Category Archives: Hospitals and health care institutions

Winter building pics: March 2013

My March 2013 album on Flickr features more than 500 photos showing dozens of downtown construction projects and building sites. Click once on the image above to view a small-format slideshow of the pictures, or click twice to access the actual album where you can view individual full-size photos with captions.

Frozen fingers: It’s only a few days into spring and I’m still sorting through hundreds of building and construction photos I took during the winter. What has struck me the most is how gloomy and grey the city looked most of the time. Sunny, clear days were few and far between — and when they came, it was usually too bitterly cold and windy for me to risk freezing my fingers by wandering around with my camera.

I did manage a few long photo walks, though, and have been gradually posting the pics in albums on thetorontoblog.com’s Flickr photostream. Above is a link to my fourth winter photo album, March 2013.

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Winter building pics: February 2013

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Above is a link to my February 2013 Flickr album of building and construction photos I shot during walks in the downtown area. Click once on the image to view a small-format slideshow of the pictures, or click twice to access the album directly on Flickr and see full-size photos and captions.

Winter building pics: January 2013

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Above is a link to my January 2013 Flickr album of building and construction photos I shot during walks in the downtown area. Click once on the image to view a small-format slideshow of the pictures, or click twice to access the album directly on Flickr and see full-size photos and captions.

Winter building pics: December 2012

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Above is a link to my December 2012 Flickr album of building and construction photos I shot during walks in the downtown area. Click once on the image to view a small-format slideshow of the pictures, or click twice to access the album and see full-size photos and captions.

Demolition of former nursing residence & hotel at 90 Gerrard Street West continues steady pace

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August 25 2012: Demolition progress on The Residence building seen from the southeast at the corner of Gerrard and Laplante Streets

Shell shock: Judging by the correspondence I’ve received, and several comments on earlier posts, a lot of people are upset and dismayed that The Residence building at 90 Gerrard Street West is being dismantled.

The 19-storey concrete and glass tower at Elizabeth & Gerrard Streets, directly across the street from Toronto General Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children, was originally built as a residence for nursing students in 1969. More recently, it operated as The Residence, a budget hotel that was popular with patients (and their families) coming into the city for medical treatment at Toronto General and Sick Kids, and at the nearby Mt Sinai and Princess Margaret hospitals.

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Former nursing student residence & budget hotel at 90 Gerrard West coming down in pieces

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The Residence at 90 Gerrard Street West, seen here on April 27 2012 when most of the glass had been removed from its windows …

… is gradually being taken apart, piece by piece …

… after which time the demolished building eventually be replaced by a new lecture hall facility for the University Health Network

Midrise deconstruction: The piece-by-piece demolition of a former residence for nursing students is taking some people in downtown Toronto by surprise.

On Wednesday afternoon, I watched as crews removed sections of the concrete exterior of the 19-storey building at 90 Gerrard Street West, a midrise tower that was originally constructed as a nursing student residence in 1969 and, in recent years, operated as a budget hotel called The Residence. (The accommodations had been popular with patients — and their families — who had to come to Toronto for appointments and treatments at Toronto General Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children across the street, as well as other downtown medical institutions.)

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Snow day! Photos of some downtown construction sites after a light morning snowfall dusts Toronto

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The vast construction zone for the new West Don Lands Community is seen in this image taken by a Waterfront Toronto webcam this afternoon. The 80-acre site was blanketed with light snow this morning, less than 24 hours after Waterfront Toronto and Infrastructure Ontario announced that long-awaited construction is finally commencing on the new mixed-use residential community a short distance east of the downtown business district. The highrise under construction at upper left is the 40-storey Clear Spirit condo tower in the nearby Distillery District.

Construction progress on the 75-storey Aura at College Park condo tower is seen in this image captured from a webcam on the Aura website.

Excavation activity at the Nicholas Residences condo site near Yonge & Bloor

Shoring work continues on the FIVE Condos site at Yonge & St Joseph Streets

Snow-covered steel I-beams and construction equipment on the FIVE Condos site

A worker directs traffic past the ETFO office building site on Isabella Street

Another view of progress on the 4-storey ETFO office headquarters

Overlooking the long, rectangular excavation for the 49-storey X2 Condos tower under construction at the southwest corner of Jarvis & Charles Streets

Crews have nearly completed digging the deep excavaton for the X2 Condos tower. The construction crane is expected to be installed soon

Interior demolition work continues on the eight-storey office building at 45 Charles Street East, future site of the Chaz.Yorkville condo tower.

Despite the light snow cover, a drilling rig (rear right) was busy jackhammering a concrete pad at the northwest corner of the Chaz.Yorkville site

Two major construction projects at the southwest corner of Bay & Grosvenor Streets: Burano Condos, left, and the Women’s College Hospital redevelopment.

The new Women’s College Hospital building has risen five floors so far on what was formerly the site of the hospital’s multi-level parking garage

The soaring glass atrium on the north (Grosvenor Street) side of Burano Condos

A view of the atrium from the north side of Grosvenor Street

A publicly-accessible piazza, designed by landscape architects Janet Rosenberg + Associates, will be constructed next to the atrium

The sharply angled glass panels of the atrium provide a striking contrast to the condo tower that soars 50 storeys straight up above it

A Harbourfront Centre webcam image of progress on the new underground parking garage for York Quay Centre. Concrete floor slabs have been poured for the 3 below-grade levels, and work will start soon on the ground-level roof over the structure. New outdoor public spaces will be created on top.

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

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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.

New Casey House HIV/AIDS health care building will restore 1875 heritage mansion at Jarvis & Isabella

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July 6 2011: This city heritage-designated mansion at 571 Jarvis Street — the William R. Johnston House from 1875 — will be restored and incorporated into the Casey House redevelopment proposed for the corner of Jarvis & Isabella Streets …

… however, this coach house at 119 Isabella Street (seen on March 1 2011) would be demolished during construction of the new HIV/AIDS care facility. A city heritage-listed property, the coach house was built in 1889.

Casey House: The city has scheduled a community consultation meeting for tomorrow evening (July 7) to obtain neighbourhood input on a redevelopment proposal that would see a new Casey House HIV/AIDS health care facility constructed along the south side of Isabella Street, between Jarvis and Huntley Streets. The new building would include a five-storey structure rising behind and attached to the William R. Johnston House at 571 Jarvis Street, a brick mansion built in 1875. Used as offices for decades, the grey-painted mansion (affectionately called “The Grey Lady” by neighbourhood residents) would be restored as part of the Casey House redevelopment. From its 22.7-metre peak height behind the mansion, the new building would terrace down to three storeys toward Huntley Street, where the entrance to an underground parking garage would be situated — directly across the street from the existing Casey House hospice at the southeast corner of Huntley & Isabella.

Although Toronto heritage building enthusiasts will be relieved that the historic mansion will be saved and incorporated into the new facility, they undoubtedly will be dismayed that a handsome 122-year-old coach house at 119 Isabella Street will be destroyed during construction. Built at the southwest corner of Huntley & Isabella in 1889, the coach house is currently used by Casey House for administration and training space. Since it couldn’t be included in the new building design, its demise appears likely — unless an individual or organization with property to which the coach house could be relocated steps in to save it.

Established as Canada’s first free-standing HIV/AIDS hospice in 1988, Casey House is a 13-bed specialty hospital funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Community programming initiatives, including a Home Hospice Program, counselling, nursing and outreach services, are funded primarily through donations to Casey House Foundation.

The new building will enable Casey House to double its capacity to meet increasing needs for its services, and to develop a Day Health Program that the Casey House website says will be “a centre of excellence in HIV/AIDS clinical care, education and research.” To this end, Casey House is undertaking a capital redevelopment campaign to raise $10 million. (Final renderings aren’t publicly available yet because Casey House needs approval from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care before it proceeds with detailed building designs, CEO Stephanie Karapita told me today.)

Below are photos I’ve taken in recent months of the Casey House redevelopment site, including the mansion at 571 Jarvis and the coach house on Isabella Street, along with the present Casey House facility at 9 Huntley Street. The community consultation meeting about the Casey House project is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Wellesley Community Centre.

July 6 2011: The 571 Jarvis Street mansion which will become part of the new Casey House facility, seen here from the west side of Jarvis this morning.

July 6 2011: Lush foliage obscures street views of the front entrance to the William R. Johnston House at 571 Jarvis Street

April 7 2011: The 571 Jarvis Street mansion viewed from the southwest corner of Jarvis and Isabella Streets. The new Casey House facility would rise above “The Grey Lady” mansion and extend east to Huntley Street.

April 7 2011: A view from the west side of Jarvis Street toward the Casey House development site. The new health care building will rise in the area that appears in the middle of this photo (behind the tall evergreen tree).

April 7 2011: The enormous Rogers Communications office building looms large above the 571 Jarvis Street mansion (right)

April 5 2011: A spring look at The Grey Lady mansion from Jarvis Street, before seasonal greenery obscures much of it from view

April 30 2011: A rental apartment building at 10 Huntley Street rises behind the 571 Jarvis Street mansion.

April 30 2011: Looking toward the south side of 571 Jarvis Street from the parking lot behind the 10 Huntley Street apartment building. The highrise building at right rear is the James Cooper Mansion Condos, a project noteworthy for having incorporated a restored historic mansion into the new building.

April 30 2011: A closer view of the south side of The Grey Lady mansion

April 30 2011: Southeast view of The Grey Lady mansion from the 10 Huntley Street apartment building parking lot next door

April 30 2011: Two 11-storey rental apartment buildings face the Casey House building site from the west side of Jarvis Street.

March 1 2011: The north side of The Grey Lady mansion along Isabella Street

March 1 2011: A view of The Grey Lady from the north side of Isabella Street

March 1 2011: Windows overlooking Isabella Street. The exterior of The Grey Lady will get a much-needed sprucing up when the new Casey House is built.

March 1 2011: The property between 571 Jarvis Street (right) and the 119 Isabella Street coach house (partially visible at left) is presently used for parking. The new Casey House building will occupy this entire area.

March 1 2011: Pedestrians will access the new building from Isabella Street

April 30 2011: The east side of The Grey Lady mansion

April 30 2011: Looking towards The Grey Lady mansion from the east side of the parking lot near the coach house that will be demolished

April 30 2011: Besides the huge Rogers Communication headquarters, several townhouses and a 110-year-old building (far right) sit on the north side of Isabella Street, directly opposite the Casey House development site.

February 28 2011: The west side of the 119 Isabella Street coach house

April 30 2011: Another view of the west side of the coach house

February 28 2011: The courtyard entrance to the coach house, off Isabella Street

March 1 2011: A view of the coach house from the northeast corner of Huntley & Isabella Streets

March 1 2011: The Samuel R Wickett House sits at 122 & 124 Isabella Street, directly across the street from the coach house. It was constructed in 1901.

March 1 2011: The present Casey House hospice building at the southeast corner of Huntley and Isabella Streets. No decision has yet been made as to what will be done with this property once the new Casey House facility has been built.

April 2 2011: The north side of Casey House hospice, facing Isabella Street

April 2 2011: The west side of Casey House Hospice at 9 Huntley Street

April 2 2011: A Huntley Street view of the coach house that will be demolished when the new Casey House building is constructed. This will be the location of the entrance to the underground parking garage.

St Mike’s opens research, healthcare centres at new Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute building

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West view from along Shuter Street of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute (right) and the tubular pedestrian bridge linking it to St. Michael’s Hospital. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Gyde/Diamond and Schmitt Architects.

Centre celebration: St Michael’s Hospital yesterday celebrated the official opening of its new Keenan Research Centre and Li Ka Shing International Healthcare Education Centre — facilities collectively known as the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute. The hospital says the Centres “are among the first in the world — and the only ones in Toronto — specifically designed to bring together researchers, educators and clinicians to brainstorm ideas across professions and to take best practices and research discoveries to patient bedsides faster.”

The Keenan Research Centre occupies 25,200 square metres (271,300 square feet) with three floors of flexible, open concept wet laboratories and two floors for dry lab study in a wide range of medical research programs. 400 research staff will work there. The building’s education component includes a library, classroom and meeting facilities. These are linked by multi-level lounges that sit above Victoria Lane and are connected by an elegant wishbone staircase, providing a focal point for informal encounters. A 200-seat raked auditorium also serves as a conference centre and lecture hall.

The nine-storey building was designed by Jack Diamond, a principal with Toronto’s Diamond and Schmitt Architects. It occupies the north side of Shuter Street between Victoria and Bond Streets, and is connected to St Michael’s Hospital by a 21-meter tubular glass pedestrian bridge.

A Diamond and Schmitt press release says design highlights of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute building “include a glass curtainwall, which allows natural light to penetrate deep into the building. This serves not only to create an open and engaging workspace but also a visibly accessible connection into the world of medical research for the community at large. Solar shading placed horizontally on the south façade and vertically on the west façade minimizes heat gain and is made of glass instead of the typical metal shades so as not to impede the views to landmark buildings such as St. Michael’s Cathedral and Massey Hall. Other sustainable features include energy recovery systems on air handling units, reflective roofing, light sensors and a high use of recycled content in materials.”

Sea of scaffolding rises at corner of Bay & Elm as SickKids Tower climbs toward third floor

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April 30 2011: Stacks of scaffolding rise more than two storeys high at the SickKids Research & Learning Tower construction site

April 30 2011: A construction worker walks the plank in a thicket of scaffolding at the SickKids Research & Learning Tower construction site

Going from ground to third floor: Since they reached street grade 46 days ago, crews at the SickKids Research & Learning Tower have maintained a steady pace of above-ground construction milestones. On April 19, they completed the placement of the ground floor slab, along with vertical walls and columns between there and the second floor. Two weeks ago, they finished pouring the second level concrete floor slab, and were well on their way to erecting formwork, reinforcing steel and concrete for the vertical walls and columns between the second and third floors. Meanwhile, progress continues on the southwest corner of the building site, where the SickKids Tower first began noticeably taking shape above Elm Street. About 14 days ago, the workers completed concrete placement for the second floor auditorium, then finished installing the acoustical floating floor. Plenty of activity has been happening where the sun doesn’t shine, too. The interior masonry walls of the P3 level were completed two weeks ago, with installation of mechanical and electrical rough-ins progressing well. Interior masonry walls were 75% complete on P2, while on P1 the mechanical and electrical overhead rough-ins were well underway and work on the interior masonry walls was beginning. But it’s above ground, of course, where the work is really starting to make an impact on the surrounding streetscape. With construction approaching the third floor, the building activity is obvious to passersby on Walton, Bay and Elm Streets, and is noticeable from a block away in each direction. Soon, the tower will start blocking some sightlines, including views of the CN Tower from the Bay & Gerrard area. Below is a construction webcam photo showing building activity at the Tower site this afternoon, along with photos I snapped at the beginning and the end of April.

May 3 2011: SickKids Research & Learning Tower webcam view of construction

April 8 2011: Forms for the second floor appear above the Bay Street hoarding

April 8 2011: North view of the tower site from the corner of Bay & Elm Street

April 8 2011: Forms are in place for the concrete pour for the second floor

April 30 2011: Second floor construction viewed from Walton Street looking south

April 30 2011: Construction progress viewed from the northeast corner of Bay & Walton Streets. Won’t be long before the tower blocks this view of the CN Tower.

April 30 2011: Vertical forms rise from the second floor of the tower, viewed here from the east side of Bay Street just below Walton Street

April 30 2011: West view of the site from the opposite side of Bay Street

April 30 2011: Construction view from the southeast corner of Bay & Elm Streets

April 30 2011: Elm Street view of stacks of scaffolding rising on the site

April 30 2011: Soon, the construction will block Elm Street views of the LuCliff tower at Bay & Gerrard Street (rear) and the College Park condo towers at 777 Bay Street (right rear)

April 30 2011: A construction worker is barely visible as he stands in one of the stacks of scaffolding at the southeast corner of the Tower construction site

April 30 2011: North view of the construction site from Elm Street

April 30 2011: The stacks of scaffolding viewed from Elm Street

April 30 2011: Elm Street view of the auditorium construction at the southwest corner of the SickKids Tower site

April 30 2011: Auditorium construction at the tower’s southwest corner

April 30 2011: Elm Street view of the auditorium construction progress

April 30 2011: Looking up from Elm Street at the southwest side of the building

April 30 2011: Looking east along Elm Street at the tower’s ground level

April 30 2011: Looking northeast on Elm Street toward Bay Street

April 30 2011: The SickKids Tower viewed from the southwest corner of Bay & Elizabeth Streets

2nd crane installed at WC Hospital building site

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March 27 2011: With the installation of this crane at the north end of the Women’s College Hospital construction site on Saturday, there are now two cranes building a new medical facility on the east side of the hospital property

The two construction cranes at the Women’s College Hospital building site, seen in a photo shot from Grenville Street this afternoon. The crane in the center of the picture was installed earlier this month; the other, on Saturday.

Two cranes in the crater: A second crane was installed yesterday at the excavation site where a new Women’s College Hospital building is under construction. It joins another crane that went up on the site earlier this month, as I reported in a March 14 post. Meanwhile, site excavation continues. Below are some photos taken Friday, showing work crews preparing the pit for the installation of the second crane. There’s also several photos of the new crane being assembled on Saturday, along with some pics from today of the crane and the excavation site.

March 25 2011: Grenville Street view of the Womens College Hospital excavation

March 25 2011: Grenville Street view of excavation activity at the Women’s College Hospital construction site

March 25 2011: Excavation activity at the northeast corner of the site

March 25 2011: Pink shed in the southwest corner of the excavation

March 25 2011: Digging deeper at the north end of the site, to prepare for installation of a second construction crane the next day

March 25 2011: The new hospital building is scheduled for completion in 2015

March 25 2011: Grosvenor Street view of excavation progress

March 25 2011: Grosvenor Street view of the excavation, looking south

March 25 2011: A giant mound of earth still must be removed from the site

March 25 2011: Grosvenor Street view of the east side of the construction site

March 26 2011: It took the entire day on Saturday for these two portable cranes on Grosvenor Street to install a second construction crane on the Women’s College Hospital building site.

March 26 2011: This crane, erected earlier this month, stands at the south end of the site, near Grenville Street. A second crane was installed at the north end of the site on Saturday

March 26 2011: Part of the main platform for the second crane is hoisted into position. The new hospital facility will rise between the Burando condo tower at left and the old Women’s College building at right.

March 26 2011: The crane installation started before sunrise on Saturday and continued non-stop all day until after sunset.

March 27 2011: The platform is lowered into position

March 26 2011: Crane segments are assembled on Grosvenor Street

March 26 2011: Workers maneuver a crane segment on Grosvenor Street

March 26 2011: The operator of the portable crane that lifts segments of the new construction crane into place above the hospital building site.

March 26 2011: A worker waits on the partially assembled crane platform while the next piece of the construction crane is hoisted up from Grosvenor Street.

March 26 2011: Waiting patiently for the next piece of crane to arrive

March 26 2011: Another piece of the crane on its way up

March 26 2011: A Grosvenor Street view of the two portable cranes, the partially assembled crane, and the first crane installed earlier this month.

March 26 2011: Two workers position a crane segment

March 26 2011: The big hook used to hoist the heavy crane segments into place

March 26 2011: One of the cranes on Grosvenor Street unloads crane segments from transport trucks and moves them into position so workers can bolt them together. Another crane later lifts the assembled boom into place.

March 26 2011: The partially assembled crane casts its shadow on Burano

March 26 2011: One crane up, the other nearly there

March 27 2011: The Burano Condos construction crane, left, and the crane on the south side of the Women’s College Hospital redevelopment site, right.

March 27 2011: The crane at the south end of the hospital construction site

March 27 2011: The counterweight on the south crane

March 27 2011: The newly-installed construction crane in late afternoon sunshine

March 27 2011: The two cranes at the Women’s College Hospital site

City Scenes: Snowy Bay Street building sites

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Snow day: The calendar says it’s spring, but Toronto is getting another blast of winter with 5 cm. of snow falling throughout the day today. This photo, looking north from Queen Street on another snowy day earlier this winter, shows three major building sites on Bay Street. The orange construction crane is building the Sick Kids Research & Learning Tower at Elm Street; the crane in the middle of the photo is atop the Burano condo tower between Grenville and Grosvenor Streets; and the crane at the rear of the picture, on the east side of Bay, is atop the Four Seasons Toronto hotel and condo tower.

Snow motion: This photo was taken on the same day as the one above, a few blocks further north up Bay Street. It shows the Motion on Bay highrise apartment building construction site at left, along with the Sick Kids and Burano towers to the north.

Ice view: This was a view this afternoon of the Sick Kids Research and Learning Tower construction site from an ice-covered webcam high above the building.

Snowy Aura: Although it’s not on Bay Street itself, Aura condos is part of the College Park complex that occupies the entire eastern block of Bay between Gerrard and College Streets. This is a webcam view of the Aura condos construction site earlier this afternoon.

Crane up at Women’s College Hospital building site

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A recently-erected construction crane soars above the Women’s College Hospital redevelopment building site on Saturday. Behind the crane is the Burano condo tower, also under construction, and the Murano South condo tower (right).

Pit stop: The foundation for the new Women’s College Hospital building on Grenville Street should take shape at a quicker pace now that a construction crane has been erected on the site. When I last reported on the hospital’s building progress in a January 28 post, excavation had reached to more than one level below ground. During February, crews continued digging while building a base for the construction crane in the southwest corner of the site. The crane was installed sometime during the past week. Below are photos showing excavation progress during February, as well as foundation building progress around the crane.

February 12 2011: Grenville St. view of the excavation for the new hospital building. This site formerly was occupied by the hospital’s parking garage.

February 12 2011: Foundation shoring equipment at the northwest corner

February 20 1011: Southwest corner being prepared for the crane base

February 20 2011: Excavation continues while the crane base is constructed

Another view of the base being built for the construction crane

February 20 2011: Construction crane base taking shape

March 12 2011: Excavation is now two levels deep

March 12 2011: Considerable construction progress has been made on the west side of the site but a huge amount of earth still must be removed from the east

March 12 2011: Building foundation takes shape around the base of the crane

March 12 2011: Building activity is focussed on the west side of the construction site next to the existing hospital building.

Mt. Sinai adds six floors for women & infant care

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McCaul Street view, Jan’ 14, of six new floors atop Mt Sinai Hospital

Growing up: Hundreds of Toronto construction workers have been collecting healthy paycheques lately, courtesy of several downtown hospitals.

SickKids is is going full-throttle constructing a 21-storey Research & Learning Tower on Bay Street. Toronto Rehab has just built a new 13-storey rehabilitation hospital wing on Elm Street. University Health Network is starting to demolish a former nursing residence on Gerrard Street so it can built a high-tech lecture centre. And Mt. Sinai Hospital on University Avenue has been busy doing some building of its own.

Under a multi-year program called Renew Sinai, the hospital has been undertaking major structural upgrades to its main University Avenue facility, while at the same time adding six brand-new floors to the top of its west tower, overlooking McCaul Street. According to the Renew Sinai webpage, the extra floors will accommodate “the Lawrence and Frances Bloomberg Centre for Women’s and Infants’ Health and other patient programs.”

At the same time, more private family spaces are being created, while “state-of-art technology” is being installed “to care for the more than 1,000 infants a year in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).”

Meanwhile, major structural upgrades — such as reinforcement of the hospital’s concrete stairwell walls, required by the building permit for the rooftop extension — are underway to strengthen the building and bring it up to date with provincial building code standards.

Below are pics I’ve taken of the new floors being built atop the west Mt. Sinai tower.

New floor construction on Mt. Sinai’s west tower on Sept. 3 2008

Elm Street view of new floor construction on September 3 2008

McCaul Street view of construction progress November 9 2008

April 17 2009: most windows and exterior panels have been installed

March 9 2010: All windows are in place on the tower’s west side…

…but two exterior elevators are back on the wall (seen January 14 2011)

January 14 2011 view of an elevator near the north end of the tower

Close-up view of the external elevator on January 14 2011

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Category Archives: Hospitals and health care institutions

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Crane up at Women’s College Hospital building site

Mt. Sinai adds six floors for women & infant care

Tracking Downtown Toronto's AmazingBuilding Boom.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.