garbage cans and other visual clutter so they can take pics of each other posing with the iconic clamshell towers in the background. A few couples and families have asked me to take their photo, urging me to “try not to get that stuff in the shot” — referring, of course, to construction crews, building materials and equipment, and temporary fencing around areas where work is in progress. Unfortunately for tourists, “that stuff” is going to be there for at least another year. The city’s long-overdue $43 million Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization project started one year ago this week, but the extensive renovation work is scheduled to continue until at least the middle of 2012. With major construction and landscaping activity underway at three prime places on the Square, most tourists probably won’t get a “perfect” picture of City Hall anytime soon. But I’m hoping they’ll enjoy their time in Toronto so much, they’ll come back once the Square’s makeover is complete. Because the Nathan Phillips Square they’ll see in a few years’ time will look vastly better than the dumpy plaza they’re seeing today.

When I describe the Square as “dumpy,” I don’t mean the messy work areas that, once finished, will immensely improve the look and feel of the entire plaza. I’m speaking about the Square in general, which City Hall has neglected and mistreated for years. I’ve overheard more than a few visitors comment that the plaza looks scruffy, and some out-of-town colleagues have made similar observations. I felt embarrassed when a very-well-travelled friend from South America told me several years ago that he thought Nathan Phillips Square is the “scuzziest” city square he’s seen anywhere in the world. I couldn’t agree more. Whenever I walk through the Square, it reminds me of messy backyards where loads of junk are scattered or stacked all over the place because the homeowners either couldn’t find appropriate places to store it out of sight, or just couldn’t be bothered getting rid of it. The big difference is that Nathan Phillips Square is Toronto’s front yard. And that yard not only has pathetic landscaping in many places, it’s cluttered with a lot of crap, including dilapidated, decades-old benches and picnic tables that look tacky (I really hope those are going to be replaced; the revitalization project website mentions new furniture for the elevated walkways that enclose the Square, but says nothing about seating for the ground level.) Moreover, the Square has become an ad hoc storage area for crowd control barriers, construction materials, and equipment. C’mon, Toronto. If you want to be a world-class city, start acting like one. Clean up your front yard and stop using it for storage. The 1.5 million people who visit the Square each year deserve better.

Thankfully, the city got things right with the podium green roof that opened last spring at the base of the City Hall towers — it’s a wonderful, refreshing urban space of gardens, greenery and tall grasses. It’s unfortunate that more people don’t bother making the trek up the curved podium ramp to check it out, though; there has always been fewer than a dozen people enjoying the park whenever I’ve gone up.

Below are two images from the revitalization project’s website, showing the Square’s new layout and suggesting how it will appear once work is complete and new trees and plants have been put in place. Those are followed by photos of recent construction progress at the Square, as well as pics showing some of the on-site clutter and weather-worn benches and tables.

From the City website, an artistic illustration of how Nathan Phillips Square will appear once the two-year, $43 million revitalization work is completed in 2012

From the city website, a map showing the Square’s new layout

March 7 2011: The second level of the new restaurant starts to take form

March 22 2011: Orange and black tarps draped over the snack bar construction

March 22 2011: Reconstruction of the square’s former Peace Garden location

March 22 2011: West view across the former Peace Garden site

March 22 2011: Southwest view of the former Peace Garden area

March 29 2011: Southeast view of the Square across the former Peace Garden site

March 29 2011: Construction progress on the restaurant & skate pavilion

April 3 2011: Window replacement in progress on City Hall’s east tower

April 8 2011: Work crew removing more windows from the east tower

April 8 2011: The former Peace Garden site hasn’t changed much in months

April 8 2011: Southwest view toward the new snack bar and skating pavilion

April 8 2011: The west side of the Square where the Peace Garden will be re-installed and a new urban forest planted

April 9 2011: A view of the area where the urban forest will be planted

April 9 2011: The west lawn location for the Peace Garden and urban forest. The building to the west is historic Osgoode Hall.

April 9 2011: Construction machines and muck on the west lawn

April 9 2011: Construction extends to the southwest corner of the Square

April 9 2011: Work on the west lawn, just north of the Winston Churchill sculpture

April 9 2011: Northeast view of the reflecting pool, which will get a new seasonal “disappearing” water fountain featuring nine fountain jets

April 9 2011: East view across the pool toward Old City Hall

April 9 2011: Southwest corner of the new restaurant and skate pavilion

April 9 2011: The south side of the new restaurant and skate pavilion

April 9 2011: Another peek at the south side of the restaurant and snack pavilion

April 9 2011: The second level of the new restaurant and skate pavilion. The restaurant will be connected to the Square’s elevated west walkway, which will be eventually be refurbished with new paving, seating and lighting

April 9 2011: Northwest view of the new restaurant and skate pavilion

April 9 2011: Looking south toward the new restaurant and skate pavilion

April 9 2011: Southeast view toward the new restaurant and skate pavilion. The second-floor link to the elevated walkway is taking shape.

April 9 2011: Trees and gardens formerly occupied this space, which has been dug up to permit construction of the restaurant and the new theatre stage

April 9 2011: A solitary tree stands above old park benches cemented to the ground near the new restaurant and skate pavilion

April 9 2011: Some of the old park benches in the construction area

April 9 2011: A long bench on the ratty lawn along Queen Street. New planting and landscape surfaces will be installed in this area to help improve pedestrian flow into the Square.

April 9 2011: Park benches near the Queen Street entrance to the Square

April 9 2011: Old picnic tables stored under the east walkway along Bay Street

April 9 2011: Nathan Phillips Square used to have beautifully landscaped gardens; however, in recent years, they have been allowed to languish and now look quite shoddy. This one is on the east side of the Square

April 9 2011: The old concrete benches next to the pool have seen better days

April 9 2011: The shaded spaces beneath the elevated walkways have long been used to store equipment and material, like these crowd control barricades under the west walkway.

April 9 2011: Barricades stacked under the west walkway

April 9 2011: Tourists have to walk past this makeshift storage area when they enter the Square from their bus drop-off point on Queen Street

April 9 2011: More window panels have been removed from City Hall’s east tower

City Scene: ROM reflects namesake condo tower

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Mirror image: Windows in the Royal Ontario Museum’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal (above) reflect an image of the Museum House on Bloor condo tower under construction across Bloor Street. Below is a view of the Museum House condos building from Philosopher’s Walk to its south, on the University of Toronto campus. Both photos were taken on April 1, 2011.

Grocery store & Ryerson University sports centre gradually taking shape inside Maple Leaf Gardens

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Construction progress inside Maple Leaf Gardens on March 29 2011.

Under the big top: The enormous cavern under the big white domed roof of Maple Leaf Gardens keeps buzzing with construction activity. But there’s an awful lot of work remaining to be done before the interior of the historic hockey shrine starts looking like a grocery store and a university athletic facility. Latest word is that the Maple Leaf Gardens revitalization is scheduled for completion in December but — as is always the case with any construction project — that deadline isn’t cast in concrete and is always subject to change. In my February 2 post about the project, I mentioned what little construction progress I had been able to see when passing the Gardens while one of the construction entrance doors was open. I’ve since had a few more quick glimpses inside and today was lucky to have my camera with me when doors were opened to allow construction vehicles in and out of the building. I managed to snap a few photos which appear below, along with some other recent pics of Maple Leaf Gardens.

The interior arch on the west side of the hockey arena’s famous domed roof is visible above the spotlights. The new Ryerson University sports and recreation centre will occupy two floors under the dome. It will have an NHL-sized ice rink as well as a running track, basketball and volleyball courts, a fitness centre, gym and academic space. The university facility alone is costing more than $60 million.

Maple Leaf Gardens interior viewed from the northeast corner of the building

The revitalized Maple Leaf Gardens will become home to a 70,000 square foot Loblaw grocery store at street level, with one floor of underground parking below it (partly visible at the bottom of the photo).

This is a typical street view of the cavernous interior of Maple Leaf Gardens — a dark, dusty space buzzing with activity as the Loblaw corporation and Ryerson University transform the Gardens into a unique multi-purpose facility.

A concrete pumping truck slowly backs into the Maple Leaf Gardens construction entrance on Wood Street. Earlier this winter, a hole was knocked into the wall to create an extra entrance at this location.

It’s a tight squeeze, but the truck manages to ease inside in less than a minute

February 20 2011: Windows will eventually be installed for the grocery store

Wide windows along the Church and Carlton Street walls of Maple Leaf Gardens will create a more pedestrian-friendly streetscape

February 20 2011: The southeast corner of Maple Leaf Gardens on Carlton Street

March 25 2011: Scaffolding above the Gardens’ Carlton Street entrance

March 25 2011: The boarded-up Carlton Street entrance to Maple Leaf Gardens

Reference library’s new entrance taking shape

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The frame for the Toronto Reference Library’s new entrance cube takes shape at the corner of Yonge St. and Asquith Ave. on March 24 2011

Steel frame installation for the library’s dramatic new glass cube entrance

Architectural rendering by Toronto’s Moriyama and Teshima shows how the new glass cube entrance and improvements to the building’sYonge Street facade will enhance the library’s look and streetscape presence.

Cube construction: External work on the Toronto Reference Library’s $34 million revitalization program has become a lot more noticeable now that the building’s new entrance is taking shape. Most of the renovation work has been hidden by hoarding for months, and progress on the library’s dramatic glass entrance cube at the corner of Yonge Street and Asquith Avenue seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace during the winter. But this week crews have been busy building the steel frame for the cube; today, Asquith was closed to vehicular traffic while a crane hoisted steel beams into place. More details about the renovations can be found in my January 17 post about the library’s renewal and expansion project. Below are photos from February and from this afternoon showing the ongoing renovation work on the Yonge Street side of the library building.

February 23 2011: No sign of progress yet on construction of the new entrance

February 23 2011: A three-storey glass cube entrance at this corner will be the star attraction of the library’s five-year renewal and expansion project

February 23 2011: Hoarding blocks views of street-level renovations to the facade, but work on the3rd-floor roof above Yonge Street is more apparent.

February 23 2011: Renovation activity is taking place along the full length of the narrow third-floor roof on the Reference Library’s Yonge Street facade

February 23 2011: Yorkville Avenue view of the Toronto Reference Library.

March 24 2011: A crane lifts long steel bars being used to construct the frame for the three-storey entrance cube

March 24 2011: The new glass entrance and windows along the Yonge Street facade will improve the building’s appearance as well as its relation to the streetscape

March 24 2011: Sections of the entrance cube’s frame are hoisted into place

March 24 2011: The steel frames are lowered behind a rendering of the entrance

12 floors finished, 60 more to lose their marbles as First Canadian Place gets a new glass face

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First Canadian Place office tower recladding progress viewed from the northwest corner of York & Adelaide Streets on March 14 2011

Fresh new face: I think it’s safe to say the First Canadian Place (FCP) office tower rejuvenation program is the city’s highest-profile construction project — simply since exterior work on the 72-storey building’s top floors has been visible across much of the city since the beginning of 2010.

When it opened in 1975, FCP instantly became a Toronto landmark — and the tallest skyscraper in all of Canada. But even though it has held the title as the country’s tallest building ever since, FCP started losing its lustre in the mid-1990s when its bright white marble wall began to discolour and deteriorate.

When built, the tower was clad in 45,000 white Carrara marble panels that looked striking, but lacked durability. Over the next 20 years, city smog and the harsh extremes of the Canadian climate took their toll, causing the panels to darken, crack and warp. The building’s owners inspected the marble regularly, replacing any panels that had become loose or damaged, but the stark contrast of shiny new marble slabs beside original, greyed panels gave the tower’s exterior a mottled, dirty appearance.

Marble panel plunged from 55th floor

What looked like merely a cosmetic concern became a safety issue in May 2007 when a panel weighing between 200 and 300 pounds fell from the 55th floor during a wind storm, plunging to the roof of FCP’s third-floor mezzanine. The incident made headlines after police closed surrounding streets as a precaution, disrupting streetcar service and causing severe traffic congestion throughout the downtown core. Things quickly got back to normal in the Financial District once repairs were made; meanwhile, engineers inspected the building exterior to ensure there weren’t any more marble slabs at risk of falling off the tower.

FCP wasn’t the only skyscraper having problems with its marble skin; in fact, the 83-storey Aon Centre in Chicago — designed by Edward Durell Stone, also the architect of FCP — experienced similar issues with its Carrara marble cladding, and ultimately replaced its entire facade with granite.

$100 million rejuvenation project started in 2009

In the late 2000s, the owners of FCP — Brookfield Properties — decided it was time to give their tower a facelift, too, as part of a multifaceted building rejuvenation program that would upgrade the building’s mechanical, electrical and lighting systems as well. With a total pricetag of more than $100 million, the rejuvenation project began in the late summer of 2009, and will continue until the end of 2012. The actual recladding work started in early 2010, and is scheduled to conclude at the end of this year. All 45,000 marble slabs are being replaced with white fritted laminated glass panels, a process that takes about three weeks per floor. (Ceramic fritting is a glazing that is baked onto glass.)

Meanwhile, the marble removed from the tower is being repurposed for landscaping and community arts projects. (In a December 31, 2010 article, “The upside of losing all your marbles,” the Globe and Mail revealed how some Toronto artists are incorporating pieces of FCP’s marble into sculptures and other projects.)

Below are some of my pics showing progress on the recladding progress during the past 13 months. A separate post below that features a series of photos I’ve taken of FCP and the downtown skyline at various times during the past 10 years, including some showing the tower before it began shedding its skin, of course, and others during the rejuvenation process.

This November 9 2010 photo shows how the mix of old and new marble panels has given the First Canadian Place exterior a mottled appearance.

Discoloured marble panels on the tower’s north side November 29 2010

January 9 2010: Rows of marble panels have been removed above the 72nd floor

March 9 2010: More marble panels have been removed from the top of the tower. Meanwhile, the variations between old and new marble tiles are starkly evident in this view of upper floors on the skyscraper’s north side.

April 13 2010: A bank of external construction elevators rises up the east side of the tower. There is another bank of elevators on the building’s west wall.

May 8 2010: Work on the tower exterior is visible throughout the downtown core.

June 11 2010: Movable scaffolding for the recladding project’s work team is being wrapped around the top two floors of the tower.

July 21 2010: The scaffolding looks like a crown atop First Canadian Place as the tower takes on a golden glow in the late afternoon sunshine.

August 6 2010: The scaffolding on the north wall has shifted down a few feet.

August 26 2010: New glass cladding is visible at the top of the north wall.

September 8 2010: The top row of fritted glass panels is now fully visible.

October 7 2010: More rows of the new glass panels have been revealed.

October 20 2010: The fresh new top floor is fully revealed.

November 2 2010: A CN Tower view of First Canadian Place. Notice that the scaffolding still covers half of the 70th floor on the tower’s south side…

… but within mere minutes, the right-hand section of the scaffolding has been lowered to the next level…

… and then the center section drops down. Two construction workers can be seen standing on the middle top of the metal structure.

November 15 2010: Nearly five full floors have been finished.

November 29 2010: Bronze panels accent the tower’s inset corners.

December 17 2010: The top eight floors of the tower have now been reclad.

January 3 2011: Early morning view of First Canadian Place

February 3 2011: The work elevators rising up the west side of the tower.

February 18 2011: Recladding has been completed on nearly 11 full floors.

March 7 2011: Top of the tower’s west side viewed from street level

March 14 2011: First Canadian Place viewed from York Street yesterday.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.

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Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing Building Boom.

Category Archives: city icons and landmarks

Glass cladding installation adds shape & sheen to new Bridgepoint Hospital being built in Riverdale

City Scene: A proud architectural icon

City Scene: Reflections of the CN Tower

City Scene: A northeast view of Toronto’s skyline

Pre-Thanksgiving opening in sight for Loblaws store under construction inside Maple Leaf Gardens

Construction of underground parking facility will create new public spaces for Harbourfront Centre

Toronto finally gets a “wow factor” attraction with CN Tower’s EdgeWalk for extreme thrillseekers

Will Bloor Street transformation project finally finish before June 16 “red carpet” opening party?

City Scene: Looking up — and down — at CityPlace

Revitalizing Maple Leaf Gardens: from the rooftop to the basement, on the inside and out

Nathan Phillips Square revitalization on track, but square needs major spring cleanup & decluttering

City Scene: ROM reflects namesake condo tower

Grocery store & Ryerson University sports centre gradually taking shape inside Maple Leaf Gardens

Reference library’s new entrance taking shape

12 floors finished, 60 more to lose their marbles as First Canadian Place gets a new glass face

Tracking Downtown Toronto's AmazingBuilding Boom.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.