Category Archives: Bay Street

Historic Addison on Bay building reconstruction partially revealed at Burano condo site

Part of the reconstructed Addison on Bay building was revealed this week when protective wrapping was removed from the facade on Grenville St.

This is how the building looked in September 2008 when it was being dismantled to make way for construction of the Burano condo complex

This artistic rendering from the Burano Condos website suggests how the reconstructed building will appear as part of the new condo complex

Addison’s back on Bay! The Addison on Bay Cadillac dealership closed four years ago, and the historic Addison building itself completely disappeared from the landscape during late 2008 and early 2009. But the building is right back where it had operated as a car dealership since 1925 — only now it’s going to have an entirely new life and function as part of the Burano luxury condo complex currently under construction.

The Addison showroom at 832 Bay Street was designated a historical property by the City in 1999. The dealership continued in business for another eight years after that, but finally shuttered its doors in the middle of March 2007. Despite its prominent, lengthy history downtown, the dealership was forced to close the Bay Street business because of “economic factors, including the increasing cost of maintaining a central downtown location,” dealership president Clarke Addison explained in a letter to customers. (Further details about the Addison site and the demise of the downtown dealership were reported in a Toronto Star story published on March 2, 2007.)

Though the downtown location ceased operations, the Addison car business continued — in Mississauga where, as Addison Chevrolet, it’s that city’s “youngest General Motors dealership.”

But the Bay Street property wouldn’t sit idle for long.

Addison had been operating not just the historically-designated showroom and a repair garage on the west side of Bay, between Grosvenor and Grenville Streets, but also a new and used car display lot on the east side of the street, also between Grosvenor and Grenville.

Lanterra Developments ultimately acquired the properties on both sides of Bay, and built the two-tower Murano condo complex on the east side. Since the summer of 2008, it has been building Burano on the west property. During the fall and winter of that year, the Addison showroom was dismantled so the site could be excavated for the condo tower. Once the foundation for the new complex had been built, reconstruction of the Addison building commenced.

Protective sheeting has blocked the facade from public view for the past three months, but a section of wrapping was removed from the Grenville Street wall of the structure late last week.

Below are some pics I took while the Addison building was being dismantled and then re-assembled. There’s also some pics of the newly revealed Addison facade on Grenville Street, along with other recent photos showing construction progress on the Burano condo tower. An album of Burano pics from the beginning of construction to this month can be viewed on the Photo Sets page of the blog.

October 13 2008: The Addison on Bay building gradually being dismantled

November 22 2009: Foundation work begins in the Burano condo excavation

May 2 2010: Addison building takes shape during reconstruction

May 2 2010: Another view of the Addison building reconstruction progress

July 26 2010: Grenville St. view of frame for new Addison building

November 9 2010: Rebuilding progress before the structure went under wraps

December 21 2010: Frame of building partly visible under wraps

February 9 2011: Murano tower, crane seen from College St. at University Ave.

February 9 2011: Burano viewed from Grosvenor Street near Surrey Place

February 20 2011: Burano construction progress viewed from College Street

February 20 2011: Burano viewed from southeast corner of Bay and Grenville

February 20 2011: The unwrapped Grenville Street facade viewed from Bay Street

February 20 2011: Reconstructed Grenville Street facade is exposed

Another view of the reconstructed Addison facade on Grenville

Here’s looking at U, Condos

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U’s Turn: In just a few short years, things will really be looking up for the St. Michael’s College campus at the University of Toronto. Way up. From the old ivy-clad stone and brick bastions of academia to the shiny new glass and steel towers of luxury condo living 45 and 50 storeys up. That’s how high the two towers of U Condos, currently starting construction, will soar above the college campus from their perch at the southeast corner of Bay and St. Mary Streets near Yorkville. It’s going to be a huge and dramatic change for a wedge-shaped piece of property that previously contained an unremarkable asphalt parking lot and a wide field of green grass. For people who were lucky to buy in when the buildings initially went on sale, U Condos undoubtedly will prove to be an incredibly wise investment. I’m willing to bet a substantial number of buyers are real estate- and personal finance-savvy parents who scooped up suites so their kids will have accommodations when they attend U of T; after graduation day, mom and dad will sell the units at a tidy profit, perhaps even paying off the kids’ substantial university tuition bills and other education expenses in the process. Contractors have been preparing the site for excavation since December; heavy machinery has been moving mounds of earth, while pile drivers have been punching away at several different places on the U Condos property. Below is an architectural rendering of the U Condos podium, along with photos I’ve taken in the U Condos neighbourhood at various times since 2008.

Architectural rendering of U Condos towers and podium

Billboards along U Condos Bay Street location November 14 2008

View towards Bay Street from west end of U Condos site November 1 2010

U Condos site viewed from St. Mary Street on November 1 2010

U Condos site viewed from Bay Street on November 11 2010

Billboard on U Condos site November 11 2010

View towards U Condos site from west end of St Mary Street on December 4 2010; in two years, the new towers will totally dominate this view towards Bay Street

Idle excavation equipment on U Condos site December 4 2010

Last glimpse of green: This lawn, seen December 4 2010, will soon be dug up

All quiet on the U Condos site on Sunday January 9

Snow-covered excavation machinery at the U Condos site January 9

U Condos site under a blanket of snow on January 9

Pile driving machinery on January 24 after a light snowfall

Pile driving machinery on January 24

U Condos billboards along Bay Street on January 29

Early stages of excavation at U Condos on January 29

Grass has been completely cleared from the western half of the site

U Condos hoarding along St Mary Street January 29

Murano got them first. Is Casa the latest condo to succumb to the broken balcony panel blues?

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Broken balcony panel at Casa Condominium on January 29 2011

Is it contagious? A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about glass panels breaking on a few balconies at the Murano condos North Tower at Bay and Grosvenor Streets. Well, it looks like Murano might not be the only downtown condo highrise whose residents and management are getting their share of grief from faulty balcony panels. The 46-storey Casa Condominium tower on Charles Street is sporting a nasty shiner, too, and Murano has yet another one near the top of its North Tower.

While I was walking up Bay Street Saturday afternoon, something caught my eye when I glanced up the north side of Murano. I zoomed in for a look with the camera and saw a piece of wood filling the gap on a 32nd-floor balcony. This was not one of the two balconies on which glass panels had shattered only days apart last September; those panels were replaced before Christmas.

About an hour later I was walking near Casa when I looked up and thought I saw a familiar sight, about 27 storeys up the tower’s southwest corner. Sure enough, my camera confirmed that a piece of wood has been secured on a balcony in place of a shattered glass panel, pieces of which are still clinging to the frame. (This morning, the wood panel was still in place — and visible from blocks away.)

What’s up with the balcony glass on these buildings? Why are the panels breaking? Haven’t heard anything in the local news about the latest incidents, so I’m relieved that apparently nobody on the ground has been injured by any glass that may have fallen down. But now I can’t help but wonder just how safe it is to walk below any of the new condo towers constructed downtown recently. I guess I’ll find out if I see protective scaffolding around Casa next time I walk down Charles Street.

Since our own balcony sits directly above a busy back entrance to our building, I’m glad it has metal railings — rather than tempered glass panels — that are firmly cemented into the concrete floor.

Below are pics I took Saturday of the balconies with temporary wood panels at Murano and Casa.

Wood panel on a Murano North Tower balcony January 29

Wood panel on a Murano North Tower balcony January 29

Wood panel and shattered glass on a Casa balcony January 29

Wood panel on a Casa balcony January 29

Wood panel visible on a Casa southwest corner balcony January 29

Casa condo tower on December 21 2010 (no broken panels visible)

Keeping tabs on … Lumiere Condos

Falling glass balcony panels a “pane” in the neck for Murano condo owners, Bay Street pedestrians

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Murano condo towers under construction September 20 2008

Heads up! You don’t usually see scaffolding erected around a brand-new condominium tower to protect passing pedestrians after construction has finished and the building is fully occupied. But then, you don’t usually expect glass panels to shatter and fall off the balconies of new buildings, either. Yet that’s what seems to have happened four separate times in the past year at the Murano condos on Bay Street.

Designed by architectsAlliance of Toronto, Murano is a complex of two glass highrise buildings that opened in 2009: a 35-floor North Tower on Grosvenor Street and a 45-storey South Tower on Grenville Street, both linked by a two-storey podium extending along Bay Street.

According to posts in an online Toronto architecture and building forum, a glass panel broke loose from a balcony in early April of last year. It plunged to the ground, in the process shattering several other glass panels that create a canopy above Bay Street to protect pedestrians from rain and the elements. The sidewalk around the damaged panels was cordoned off with yellow safety warning tape while repairs were performed.

A similar incident occurred in September, when a tempered glass panel shattered and fell from an upper-level balcony on the Grenville Street side of the North Tower. Several days later, glass from another panel shattered and showered to the ground from a different North Tower balcony, also on the Grenville Street side. That incident made headlines in local papers; for example, the Toronto Star reported on glass falling from the Murano tower in a story on September 18.

The broken panels were replaced with sheets of wood while new panels were ordered; meanwhile, condo management called engineers in to try to determine what had caused the panels to break.

In early December, I noticed that the wood sheets were gone and the missing glass panels had finally been replaced; however, around December 21, another balcony panel shattered. Again, it was on a North Tower balcony, but this time on the south side. Scaffolding has protected sidewalks around the condo complex ever since, and up until the end of last week a piece of wood was still visible on the balcony in question. When I passed by this morning, however, the wood was gone and a new glass panel was in place; in fact, I could see a contractor working on the balcony, so he may have just finished the installation. On the other hand, the glass overhang above street level was still missing three panels.

The problem must be a source of embarrassment and frustration for the building’s developer, Lanterra Developments, which operates a customer service centre for its various condominium projects in a street-level office in the Murano podium along Bay Street (now partially obscured by the scaffolding).

But shattered glass hasn’t been the only thing dropping from the Murano towers. In a gruesome accident in May 2008, falling metal debris killed a 55-year-old construction worker while the complex was being built; details are provided in this Toronto Star story. And on March 15 last year, a man jumped to his death from a unit on the east side of the building. Could ghosts of the two deceased be responsible for the falling glass? Or is it merely a case of balcony panel defects or improper installation techniques?

It will be interesting to see how long the scaffolding remains in place; it really detracts from the streetscape and spoils views of the podium. Fortunately, it doesn’t block the colourful decorated glass windows (created by Toronto photographer Barbara Astman) on the podium’s second floor.