June 21 2012: Striking hues of orange and blue created a dramatic backdrop for Yonge & Bloor-area office and condo towers at sunset today. Below are several more shots of the Yorkville skyline at sunset.
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June 13 2012: The Burano condo tower, viewed from the north on Bay Street, has long been in public view as the construction climbed 50 floors above the ground …
… and the 3-storey glass atrium at the north side of the Burano condo site is finally in full view, too, now that hoarding has been removed from Grosvenor Street
June 13 2012: Landscaping and construction of an Italian-style piazza is underway next to the atrium on the Grosvenor Street flank of the condo complex
June 13 201: Most of the rebuilt Bay Street facade of the historic Addison automotive building is now visible as construction hoarding is gradually removed from the sidewalk
June 13 2012: The new Women’s College Hospital building (left) rises behind the Burano condo complex, viewed here from the southeast corner of Bay and Grenville Streets
Better views: Construction progress on the Burano Condominium on Bay Street has been clearly visible for many months as the tower climbed 50 storeys into the sky, but now passersby are getting to see how downtown’s newest skyscraper looks at street level.
With exterior work on the Burano tower nearly complete, crews have been able to begin removing the wooden hoarding and the chainlink security fences that have obscured street-level views of the building, including its signature glass atrium on Grosvenor Street and the rebuilt brick facade of the historic Addison on Bay automotive showroom and garage along Bay Street and Grenville Street.
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June 14 2012: A drilling machine sits in the vacant lot at 81 Wellesley Street East …
… site of the former Odette House mansion, seen here on September 27 2011. Residents in the Church-Wellesley Village neighbourhood were outraged when the building and its charming coach house were demolished without warning in January of this year.
Condo proposal coming? Almost six months after the contemptible demolition of an historic mansion on Wellesley Street East infuriated a city councillor and residents in the downtown Church & Wellesley neighbourhood, activity on the site suggests a development proposal for the property may finally be in the works.
For at least three days this past week, a crew and drilling machine could be seen working on different parts of the now-vacant lot at 81 Wellesley Street East. An area resident said he was told that the crew was taking soil core samples — a procedure which is often a precursor to property redevelopment.
Neighbourhood residents suspect that a developer will soon file an application with the city to erect either a condo or apartment building on the site — an application they have been expecting ever since the two buildings that once occupied the property were suddenly destroyed during the winter. Now, they’re nervously awaiting word about just how big and tall any proposed new building might be. (A city planner told me last winter that the site is suitable only for a low-rise or mid-rise building, and is not large enough to support a highrise condo tower. However, many area residents fear that a tower is exactly what’s in the pipeline.)
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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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May 12 2012: Excavation activity at the One Bloor condo site. Photo by Doug Lewis Images.
Condo sandbox: Nobody has figured out how to turn back time yet, but this week some Toronto construction photos by Doug Lewis Images managed to instantly take me back to a summer during my childhood. The images — real photos made to look miniature — captured excavation activity during May and June at the One Bloor condo tower construction site. The second I saw them, I remembered playing “construction” with other kids in my neighbourhood, moving dirt around a sandbox with our die-cast Dinky® and Corgi® toy backhoes and dumptrucks.
Although I can’t remember what my buddies and I may have been trying to build way back then, it could well have been skyscrapers. But they would have been office buildings, not condo towers with 70-plus stories, like One Bloor. Those didn’t exist yet; in fact, neither did the CN Tower, the Toronto-Dominion Centre or Toronto’s new City Hall, for that matter.
Below are three more photos showing Doug Lewis’s unique miniature perspective of excavation work at the One Bloor site on June 1. (See the post below for a separate update on the One Bloor condo tower project.)
If you have photos of Toronto-area buildings and construction activity you’d like me to consider publishing in my new “Through another lens” feature, drop me a line. My email is: [email protected].
June 1 2012: One Bloor condo tower excavation activity viewed from Bloor Street to the north. Photo by Doug Lewis Images.
June 1 2012: An excavator works near the northeast corner of the excavation site, below the Xerox building at 33 Bloor St. East. Photo by Doug Lewis Images.
June 1 2012: The pit’s southeast corner below Hayden Street. Photo by Doug Lewis Images.
June 13 2012: Excavation work continues at the southeast corner of Yonge & Bloor Streets where Great Gulf Homes is building its One Bloor condo tower
Five more floors: One Bloor, the landmark condo tower under construction at the southeast corner of Yonge & Bloor Streets, will be climbing five floors higher as a result of a Committee of Adjustment hearing at City Hall this week.
In an application to the committee, the project developer had requested a zoning bylaw variance that would allow it to raise the tower’s height from 70 to 75 storeys, as well as increase the building’s gross floor area from 55,910 square meters to 68,634 square meters. The application was item number 26 on the Committee of Adjustment’s June 13 meeting agenda.
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June 7 2012: Installation of the Trump logo continues on the 65-storey, 908-foot Trump International Hotel + Tower at Bay & Adelaide Streets
Waiting for a P: The 261 hotel rooms in the bottom half of the Trump International Hotel + Tower opened to guests more than five months ago, but work on the exterior of the building’s uppermost levels and spire base still hasn’t finished. But installation of the giant Trump logo, which started over two weeks ago, signals that completion of exterior construction isn’t far off.
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May 9 2012: City planners have recommended that Toronto City Council refuse zoning bylaw changes requested by a developer that wants to build a 50-storey condo tower on this Jarvis Street site
Refusal report: Citing concerns over two specific heritage properties as well as vehicle and service access issues, city planners have recommended that a 50-storey condo tower proposed for Jarvis & Carlton Street area be refused by City Council.
In a January 23 2012 rezoning application, Duration Investments Ltd. proposed to build a build a 590-unit condo complex on a property that extends from Jarvis to Mutual Street, just south of Carlton Street. The building would include: a 41-storey wedge-shaped tower rising near the northwest corner of the site; a masonry-clad 9-storey podium that would step back from Jarvis Street at the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th floors; retail shops along the podium’s Jarvis Street frontage; five 3-storey townhouses fronting on Mutual Street; and five levels of underground parking.
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April 27 2012: This Toronto Parking Authority surface parking lot at 15 Wellesley Street East, seen here looking south from outside the Wellesley subway station …
… and seen here, looking north from Maitland Street, is presently being marketed for sale as “an outstanding development opportunity” …
… along with these two adjacent properties on the east side of the lot: the large brown brick mansion at 20 Maitland (now housing office space) and the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto building at 26 Maitland Street
This illustration of the potential for the site appears in a marketing flyer that says CBRE Limited is “exclusive listing agent” for all three properties, each of which is subject to “separate offering requirements” for development.
Another illustration from the CBRE marketing flyer shows an aerial view, from the northeast, of the site being touted as the Wellesley Development Lands
Tower trio: The Church-Wellesley neighbourhood is buzzing over news that a large Wellesley Street parking lot, plus two adjacent properties on Maitland Street, are being jointly marketed as as an “outstanding development opportunity” in the downtown core, offering a massive 1.3 million square feet of redevelopment space in up to three separate condo towers.
The three properties being offered for sale include the Toronto Parking Authority surface lot at 15 Wellesley Street East, which extends from Wellesley at the north to Maitland Street at the south, as well as a large brick mansion used as office space at 20 Maitland and the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto building at 26 Maitland.
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May 10 2012: South view from Bremner Boulevard of construction progress on the two ÏCE Condo towers, left and center, and the Infinity3 Condominiums, right
Changing views: Although construction of two neighbouring condo projects near the CN Tower still has a long ways to go before completion, it’s fast becoming apparent just how significantly the new towers will change the look of the city skyline.
The side-by-side ÏCE Condos and Infinity3 Condominiums rising on the north side of the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard, between York and Lower Simcoe Streets, are already having a huge impact on sightlines and views in the South Financial District and Harbourfront areas. And that’s even though construction of the east ÏCE condo tower has so far climbed less than one-tenth of its ultimate 67-storey height, while the west ÏCE tower is just slightly more than one-third of its way to 57 floors. The main Infinity3 tower, meanwhile, is more than 20 floors high on its way to 34.
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May 6 2012: Looking west across The Milan Condominium tower construction site near the Yonge & Church intersection in Yorkville
May 6 2012: Construction has climbed to 1 meter below grade at the southeast side of the site, seen here looking north from the Church Street sidewalk …
… but still has some catching up to do at the southwest corner …
… while construction continues to progress the fastest at the northeast corner, where the building already looms above the Yonge subway line
Closing the gap: Passersby will soon be able to watch construction activity at The Milan Condominium tower site in Yorkville without having to peer through a chainlink fence surrounding parts of the property that aren’t blocked by wood hoarding.
As of this past weekend, construction of the tower’s underground levels had climbed to just one meter below the sidewalk along Church Street at the site’s southeast corner, where rebar reinforced floor forms were ready for a concrete pour. As construction of the podium for the 37-storey tower starts to climb above grade, motorists and pedestrians on Church Street will get their first clear view of the building since work commenced in the summer of 2010.
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May 5 2012: Construction of the SickKids Centre for Research and Learning, seen here from the south on Bay Street, reached a milestone last week …
… with a ceremony celebrating the final concrete pour for the 21-storey tower, seen here in a screen capture from a SickKids video of the event
SickKids President and CEO Mary Jo Haddad pours the final buckle of concrete
Topped off: A new Bay Street building landmark has celebrated a construction milestone with a topping off ceremony to commemorate the final concrete pour on the 21-floor structure.
The SickKids Centre for Research and Learning reached its highest point of construction last Thursday afternoon, exactly two years after construction commenced on the $400 million, 750,000-square-foot building that will house laboratory and meeting spaces for more than 2,000 scientists, trainees and children’s health research staff.
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May 5 2012: Construction workers were busy moving building forms today to prepare to build the 6th level of the Motion rental highrise
May 4 2012: The building will rise 29 storeys at the SW corner of Bay and Dundas Streets, and contain 463 units plus street-level retail shops
Form fitting: The Motion rental highrise at Bay & Dundas Streets reached a new level today, as crews repositioned building forms to prepare for construction of the 6th floor of what will ultimately be a 29-storey tower.
Toronto Police closed Bay Street to traffic for the length of the building site this afternoon while the construction crane hoisted forms from the building’s fifth level, and repositioned them directly above.
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May 4 2012: Rising, a dramatic sculpture by contemporary artist Zhang Huan, will be unveiled Saturday at this location outside the Living Shangri-la Toronto tower on University Avenue, between Richmond and Adelaide Streets
May 4 2012: Workers prepare the giant sculpture for its official unveiling ceremony, scheduled for 1-2 pm tomorrow afternoon
May 4 2012: The large-scale sculpture occupies a space at street level …
… and soars above the glass ‘Ice Cube’ at the building’s NE corner …
… seen here, from the University Avenue median to the east. This section of the building encloses a pool on the upper level, with a Momofuku restaurant on the floor below. The Momofuku Toronto is scheduled to open in August.
Taking flight: As construction of the 66-storey Living Shangri-la Toronto draws closer to completion, the building’s developer is set to unveil the dramatic sculpture it commissioned for the public art component of its project.
Full-page advertisements published in local newspapers this week announced that the art installation — Rising, by Shanghai and New York-based contemporary artist Zhang Huan — will be unveiled at a public ceremony Saturday afternoon from 1 – 2 p.m.
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May 2 2012: A screenshot from the construction webcam for the Aura condo tower at College Park. The developer will need to adjust its camera angle soon; otherwise, construction of what will be the city’s tallest condo tower will quickly climb out of view.
April 29 2012: Aura Condos at College Park construction viewed from the southeast corner of Yonge and Gerrard Streets.
On the rise: “What’s taking Aura so long?” That’s a question I’ve been asked a number of times recently by people who have been waiting, obviously rather impatiently, for the Aura condo tower at College Park to begin making its mark on the downtown skyline. They won’t have to wait much longer.
Aura already has a profound presence when viewed from ground level along parts of Yonge and Gerrard Streets, and in a few short weeks will become more visible over a wider area as it starts rising above some of its highrise neighbours. By June, I will probably be able to watch the construction from the comfort of my condo six blocks away to the northeast; right now, the orange and white cranes atop Aura are competing for my attention with the two cranes on the SickKids Centre for Research and Learning Tower two blocks to their southwest.
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