Tag Archives: Hospital for Sick Children

Sea of scaffolding rises at corner of Bay & Elm as SickKids Tower climbs toward third floor

April 30 2011: Stacks of scaffolding rise more than two storeys high at the SickKids Research & Learning Tower construction site

April 30 2011: A construction worker walks the plank in a thicket of scaffolding at the SickKids Research & Learning Tower construction site

Going from ground to third floor: Since they reached street grade 46 days ago, crews at the SickKids Research & Learning Tower have maintained a steady pace of above-ground construction milestones. On April 19, they completed the placement of the ground floor slab, along with vertical walls and columns between there and the second floor. Two weeks ago, they finished pouring the second level concrete floor slab, and were well on their way to erecting formwork, reinforcing steel and concrete for the vertical walls and columns between the second and third floors. Meanwhile, progress continues on the southwest corner of the building site, where the SickKids Tower first began noticeably taking shape above Elm Street. About 14 days ago, the workers completed concrete placement for the second floor auditorium, then finished installing the acoustical floating floor. Plenty of activity has been happening where the sun doesn’t shine, too. The interior masonry walls of the P3 level were completed two weeks ago, with installation of mechanical and electrical rough-ins progressing well. Interior masonry walls were 75% complete on P2, while on P1 the mechanical and electrical overhead rough-ins were well underway and work on the interior masonry walls was beginning. But it’s above ground, of course, where the work is really starting to make an impact on the surrounding streetscape. With construction approaching the third floor, the building activity is obvious to passersby on Walton, Bay and Elm Streets, and is noticeable from a block away in each direction. Soon, the tower will start blocking some sightlines, including views of the CN Tower from the Bay & Gerrard area. Below is a construction webcam photo showing building activity at the Tower site this afternoon, along with photos I snapped at the beginning and the end of April.

May 3 2011: SickKids Research & Learning Tower webcam view of construction

April 8 2011: Forms for the second floor appear above the Bay Street hoarding

April 8 2011: North view of the tower site from the corner of Bay & Elm Street

April 8 2011: Forms are in place for the concrete pour for the second floor

April 30 2011: Second floor construction viewed from Walton Street looking south

April 30 2011: Construction progress viewed from the northeast corner of Bay & Walton Streets. Won’t be long before the tower blocks this view of the CN Tower.

April 30 2011: Vertical forms rise from the second floor of the tower, viewed here from the east side of Bay Street just below Walton Street

April 30 2011: West view of the site from the opposite side of Bay Street

April 30 2011: Construction view from the southeast corner of Bay & Elm Streets

April 30 2011: Elm Street view of stacks of scaffolding rising on the site

April 30 2011: Soon, the construction will block Elm Street views of the LuCliff tower at Bay & Gerrard Street (rear) and the College Park condo towers at 777 Bay Street (right rear)

April 30 2011: A construction worker is barely visible as he stands in one of the stacks of scaffolding at the southeast corner of the Tower construction site

April 30 2011: North view of the construction site from Elm Street

April 30 2011: The stacks of scaffolding viewed from Elm Street

April 30 2011: Elm Street view of the auditorium construction at the southwest corner of the SickKids Tower site

April 30 2011: Auditorium construction at the tower’s southwest corner

April 30 2011: Elm Street view of the auditorium construction progress

April 30 2011: Looking up from Elm Street at the southwest side of the building

April 30 2011: Looking east along Elm Street at the tower’s ground level

April 30 2011: Looking northeast on Elm Street toward Bay Street

April 30 2011: The SickKids Tower viewed from the southwest corner of Bay & Elizabeth Streets

Keeping tabs on … SickKids Tower on Bay Street

SickKids Research & Learning Tower design details becoming evident in construction along Elm Street

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SickKids Research and Learning Tower taking shape along Elm Street

Artistic rendering of SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Beacon on Bay: Although foundation work is still below grade level along the Bay Street portion of its construction site, some design elements of the SickKids Research and Learning Tower are already obvious on the fast-progressing Elm Street section of the project — particularly a long, rectangular row of windows in what will be a patterned wall above Elm.

The $400 million facility will feature 750,000 square feet of space and 21 floors rising approximately 117 meters (383 feet). Sick Kids Hospital boasts that its new building, scheduled to open in 2013, will be not only “an architectural landmark,” but “a beacon in Toronto’s Discovery District and a magnet for the best and brightest child health professionals around the world.”

If the finished tower winds up looking like artistic renderings I’ve seen, it should be a beacon indeed — a bright, beautiful building that should drastically improve and enhance a rather unsightly stretch of Bay Street (the site itself used to be a parking lot).

I’m also fervently hoping that the tower will rise tall enough to block views of its next-door neighbour, the Enwave steam plant smokestack on Walton Street — especially views from the south, since the stack stands out like a sore thumb between the graceful curving towers of City Hall.

There’s a wealth of information about the Research and Learning Tower project, as well as renderings of the building interior, at the SickKids Foundation website.

The tower is a project of Toronto’s Diamond + Schmitt Architects. Below are several recent photos showing how far construction has progressed, as well as a rendering of the tower viewed from Bay Street.

SickKids tower construction viewed from Bay Street below Gerrard Street

SickKids tower construction viewed from Bay Street

SickKids tower construction progress at corner of Bay & Elm Streets

SickKids tower construction progress along Elm Street

Progress of foundation work for SickKids tower

SickKids tower construction progress along Elm Street

Artistic rendering of SickKids Research and Learning Tower

I’m hoping the SickKids tower will be high enough to block views of the Enwave steam plant smokestack between the towers of Toronto City Hall

Watching T.O. grow

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A construction crane at sunset April 8 2010

Construction season: We Canadians have long joked that our country sees only two seasons: winter and construction. Lately, however, Toronto has been under the influence of a microclimate that produces just one season lasting all year long: construction.

Toronto has been experiencing a building boom of unparalleled proportions since the early 2000s. There have been major construction projects in nearly every downtown neighbourhood, with more on the way. It’s almost impossible to walk more than a few blocks without passing a building site, a sandwich board sidewalk sign advertising a new condo development, or a zoning notice advising the public that a proposal has been submitted to City Hall to develop a specific property. On downtown streets, cement mixers and dusty dump trucks are as common a sight as buses and streetcars. So are scaffolding, sidewalk detours and traffic lane closures. And if you look up, you’re bound to see a nearby construction crane reaching skyward.

Just from my apartment balcony, I can see two office towers, one five-star hotel and seven condo highrises — each more than 30 storeys tall — that have been built in the past two years alone. I can see the tallest skyscraper in Canada, First Canadian Place, getting a $100 million facelift as new cladding is installed on its 72-storey façade. I can see the historic Maple Leaf Gardens hockey arena being converted into a mixed-use facility featuring a Loblaws grocery store and a student athletic centre for Ryerson University. In just a few weeks I’ll be able to see a new condo tower going up on Bay Street, and by spring I should be able to see as many as five cranes — three for condo projects, one for the Hospital for Sick Children’s new Research and Learning Tower, and one for a new Women’s College Hospital building.

I think it’s cool to see so much construction activity on the skyline – my balcony view is constantly changing, and there’s always something different to see. But when I walk around downtown and discover how much development is already underway or proposed for the near future, I’m almost blown away. Toronto is growing by great leaps and bounds. I have stumbled across fully-finished new buildings where I saw only a zoning sign or an excavation the last time I passed through the neighbourhood. Or I’ll notice that I can no longer see the CN Tower from a certain area because a tower under construction has completely blocked the view. Entire streetscapes and neighbourhoods change so rapidly, I can barely remember what they looked like before new highrises started going up. I daydream about construction frequently, imagining how the city streets and skyline will look with dozens of additional skyscrapers.

A few years ago, I began carrying my camera during walks downtown, so I could snap photos of construction projects and sites for proposed developments – just to keep track of what’s going on, and to show friends who used to live here just how much the city has changed since they left. Thanks to my little hobby, I’ve now got thousands of photos of dozens of different building projects. Organizing some of those pics into a blog seemed like a logical next step, so here you have it: The Toronto Blog. If you’re a resident or fan of Toronto, or just an architecture or construction aficionado, I hope you’ll come along as I track the building boom and watch T.O. grow!

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.

www.TheTorontoBlog.com

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing Building Boom.