Category Archives: Toronto condos

Former Alice Fazooli restaurant razed to make way for construction of The Bond condo tower

October 4 2012: Hoarding protects the sidewalk alongside the former Entertainment District location of an Alice Fazooli’s restaurant at 294 Adelaide Street West …

… seen here on February 17 2011 before part of the restaurant building was converted into a presentation centre for The Bond Condominiums tower, which will be built on the site

October 1 2012: Demolition of the one-time restaurant building as seen from a parking lot next to the northwest side of the site …

… and through one of the building`s front windows, before the installation of protective hoarding blocked views of demolition work from the street

This building illustration appears on The Bond Condominiums website. Click on the image to view the rendering in a larger format.

This illustration, also from the project website, depicts a street-level view of The Bond’s podium. The building was designed by Toronto’s Core Architects Inc. Click on the illustration to view a larger-size image.

Adieu, Alice: I still recall fun times with family and friends at the former Alice Fazooli’s restaurant in the Entertainment District nearly a decade ago, so I wasn`t surprised to feel a tad nostalgic when I saw the building being smashed to smithereens this week, clearing the space for construction of a yet another condominium tower.

The once-popular restaurant site at 294 Adelaide Street West is being razed as preliminary construction work kicks off for The Bond Condominiums, a 40-storey condo tower that will take its place. Designed by Toronto’s Core Architects, The Bond is a project of Lifetime Developments. It will have 369 condos in studio plus 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom configurations, along with a collection of penthouse suites, an outdoor private terrace, and extensive indoor amenity spaces.

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TEYCC expected to request public meeting on 49-storey condo proposed for 587-599 Yonge

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This large sign, one of three posted around the site, outlines a proposal filed with the City to redevelop the 587-599 block of Yonge Street between Gloucester & Dundonald Streets. (Click on photo to view a larger image and read the details.)

A developer’s plan to build a 49-storey condo tower with 513 units and 2 floors of retail space would completely transform this block of Yonge Street, viewed here from the northwest …

… and here, from the southwest. The development would include two townhouses on Gloucester Street as well as a restaurant building on Dundonald Street.

Tower talk: City planners are asking Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) to convene a community consultation meeting so they can get public feedback on a condo tower development plan that would transform an entire block on the east side of Yonge Street, between Dundonald and Gloucester Streets.

The planners’ request, a routine step in the city’s development review process, is an agenda item for tomorrow’s (October 10) monthly meeting of the TEYCC.

As I reported in my August 28 2012 post, an application has been filed with the City for zoning amendments that would allow construction of a 49-storey condo tower on the 587-599 block of Yonge Street. At that time, few details about the proposal were available. More information is now in the public domain, thanks to a September 17 2012 preliminary report that city planners have prepared for TEYCC’s consideration.

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Planners ask city to oppose developer’s bid to build 37-storey condo tower at 40 Wellesley East

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40 Wellesley East presently is occupied by this 5-storey office and retail complex, formerly known as the Orthopedic and Arthritic Sciences building

This illustration, from a September 17 2012 city planning department report, depicts the south elevation for a 37-storey condo tower proposed for the 40 Wellesley site …

… while this illustration depicts the tower`s north elevation. City planning documents say the building`s architect is Sweeney Sterling Finlayson & Co. Architects of Toronto

Wall on Wellesley: City planners are urging Toronto City Council to oppose an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) appeal in which developer 862015 Ontario Inc. is seeking approval to build a 37-storey condo tower at 40 Wellesley Street East.

Although a 44-storey tower originally had been proposed for the site seven years ago, planners object to the revised plan for a highrise with seven fewer floors on the ground it still represents “overdevelopment of the site,” does not “provide adequate transition” to the low-rise residential neighbourhood to its north, and “creates significant issues regarding shadow impact, overlook and privacy for the mid-rise and low-rise buildings in the area.” Those and other formal objections are explained in full detail in a September 17 2012 “request for direction report” the planners prepared for Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC).

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Halfway there: Aura climbs to 39 storeys

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September 19 2012: Looking up the north side of the Aura condo tower. Construction reached the milestone halfway mark this week when work commenced on the 39th floor of the 78-storey skyscraper. (Click on the photo to view a larger-size image.)

September 22 2012: My balcony view of the Aura condo tower this afternoon. Construction forms for supporting walls are in place on the north side of the 39th floor.

September 22 2012: Cladding and window installation has started on the 30th floor

Midpoint milestone: The Aura condo tower at College Park has reached the halfway point — 39 floors — where building activity including concrete floor pours and construction of supporting walls has been underway the past two days.

When it tops off at 78 storeys, Aura will become Canada’s tallest residential building.

I can’t help but watch Aura’s construction progress — the window next to my computer looks straight at it. Even though I’m more than five blocks away to the northeast, I can feel the strong presence of the big rectangular slab of concrete and glass looming over my left shoulder. I’m not impressed by the building’s appearance so far, but I am looking forward to the point at which Aura reaches the 59th floor and construction commences on 16 levels of “executive suites” and five floors of penthouse and sub-penthouse residences. The oval shape for that top section of the tower will give Aura a unique silhouette on the city skyline, and be considerably more interesting and appealing to look at.

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Pit stop: X2 Condos parking floors filling in

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September 9 2012: Another underground parking level takes shape at the X2 Condos construction site at the southwest corner of Jarvis & Charles Streets. Nearly three of the building’s six below-grade levels have been constructed so far.

September 9 2012: A closer view of an underground floor taking form

September 9 2012: Rebar is being put in place to prepare for a concrete pour

September 9 201: Jarvis Street view of construction progress on the 49-storey tower.

A project of Great Gulf and Lifetime Developments, X2 Condos was designed by Toronto’s Rudy Wallman Architects Ltd. The tower will have 470 suites.

This artistic rendering, which appears on the project website, depicts a view of the 49-storey tower from the northeast.

X2 Condos will be a sister to the X Condominium tower on the north side of Charles Street (seen here in a view from the southeast on August 30 2011). The 44-storey X Condos, which opened for occupancy two years ago, was designed by architectsAlliance. Together, the developers say, X and X2 will stand as an eastern “gateway to Yorkville/Bloor.”

Condo tower building sites squeezing traffic on construction-weary Charles Street East

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September 1 2012 : One-way Charles Street squeezes into a single narrow lane while hoarding and security fences cramp the already-narrow sidewalks along the facing condo construction sites for ChazYorkville, left, and Casa 2 right

September 1 2012: Hoarding has surrounded the ChazYorkville site at 45 Charles East since last fall, when demolition started on a 45-year-old, 8-storey Modernist-style office building that formerly occupied the property …

… now the site of a large excavation that gets deeper each day

August 31 2012: Hoarding was installed on the north sidewalk, along the front of the office building at 42 Charles, in late August …

… where the 9-storey brick building, once administrative offices for the YMCA, will be demolished to make room for the 56-storey Casa 2 Condominiums

August 31 2012: Cars try to squeeze past a dump truck waiting its turn to enter the ChazYorkville site and pick up a load of soil from the excavation

August 31 2012: Motorists and pedestrians alike will face disruption and traffic congestion on this block of Charles Street for at least the next three to four years …

… and possibly much longer, if Canada Post sells Postal Station F at 50 Charles East, right next door to the Casa 2 site, for residential highrise redevelopment

Tight squeeze: Residents on and near the block of Charles Street between Church & Yonge Streets have reluctantly resigned themselves to at least four more years of dirt, dust, noise and traffic congestion, courtesy of two condo tower construction sites practically within whispering distance of each other on opposite sides of the street.

Construction of the 47-storey ChazYorkville condo tower commenced last fall when demolition crews destroyed a Modernist-style office building that had occupied 45 Charles for more than four decades. Foundation shoring and drilling work started in the spring, and excavation activity has been underway since May.

The same process is set to repeat itself directly across the street where hoarding was installed in late August along the public sidewalk in front of 42 Charles. Demolition of the 9-storey brick office building that presently stands on the site will start this fall, followed by shoring and excavation for the 56-floor Casa 2 Condominiums tower.

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First SkyBridge taking shape at Pier 27 condos

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September 11 2012: Iron framework for the SkyBridge span has been installed atop the two condo highrises on the eastern half of the Residences of Pier 27 construction site

This artistic rendering, which appears on a marketing billboard outside the Pier 27 condo construction site, shows how the SkyBridge will appear when complete

September 11 201: SkyBridge construction viewed from the public sidewalk along Queen’s Quay Blvd. on the north side of the building site

Bridge building: Construction activity at The Residences of Pier 27 has become considerably more fascinating to passersby now that a signature SkyBridge span is fast taking form atop the B1 and B2 buildings on the east half of the condo site.

The first time I noticed that SkyBridge construction had commenced was when I passed the site on August 22, and saw several beams jutting into the air from the west wall of one of the buildings. I couldn’t get back down to the area to take another look until September 3, by which point it appeared that work on the frame was complete.

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Milan Condo construction climbs to 5th floor

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September 6 2012: Podium and tower construction progress at The Milan Condominium

Photo update: Construction of the podium for The Milan Condominium has climbed to five floors, giving an early indication of how drastically the 37-storey tower will dominate the Yonge-Church-Davenport intersection once it’s finished.

Below are several photos I snapped while walking past the construction site on Thursday. Pictures from earlier in the summer and spring can be viewed in my August 12 2012 post and my May 9 2012 report.

September 6 2012: The Milan Condominium construction progress viewed from the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Davenport Road, looking east

September 6 2012

September 6 2012: Construction viewed from the southeast, along upper Church Street

September 6 2012

TIFF crowd gets first look at Living Shangri-La as new 5-star hotel/condo tower nears completion

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August 22 2012: The city’s newest 5-star hotel, the Shangri-La Hotel Toronto, looms to the northwest of the Fairmont Royal York, the grande dame of Toronto luxury hotels

Star attraction: The cachet of red carpets and Hollywood celebrities is giving a big pre-opening advertising boost to the Shangri-La Hotel Toronto as the city’s newest 5-star hotel & condo tower nears the end of construction.

It’s not officially open to the travelling public yet, but the Shangri-La is buzzing with energy and excitement as construction crews hurry to put finishing touches on the 202-room hotel at the same time as hordes of movie industry VIPs schmooze and conduct business in the building during the Toronto International Film Festival, which opened Thursday.

When I walked past the hotel yesterday morning, construction crews were scurrying on three sides of the building, especially around the western entrance off Simcoe Street where there was an almost chaotic array of activity underway. Construction tradesworkers weren’t the only people rushing in and out of the hotel; Simcoe and nearby Nelson Street were clogged with traffic as delivery trucks rushed everything from skids of building supplies to carts full of fresh fruit and vegetables into the Shangri-La. Contractors, cleaners and photographers were also streaming in and out of the Soho House Toronto, the private club for creative professionals which will occupy the restored Bishop’s Block heritage building on the southwest corner of the Shangri-La property.

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Pit stop: The Yorkville Condominiums tower site

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August 30 2012: North view across the excavation for The Yorkville Condominiums, a 31-storey tower being built at the NW corner of Davenport Road and McMurrich Street …

… seen here November 1 2010 when construction was just approaching the halfway mark on The Florian condo tower next door. This also was more than a year before low-rise buildings and trees were destroyed for pre-construction site preparation.

One up, one to go: Excavation work is in full swing for the second of two condo towers that will completely transform the look and feel of the curved north side of Davenport Road between Bay and McMurrich Streets in Yorkville.

As work on The Florian condos draws close to completion, crews are still digging out the adjacent site to the east where The Yorkville Condominiums, a 31-storey tower, will rise during the next two to three years. Several low-rise buildings once occupied the corner property, including the former offices of Moriyama and Teshima Architects.

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Pit stop: The One Bloor condo tower excavation

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September 1 2012: A new month starts with major excavation work remaining in the southwest third of the One Bloor condo tower construction site

Still digging: People frequently ask me if foundation building work has started yet on the 75-storey One Bloor condo tower. The short answer, “not yet,” clearly seems to surprise most, who typically ask in response: “What’s taking so long?” I suppose Torontonians are anxious to see a tower finally rise from the site since it has been exactly four years since the retail and restaurant buildings that formerly occupied the block were demolished. People don’t seem to like seeing a big empty space at one of the city’s prime downtown intersections.

The mixed-use condo and retail building is a project of Great Gulf Homes, and was designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects.

My most recent One Bloor construction update post was published on June 16 2012.

Below is a tower rendering that appears on the One Bloor project website, followed by several more pics I shot of the excavation during the Labour Day Weekend.

This illustration of the Hariri Pontarini-designed tower appears on the One Bloor website

September 1 2012

Trump taking a long time to P above Toronto

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The first two letters of the TRUMP logo were installed atop the north side of the 65-storey, 900-foot Trump International Hotel + Tower Toronto by the end of May …

… but as of the 2012 Labour Day Weekend, the P still wasn’t in place because construction hasn’t yet finished on the tower’s distinctive “quarter onion” and spire

Waiting for a big P: When I last posted photos of the Trump International Hotel + Tower Toronto on June 8 2012, I wrote that installation of the giant Trump logo near the top of the building’s north side “signals that completion of exterior construction isn’t far off.”

I was wrong.

Although the hotel has been open for business since early this year, work on the exterior upper reaches of the 900-foot, 65-storey tower still isn’t complete. In particular, the P hasn’t been added to the rest of the Trump logo because crews are still finishing work on the signature “quarter onion” and spire segments of the building that rise from the tower’s northwest corner.

Several times on August 31, I saw construction workers climbing to and from the “crow’s nest” on the spire, so I know the contractors are hurrying to complete the building.

But even though the full Trump logo isn’t yet making its mark on the city skyline, the tower’s illuminated spire is. For several weeks in June, downtown residents saw test-runs of the spire’s lighting system, which reminded many Torontonians of the lightsabers in the Star Wars movies. Although the June testing showed the system’s multicolour capabilities, the spire has emitted a only a pale pink glow above the Financial District since then.

Fingers crossed that the logo will be completely installed by Thanksgiving.

Construction launched on 2 low-rise luxury condo projects on Yorkville’s leafy Hazelton Avenue

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August 31 2012: Demolition and preliminary construction work is underway for the luxury 36Hazelton condo in Yorkville

August 30 2012: The facade of the historic St Basil’s School at 34 Hazelton Avenue will be incorporated into the new building …

… as shown in this artistic rendering that appears on the 36Hazelton project website. The building has been designed by Toronto’s Quadrangle Architects.

Meanwhile, drilling and preliminary excavation work is underway three blocks up the street at the southeast corner of Davenport Road …

… where the 133 Hazelton Residences condo and townhouse complex will rise on the former site of an interior design showroom

This artistic rendering of the building, designed by Toronto’s Page + Steele IBI Group Architects, appears on the 133 Hazelton Residences website

Low rise, high end: Construction has started in Yorkville on two Hazelton Avenue condo projects aimed at affluent real estate investors and purchasers.

Toward the south end of the tree-lined residential street, demolition work is underway on 36Hazelton, an 8-storey luxury condo and townhome complex being built on the site of the 84-year-old St Basil’s School, a city-designated heritage structure whose facade will be incorporated into the new development.

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Pit stop: Nicholas Residences condo site

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September 1 2012: Walls are taking shape at the bottom of the excavation for the Nicholas Residences condo tower, seen here from the southwest corner of the construction site

A view of the irregularly-shaped southeast side of the property

Building walls: When I last checked in on the Nicholas Residences construction site, in my May 1 2012 post, excavation crews were only halfway through their digging task. Although a few more truckloads of soil still remain to be removed from the pit, construction of the building’s bottom underground level is progressing nicely. As of the Labour Day weekend, walls were taking shape on the southern half of the site.

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Untinted cladding lets 55-storey Four Seasons Toronto hotel & condo tower ‘blend into the sky’

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August 31 2012: The 55-storey Four Seasons Toronto hotel and condo tower viewed from the corner of Hazelton Avenue and Scollard Street

Light & airy: Every time I have looked up at the new Four Seasons Hotel and condo tower in Yorkville, I’ve been amazed that it doesn’t appear to soar 55 storeys high. It does look and feel very tall, of course, but it doesn’t have a hulking, looming or even overwhelming presence like many towers just half its height. I never understood why — until I read “A tower that aims to ‘blend into the sky” in the August 31 Globe and Mail.

In the article, architecture columnist John Bentley Mays relates a conversation he had with the Four Seasons Toronto architect, Peter Clewes of architectsAlliance.

Clewes explains how the skyscraper was designed to be “light on its feet,” achieving “a kind of fading of the tower where it meets the sky.” Different types of glass cladding were extensively researched and tested to see how they would relate to the sky; ultimately, an American-made high-performance glass with no tint was selected.

“We wanted something …. that would take on the character of the sky without being hyper-reflective,” Clewes said, adding that the glass helps the tower “just blend into the sky.”

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Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.

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Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing Building Boom.

Category Archives: Toronto condos

Former Alice Fazooli restaurant razed to make way for construction of The Bond condo tower

TEYCC expected to request public meeting on 49-storey condo proposed for 587-599 Yonge

Planners ask city to oppose developer’s bid to build 37-storey condo tower at 40 Wellesley East

Halfway there: Aura climbs to 39 storeys

Pit stop: X2 Condos parking floors filling in

Condo tower building sites squeezing traffic on construction-weary Charles Street East

First SkyBridge taking shape at Pier 27 condos

Milan Condo construction climbs to 5th floor

TIFF crowd gets first look at Living Shangri-La as new 5-star hotel/condo tower nears completion

Pit stop: The Yorkville Condominiums tower site

Pit stop: The One Bloor condo tower excavation

Trump taking a long time to P above Toronto

Construction launched on 2 low-rise luxury condo projects on Yorkville’s leafy Hazelton Avenue

Pit stop: Nicholas Residences condo site

Untinted cladding lets 55-storey Four Seasons Toronto hotel & condo tower ‘blend into the sky’

Tracking Downtown Toronto's AmazingBuilding Boom.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.