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

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Living Shangri-la Toronto & Fairmont Royal York Hotel Toronto

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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New fountains are making a splash at City Hall, but most of NPS remains closed for construction

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Nathan Phillips Square at Toronto City Hall

September 7 2012: New water fountains adds some moisture and motion to the north half of  Nathan Phillips Square in front of City Hall’s clamshell towers …

 

Nathan Phillips Square at Toronto City Hall

… while the angular frame for the roof of the  square’s new theatre stage is catching visitors’ interest and attention, too

 

Nathan Phillips Square at Toronto City Hall

But extensive maintenance and upgrade construction work continues on the square’s popular reflecting pool/skating rink …

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Nathan Phillips Square at Toronto City Hall

… as does construction on the section of the square between the stage and the new snack bar and skate rental building …

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Nathan Phillips Square at Toronto City Hall

… while the entire west side of the square, where the new Peace Garden will be built, is yet another giant construction zone — much like the rest of downtown Toronto

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Square gradually getting there: It’s been over a month since I last reported on construction progress for the Nathan Phillips Square revitalization project at City Hall, so I walked over there this morning to see what’s been happening.

As the photos in my July 28 2012 post showed, construction crews still had a long way to go to finish work on the square’s new theatre stage and Peace Garden, along with extensive maintenance and upgrades to the reflecting pool/skating rink.

There hasn’t been significant change over the past five weeks, but there have been noticeable signs of progress.

 

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Pit stop: The Yorkville Condominiums tower site

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The Yorkville condo

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 …

 

The Yorkville condo tower site

… 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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One Bloor condos

 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.

 

One Bloor condo tower website rendering

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

 

1 Bloor

September 1 2012

 

1 Bloor

September 1 2012

 

1 Bloor September 1 2012

September 1 2012

 

1 Bloor

September 1 2012

 

1 Bloor

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1 Bloor

September 1 2012

 

 

Trump taking a long time to P above Toronto

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Trump Tower Toronto

 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 …

 

Trump Toronto Tower

… 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.

 

Class act on the waterfront opens to students

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George Brown College waterfront campus

The north side of the new George Brown College waterfront campus, viewed here on August 22 2012 from Queen’s Quay Boulevard …

 

George Brown College waterfront campus

… and seen here, this morning, from the Keating channel near Cherry Street in the Toronto port lands area several hundred meters to the east

 

Toronto skyline

The building can be seen in this city skyline photo shot from the Keating Channel

 

School’s in: Health sciences students at George Brown College will have the good fortune of starting a new school term tomorrow in a brand-new building.

More than 3,000 students, instructors, administrators and other staff will bring the College’s state-of-the-art waterfront campus to life on September 4 — and provide some energetic company to the Corus Quay broadcasting and office complex right next door.

Campus construction started in late 2009 and, at this time two years ago, the building foundation was only just beginning to take shape inside the huge excavation on the city’s East Bayfront. I thought the projected occupancy date of September 2012 was a bit optimistic, but construction proceeded smoothly and on schedule. When I passed by the campus just under two weeks ago, crews were busy working on landscaping and other exterior finishing touches, while students (and their parents) were going inside to register and take a look around.

Designed as a joint venture by Stantec Architecture and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects,  the building has eight floors including a three-storey glass podium and a rooftop terrace. Besides classrooms and office facilities for the health care faculties, the full-service campus houses a health care clinic, bookstore, administrative offices and food service operations.

In a video in the August 23 2012 online edition of the Toronto Star, architecture columnist Christopher Hume visits the new building and comments on its significance both for the college, and for the city and in particular its eastern waterfront, which will undergo massive redevelopment over the next decade.

I previously published photos and reported on the George Brown College waterfront campus in posts on January 4 2011, February 5 2011, and April 23 2011.

 

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

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36 Hazelton

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

 

36 Hazelton

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

 

36 Hazelton Condo building rendering

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

 

133 Hazelton

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

 

133 Hazelton

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

 

133 Hazelton Residences

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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Nicholas Residences

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

 

Nicholas Residences September 1 2012

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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Four Seasons Toronto

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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Window and cladding installation close to completion at Couture Condominium tower

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Couture Condos

September 1 2012: Couture Condo’s east side, from Mt Pleasant Road

 

Glassing in: Window and cladding installation is nearly finished on the Couture Condominium tower under construction at 28 Ted Rogers Way (the northernmost block of Jarvis Street, just below Bloor Street). With glass balcony panel installation currently in progress, the tower exterior should look complete within a few weeks.

 

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FIVE Condos’ bottom floor takes form

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FIVE Condos

September 1 2012: Walls give shape to the first of six underground levels being built at the FIVE Condos tower construction site at 5 St Joseph Street

 

Deep down: The first of six underground parking floors is quickly taking shape at the FIVE Condos construction site at Yonge & St Joseph Streets.

Below are several photos I shot at the site this afternoon. Full details about the FIVE Condos project are outlined in my April 28 2011 post, with more information in my December 22 2011 follow-up post.

 

FIVE Condos

September 1 2012

 

FIVE Condos

September 1 2012

 

FIVE Condos

September 1 2012

 

FIVE Condos

September 1 2012: The south end of the construction site along St Nicholas Street

 

FIVE Condos

September 1 2012: Looking north toward the heritage facade of the Rawlinson Cartage building on St Joseph Street (covered in protective wrapping) that looms above the excavation

 

FIVE Condos

September 1 2012: A closer view of the steps that construction workers use to access the site at the northwest corner of the excavation

 

FIVE Condos

September 1 2012: View from the southeast corner of the construction site

 

 

Nice finishing touch: Garden terraces add colour & texture to MuseumHouse condo highrise

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Museum House condos

August 31 2012: Plants adorn the spacious private terraces on the southeast corner of the MuseumHouse condo midrise on Bloor Street across from the Royal Ontario Museum

 

Museum House condos

August 31 2012: There are only 27 suites in the 19-storey limestone, glass and metal tower

 

Museum House condos

August 31 2012: A project of developer Yorkville Corporation, MuseumHouse was designed by Page + Steele IBI Group Architects

 

Sky gardens: I most envy the people moving into MuseumHouse on Bloor Street West not for their multimillion-dollar new digs, but for their spacious south-view garden balconies in the sky.

Today was the first time I’ve seen the 19-storey luxury highrise since its southeast corner terraces started sprouting plants and flowers, including lush green vines that cascade over the stainless-steel railings and glass balcony panels.

 

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RCMI condo tower nearly 1/4 of the way up

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RCMI condos

August 25 2012: The RCMI Residences condo building on University Avenue below Dundas Street has climbed above 10 floors on its way to 42

 

RCMI condos

August 25 2012: Simcoe Street view of the west side of the slender tower

 

RCMI Condos

This artistic rendering of the RCMI Residences tower once appeared on the website for its developer, Tribute Communities. It shows how the condo tower will compare to neaighbouring office highrises and hospitals on the west side of University Avenue

 

RCMI on the rise: Now that construction has climbed more than 10 floors, the condo tower being built on the site of the historic Royal Canadian Military Institute is beginning to make a big visual impact on University Avenue.

RCMI Residences will rise 42 storeys at 426 University Avenue, just below Dundas Street, and will tower above the adjacent office buildings to its north and south. The 312-unit building will include new facilities for the military institute on its first six floors, and will incorporate the rebuilt heritage facade of the RCMI’s 100-year-old headquarters, which had to be dismantled in 2012 to make way for condo construction.

 

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First underground floor slowly starts taking shape at RBC WaterPark Place office construction site

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RBC WaterPark Place

August 15 2012: A view of construction progress on the western two-thirds of the construction site for the 30-storey RBC WaterPark Place tower at 88 Queen’s Quay West

 

RBC WaterPark Place

August 15 2012: Building forms near the west end of the pit

 

WaterPark Place Toronto

July 3 2011: The tower will rise on the parking lot site west of the 24-storey WaterPark Place 1 tower, built in 1986 (left), and the 18-storey WPP 2 tower, built in 1990

 

RBC WaterPark Place

This artistic rendering depicts a southwest street-level view of RBC WaterPark Place from Queen’s Quay Blvd. The RBC tower was designed by Toronto’s WZMH Architects. The rendering appears on the project webpage for the tower’s developer, Oxford Properties.

 

RBC WaterPark Place site

 November 2 2010: This photo, taken from the CN Tower, shows the parking lot area where the RBC WaterPark Place tower is currently under construction

 

New bank tower: Construction crews have been busy laying the foundation this summer for the city’s newest downtown bank tower, RBC WaterPark Place.

The 30-storey glass tower, which was designed by Toronto’s WZMH Architects, will rise on what used to be a large surface parking lot immediately west of the two granite and glass WaterPark Place towers that have been fixtures at Toronto’s Harbourfront area for more than two decades. (The 24-storey WaterPark Place 1 tower was built in 1986, and the 18-storey WaterPark Place 2 tower was built in 1990.)

I recall that when the first two towers were constructed, people were predicting that a third — and possibly even a fourth — highrise would join them within just a few years. But nothing happened during the office building drought that ensued. Now, 22 years later, work is well underway on what will become RBC’s national headquarters for Canadian banking operations.

 

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