Tag Archives: Festival Tower

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

294 Adelaide Street West

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

 

Alice Fazooli's Italian Grill

… 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

 

Alice Fazooli restaurant building demolition

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

 

Alice Fazooli restaurant building

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

 

 The Bond Condominiums

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

 

The Bond Condominiums

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.

 

 

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

It’s showtime as Cinema Tower starts to climb

Cinema Tower condos Toronto

March 7 2012: Cinema Tower construction viewed from the NW corner of Widmer and Adelaide Streets. The tower has started to rise above its 5-floor podium, which will hold four levels of above-ground parking.

<>

Cinema Tower condos Toronto

March 7 2012: A closer view, from the northwest, of the tower segment of the condo project. Festival Tower stands to the rear left.

<>

Cinema Tower condos Toronto

March 7 2012: Cinema Tower’s gently curved floorplates contrast sharply with the rectangular podium, viewed from Widmer Street

<>

Cinema Tower condos Toronto

March 7 2012: Looking up the south side of the building from the laneway behind Festival Tower and the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The entrance ramp for the above-ground parking is situated at the bottom right corner of the podium.

<>

Higher drama: Cinema Tower has started to display its elegant curves as the residential component of the 43-storey condo complex continues to climb above its base at the southeast corner of Widmer and Adelaide Streets.

For nearly six months since last summer, when the building began to rise above grade, construction of the podium took center stage. A large, rectangular concrete structure, the podium features four levels of indoor parking above street-level retail space and a ground-floor lobby and concierge area for the condo tower. (Below ground are four additional levels of parking. About 200 vehicle spaces there will be operated as a commercial parking facility, while the other 200 spots in the building will be private parking for residents.)

The construction action got a little more interesting in late January when the first of 38 condo floors began to take shape atop the podium. With four levels of condos now constructed, the tower is already developing a dramatic presence in the area, and will continue to bask in the limelight as it gradually grows taller on the Entertainment District skyline.

 

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Pedestrian hurt when glass falls on Bay Street from shattered balcony panel on Murano south tower

Murano condo wood balcony panel

August 15 2011: A wood panel indicates where glass broke and fell onto Bay Street from a balcony on the south Murano condo tower this morning

 

street closure sign at Bay & Grenville Streets

August 15 2011: Police closed the east traffic lane and sidewalk on Bay Street, as well as the intersection of Bay and Grenville Streets, after broken glass from a Murano condo balcony panel plunged to the ground and hit a passerby

 

traffic jam at Bay and Grenville Streets

August 15 2011: The driving restrictions cause traffic chaos on Bay Street below the Murano towers at 3 p.m. as police wait for crews to install scaffolding on the sidewalks. A pedestrian was injured by falling glass three hours earlier.

 

South tower’s turn: Local news media are reporting that a pedestrian suffered minor injuries this morning after she was struck by pieces of broken glass that fell from a balcony panel on the south Murano condo tower at the corner of Bay and Grenville Streets.

The woman was hurt shortly before noon when a glass panel shattered on an upper-floor balcony on the tower’s northwest corner, showering pieces of glass onto Bay Street. Although reports provide conflicting information about the nature of the woman’s injuries — with some stories saying she sustained injuries to her arm, and others describing a hand injury — all media accounts say the injury was minor and not life-threatening. Although it’s fortunate the woman wasn’t seriously hurt, the incident is bound to raise serious concerns about the safety of glass balcony panels not only because it marks the second time in three days that glass has shattered on a downtown condo tower, but because it’s at least the fourth tower to experience problems with panel breakage so far this summer.

On Saturday afternoon, a panel plunged off a 32nd-floor balcony at the recently-opened One Bedford condo tower in the Annex. According to an online Toronto Star report, police said “no-one was injured when the single, large pane of glass fell, bounced off the front-door overhang and smashed onto the ground” around 2.25 p.m. Police closed Bedford Road from Bloor Street to Prince Arthur Avenue for several hours while the incident was investigated. The broken panel was replaced with a temporary wood replacement (see photos below).

On August 2, a balcony panel on the Festival Tower condo highrise shattered and fell onto John Street. Nobody was hurt in that incident, but police closed John Street between King and Adelaide Streets as a precaution until Festival Tower’s developer, The Daniels Corporation, could get safety scaffolding installed on the sidewalk. Another panel had broken on Festival Tower only three weeks before that.

On August 1, two panels shattered and fell from the north Murano condo tower at the corner of Bay and Grosvenor Streets. Those incidents occurred mere days after City of Toronto building inspectors ordered Murano’s developer, Lanterra Developments, to remove and replace all of the balcony panels and railings from the north tower. That tower has been plagued with balcony breakage; in fact, the city ordered Lanterra to undertake the balcony remediation program after two panels broke and fell from the north tower on July 21. Panels had previously fallen from that tower on several separate occasions during the past year. Lanterra, incidentally, was One Bedford’s developer.

Online reports about today’s south Murano tower incident can be viewed on cp24.com, cbc.ca, and on the Toronto Star website, where there is a photo showing shattered glass in the balcony frame before it was cleared out and replaced with a piece of wood. [Additional updated coverage is provided in an August 16  2011 online story in the Globe and Mail.]

I have published extensive information and photos from previous balcony glass breakage incidents in earlier blog reports, including posts on August 4 2011, July 28 2011, July 21 2011, June 21 2011, February 2 2011, and January 18 2011. Below are photos I have taken in the past several days at Festival Tower and One Bedford, along with more pics I took this afternoon following the latest Murano panel break.

 

Festival Tower condo highrise Toronto

August 12 2011: Looking up the east side of Festival Tower, from which a balcony panel fell to the ground on John Street on August 2

 

Festival Tower condo highrise Toronto

August 12 2011: The circle indicates the Festival Tower balcony from which a glass panel plunged and smashed into pieces on John Street on August 2

 

Festival Tower balcony panels

August 12 2011: The broken panel has been replaced with a new one which appears to be a slightly different shade than the originals on the tower

 

One Bedford Condos Toronto

July 13 2011: Looking up the west side of the One Bedford condo tower. On Saturday, a glass panel fell from a 32nd floor balcony on this side of the building.

 

One Bedford Condos Toronto

August 14 2011: A piece of wood is temporarily replacing the glass panel that broke and fell from this One Bedford balcony on Saturday

 

One Bedford condo tower Toronto

August 14 2011: A closer view of the One Bedford condo balcony from which a glass panel fell on the weekend. Fortunately, no-one was hurt.

 

Murano north condo tower Toronto

August 12 2011: The north side of the north Murano condo tower, from which all balcony glass panels, dividers and railings have been removed on order by the City of Toronto. The removal and replacement project will cost the condo building’s developer, Lanterra Developments, millions of dollars.

 

Murano north and south condo towers Toronto

August 12 2011: The north Murano tower, sans balcony panels and railings, and the south tower rising behind it on Grenville Street

 

Murano north condo tower Toronto

August 12 2011: Scaffolding protects the sidewalk outside the north Murano condo tower. For more than a week after the late July incidents, north tower residents had to enter their building through the south tower.

Murano condo towers Toronto

August 12 2011: Panels have been removed from about two thirds of the balconies on the south side of the Murano north tower

 

Murano condo towers Toronto

August 12 2011: Another view of the south side of the Murano north tower

 

Murano condos Toronto

August 12 2011: A closer look at the balconies from which glass has been removed on the north tower’s south face

 

Murano condo towers Toronto

August 15 2011: The two Murano condo towers, viewed this afternoon from the the SW corner of Bay and Grenville Streets. For the past two weeks, crews have been removing glass panels and railings from balconies on the north tower (left). Today, a panel fell off the south tower (right) for the first time.

 

Murano condo tower Toronto

August 15 2011: Glass shattered and fell this morning from a balcony (circled) on the upper northwest corner of the Murano south condo tower

 

Murano south condo tower Toronto

August 15 2011: A replacement wooden panel has temporarily been installed on the balcony from which the glass fell this morning

 

Murano condo south tower Toronto

August 15 2011: Another view of the replacement wooden panel

 

Murano south condo tower Toronto

August 15 2011: A closer look at the balcony panel from which the broken glass fell

 

Police outside Murano north condo tower Toronto

August 15 2011: Police enforce sidewalk and street lane closures on Bay Street below the north Murano condo tower.

 

Toronto police car at Bay & Grenville Streets

August 15 2011: A Toronto police cruiser blocks vehicles from turning off Bay Street onto Grenville Street

 

police at Bay & Grenville Streets Toronto

August 15 2011: Police enforce traffic restrictions at the intersection of Bay & Grenville Streets below the Murano south condo tower

 

Bay Street sidewalk outside the Murano condos

August 15 2011: The Bay and Grenville Street sidewalks below the Murano condo towers have been closed to pedestrians

 

sidewalk closure sign on Bay Street

August 15 2011: The sidewalk closure sign at the corner of Bay & Grenville Streets

 

sidewalk closure at Bay and Grenville Streets

 August 15 2011: A Toronto police officer enforces the sidewalk closure at the southeast corner of Bay and Grenville Streets

 

sidewalk closure at Bay and Grenville Streets

August 15 2011: The east lane of Bay Street was closed to vehicles, as was the section of Grenville Street below the Murano south condo tower

 

sidewalk closure at Bay and Grenville Streets

August 15 2011: Police said the road and sidewalk closures could continue until scaffolding is  installed below the Murano south tower

 

street closure sign on Grenville Street

August 15 2011: Grenville Street is closed to vehicular traffic between St Vincent Lane and Bay Street, but the south sidewalk is open to pedestrians

 

Balcony glass removal from Murano north condo tower

August 15 2011: A crew continues to remove glass panels and railings from the south side of the north Murano tower

 

 

Police close sections of downtown streets after more glass panels break on condo tower balconies

Festival Tower condos Toronto

November 29 2010:  Glass balcony panels on the Festival Tower condo highrise in the Entertainment District. Two panels on the tower have broken this summer.

 

Danger zones: In the wake of media reports that more glass balcony panels have fallen from two different downtown condo towers this week, I’m beginning to wonder if I should start wearing a hard hat whenever I leave my building. Seriously. I’m not worried about walking below my own condo building — all of the balconies on our 30-year-old highrise have metal railings. But almost every day I do walk below new condo towers that have glass balconies, and I recently walked below two of the condo towers that made headlines with balcony glass breakage this week.

On July 19, I crossed a section of Grosvenor Street that, just two days later, was showered with pieces of glass that broke on two separate balconies at the Murano condo tower at 37 Grosvenor Street. This past Monday afternoon I nearly walked up Bay Street past the Murano, but changed my mind two blocks away and took a different route. It wasn’t until an hour or so later that I learned another Murano balcony panel had shattered that very afternoon, spilling glass onto Bay Street — and that yet another panel had broken on the building’s east side just 12 hours earlier. Police cordoned off one northbound lane of Bay Street as a precaution; they already had closed part of Grosvenor Street and nearby St Vincent Lane because of the July 21 incidents. Coincidentally, I had just been walking around the Entertainment District, where I stood below the Festival Tower condo building on John Street to take photos of daredevils doing the CN Tower’s EdgeWalk.  Around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, a panel on one of Festival Tower’s 27th floor balconies shattered, raining broken glass onto John Street. I had not been aware that another balcony panel on the same tower had broken just three weeks before.

Monday’s double-break at Murano occurred mere days after contractors had started removing panels from the tower after City of Toronto building inspectors ordered Murano’s developer, Lanterra Developments, to replace the balcony glass — a multimillion-dollar remediation project that could take several months to complete.

Why has the balcony glass been breaking? Speculation is running rampant in public online discussion forums, with commentators blaming faulty manufacturing, installation, or balcony design, and some others conjecturing that developers or builders may have been “cheaping out” on materials to cut construction costs.  Some blame the recent extreme heat, some say it’s caused by wind, but at this point experts can’t yet pinpoint the precise cause of the breakage at Murano and Festival Tower.

A story posted on the Toronto Star website Tuesday quotes Jim Laughlin, a senior City of Toronto building official, as saying the City ordered Lanterra to replace the Murano balcony glass following the building’s fifth consecutive breakage incident “because we don’t know why this is happening.” The story also quotes Lanterra president Barry Fenton as saying the company has engineers “performing an autopsy of the glass to figure out what happened.” According to Fenton, the glass and railings on the Grosvenor Street Murano condo tower were installed two years ago by a company that is no longer in business. A different company installed the balconies on the adjacent Murano south condo tower at 38 Grenville Street, where no panels have broken.

Meanwhile, the CBC reports that Festival Tower’s developer, The Daniels Corporation, will temporarily install scaffolding below the building as a precautionary measure to protect pedestrians in case any more glass breaks and falls. In the meantime, police have closed John Street to traffic between King and Adelaide Streets. The CBC quotes a Daniels executive as saying the company knows why a panel shattered three weeks ago — apparently a metal railing expanded during the hot temperatures, putting too much pressure on the glass — but doesn’t know what caused Tuesday’s incident.  It’s suspected that something may have struck the glass, the executive said. “The way the balcony has been designed, it’s in accordance with all the codes and practice with construction technique but for some reason we seem to have this problem with the tempered glass is letting go,” Daniels senior vice president Tom Dutton told the CBC.

However, a University of Toronto engineering professor says glass breakage “happens all the time.” “It is known as a delayed spontaneous fracture,” Prof. Doug Perovic told the Toronto Star in a story published on the newspaper’s website Wednesday night. It could be caused either by imperfections that occur in the glass during the manufacturing process, or it could be related to the installation process. In both instances, stressors such as wind and temperature can later increase pressure on the glass, eventually causing it to fracture. Prof. Perovic is one of two engineering experts who discuss the breakage phenomenon in “Shattered glass: what causes panes to fall off,” an in-depth report posted on the CBC website today. [Note: Wednesday’s story in the Star includes a “Falling Glass” summary listing dates on which glass apparently broke on Murano and Festival Tower. It mentions June 17 as the date for one Murano breakage, an event I reported in my June 21 2011 post. In addition, the Star says Dec. 1 2010 was when the “first known pane of glass explodes and falls from the north tower of 37 Grosvenor Street”; however, in a story published on Sept. 18 2010, the Star itself reported on two breakage incidents that occurred one week apart last September. I reported on the December occurrence in a January 18 2011 post.]

It now appears that at least one more panel has broken on Festival Tower so far this year. A story in today’s Star quotes a Festival Tower resident, Omar Jabri, describing how a pane fell off his 16th floor balcony back in May. Jabri actually happened to be standing at the corner of King & John Streets on Tuesday evening when the panel on the 27th floor shattered; he told the Star he saw the glass fall onto John Street. I haven’t been able to get down to the area to take photos, but was surprised when I saw pictures in the Star and other media showing a Festival Tower balcony with a missing panel. In February, I snapped a photo of a Festival Tower balcony missing a panel, also on the east (John Street) side of the building. The pane was missing from the exact same part of the balcony railing as the pane that fell from the tower this week (see photo, below). Could that be just a curious coincidence?

Today I walked past the Murano condos to see how the glass removal project is progressing. Most of the balcony panels on the north side of the Grosvenor Street building have been removed, with four and a half floors still to go as well as several vertical rows of panes, rising about two-thirds of the way up the tower, for balconies near the northeast corner. No glass has been removed from the south side of the tower yet.  Part of Grosvenor Street and St Vincent Lane are still closed to traffic, as is the right-hand northbound lane of Bay Street between Grenville Street and Grosvenor. The Bay Street sidewalk alongside the Murano complex is completely closed to pedestrians, and police officers are stationed at both ends of the sidewalk to ensure people detour around the site.

Here’s hoping that Lanterra’s glass “autopsy” and the Daniels investigations are able to quickly pinpoint the cause of the breakage — and determine an effective solution. I’d like to be able to walk our downtown streets without having to wear protective headgear, and I’m sure most Torontonians feel the same way.

Below are recent photos of the balcony removal work at the Murano condo on Grosvenor Street, along with some photos I’ve shot in the past showing the glass balcony panes on Festival Tower.

 

Murano Condos Toronto

 July 21 2011: The Murano north tower on Grosvenor Street, left, has suffered about eight incidents of balcony glass breakage this year.

 

Murano condos toronto

 July 24 2011: A crew on a swing stage inspects the Murano north condo tower as work begins to remove all balcony glass and railings from the building.

 

Murano condos toronto

 July 24 2011: Workers remove a glass partition from between two balconies on the north side of the Grosvenor Street Murano tower

 

Murano condos Toronto

 July 27 2011: Crews remove balcony glass from the Murano north condo tower. The dismantling of all of the building’s balconies is expected to finish next week.

 

Murano Condos north tower

August 4 2011: Balcony glass removal progress on the tower’s north side

 

Murano condos north tower

August 4 2011: Panels still must be removed from four and a half full floors, along with a vertical row of balconies near the northeast corner of the building

 

Murano condos north tower

August 4 2011: A work crew removes balcony panels and railings on the north tower. The yellow signs posted on the balcony doors advise residents that they cannot use their balconies during the city-ordered remediation project.

 

Murano condo north tower

August 4 2011: A contractor removes a balcony support pillar

 

Northbound Bay Street between Grenville and Grosvenor Streets

August 4 2011: The right-hand northbound lane of Bay Street is closed between Grenville and Grosvenor Streets, as is the sidewalk. I counted seven Toronto police officers enforcing the street and sidewalk closures at lunch time today.

 

Murano Condos Toronto south tower

 July 21 2011: The Murano south condo tower at 38 Grenville Street has not experienced any balcony panel breakage

 

Festival Tower condos Toronto

 March 8 2010: Balcony panel installation underway during construction of the Festival Tower condo highrise on John Street

 

Festival Tower condos Toronto

February 3 2011: A Festival Tower balcony was missing one of its glass panels last winter. There had been no reports of glass breakage at the time.

 

Festival Tower condos Toronto

November 2 2010:  CN Tower observation deck view of the 42-storey Festival Tower that opened at King & John Streets last year. The podium is the TIFF Bell Lightbox, home to the Toronto International Film Festival

 

 

Construction crane going up at Cinema Tower site

Cinema Tower condos

Partially assembled crane viewed from Adelaide Street on Feb. 17 2011


Lights, camera, crane!: A work crew was busy assembling a crane in the Cinema Tower excavation when I walked past the condo construction site at the southeast corner of Widmer and Adelaide Streets this afternoon.

A project of The Daniels Corporation and a design of Toronto’s Kirkor Architects & Planners, Cinema Tower will rise 43 storeys on a site formerly occupied by a parking lot. It will be a new next-door neighbour for another Daniels condominium project,  Festival Tower,  and the adjacent TIFF Bell Lightbox on King Street West.  And in just a few more years, it will have yet another condo tower neighbour when the 43-storey Pinnacle on Adelaide gets built on the parking lot right next door.

With three tall condo buildings crowded together on just one city block, will Cinema Tower be able to distinguish itself and stand out, or will it just blend into the skyline with its neighbours?

“The challenge for each of the neighbouring buildings,” the Kirkor architects explain on their website, “is their response to the TIFF building, especially the height, massing and scale as the City of Toronto defines the Festival Tower as the anchor to the site. The response was to create a tower that provided a facade centred towards Adelaide Street with sheer curved curtain glass resting on a podium that evokes a modern interpretation of the warehouse streetscape of the existing neighborhood.”

I’m anxious to watch Cinema Tower go up;  though I’ve seen only one architectural rendering of the tower so far, I think it brings substantially more class, style and interest to the area than the boring, boxy Festival Tower.

Below are some photos of workers preparing to assemble a crane segment today, along with other pics I’ve taken at the Cinema Tower site in the past three years. There also are two excavation photos from the condo project’s website.

 

Cinema Tower

Cinema Tower rendering on a billboard next to the construction site


Cinema Tower

September 22 2008: CN Tower view of the TIFF Bell Lightbox and Festival Tower under construction on King Street West. The Cinema Tower site is the parking lot in the upper left corner (the two buildings have since been demolished); the Pinnacle on Adelaide will rise on the separate parking lot to the right.


Cinema Tower

September 3 2008: The parking lot that used to occupy the Cinema Tower site


Cinema Tower

Cinema Tower development proposal sign


Cinema Tower

October 20 2010: Early stages of excavation at the Cinema Tower site


Cinema Tower

October 20 2010: Widmer Street view of the Cinema Tower site. When finished, the condo building will block most of this view of the Financial District.


Cinema Tower

Cinema Tower website photo of excavation activity on the condo property


Cinema Tower

Another Cinema Tower website photo of excavation progress. The building in the bottom left corner is the Champs Food Supplies store. The parking lot on the right is the Pinnacle on Adelaide condo tower site.


Cinema Tower

November 2 2010: CN Tower view of the Cinema Tower excavation


Cinema Tower

November 23 2010: Billboards on hoarding next to the condo excavation


Cinema Tower

November 23 2010: Billboards along the sidewalk on Adelaide Street West


Cinema Tower

November 23 2010: Billboards along Adelaide Street


Cinema Tower

November 29 2010: The Champs Food Supplies Ltd store on Widmer Street will be dwarfed by the 43-storey Cinema Tower and Pinnacle condos


Cinema Tower

November 29 2011: Billboards at the Cinema Tower sales office on Adelaide Street


Cinema Tower condos

January 14 2011: Cinema Tower excavation viewed from Widmer Street


Cinema Tower

February 17 2011: Widmer Street closed for Cinema Tower crane installation


Cinema Tower

Work crew prepares a crane segment for assembly


Cinema Tower

Crane segment to be hoisted for assembly above the Cinema Tower excavation


Cinema Tower

Operator of the crane that will hoist the segment onto the construction site crane


Cinema Tower

Crane installation viewed from south end of Widmer Street


Cinema Tower

The partially assembled construction crane above the excavation