Tag Archives: Rudy Wallman Architects Inc.

Cladding & glass on new condo/loft complex brings shades of grey to Front Street West

300 Front Street West Toronto

July 27 2012: A view from the west of construction progress on the Three Hundred Front Street West condo tower being built by Tridel at Front & John Streets

 

300 Front Street West Toronto

July 27 2012: Charcoal grey and silver cladding is being installed on the southwest corner of what ultimately will be a 49-storey condo tower …

 

300 Front Street West Toronto

… with an attached 15-storey loft building …

 

300 Front Street West Toronto

… both of which are seen here from the south side of Front Street last Friday

 

Nearly halfway there: The exterior colour of a condominium tower currently under construction on Front Street West shares two things in common with one of the year’s most popular novels. Not only do shades of grey figure prominently with the building’s cladding and the book’s title, but both have been selling exceptionally well also.

Three Hundred Front Street West, a project of Toronto’s Tridel group of real estate development and management companies, is an L-shaped condo-loft complex being built at the northwest corner of Front and John Streets, just north of the CN Tower. The condo tower will soar 49 storeys above the street, while the loft section of the building will rise just 15 floors.  As of last week, the tower was approaching the halfway mark, while work on the midrise loft wing had reached the 12th level.

 

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Crane installation underway at X2 Condos site

X2 Condos crane installation

March 10 2012: Charles Street is blocked to traffic while a portable crane installs the fixed-position construction crane that will build X2 Condos

 

X2 Condos crane installation

March 10 2012: The crane is being installed in the northwest corner of the 5-level-deep excavation for the 49-storey condo tower

 

X2 Condos crane installation

March 10 2012: The blue lower half of the crane rises from the deep excavation only meters from the south side of Charles Street

 

Assembly day: Another construction crane is rising on the city skyline today, joining dozens of other cranes already working on major condo, office and other building projects throughout the downtown core. The new crane will soar skyward above Jarvis and Charles Streets, where it will help construct the  X2 Condos tower for developer Great Gulf Homes.

X2 Condos will be a 49-storey tower designed by Toronto’s Rudy Wallman Architects Inc. It will be a “sister” skyscraper to Great Gulf’s highly popular X Condos, a 44-storey tower which opened for occupancy in the summer of 2010 just a stone’s throw away on the north side of  Charles Street. (X Condos was designed by a different architectural firm, Peter Clewes and his team at architectsAlliance of Toronto.)

 

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Contractors digging deep foundation for 49-storey Three Hundred Front Street West condo tower

300 Front Street West condo tower construction

March 29 2011: Excavation machines and equipment inside the deep pit at the Three Hundred Front Street West condo tower construction site

 

Three Hundred Front Street West condo

From the Tridel website, an artistic illustration of a southeast night view of the Three Hundred Front Street West condo building

 

Deep dig: An already huge hole in the ground is getting even bigger at the northwest corner of Front and John Streets, where Toronto developer Tridel is building its latest luxury condominium tower on the site of a former parking lot. Designed by Rudy Wallman of Toronto’s Wallman Architects, the L-shaped Three Hundred Front Street West will actually be two buildings in one. A 49-storey tower offering a variety of 1- and 2-bedroom condo suites plus spacious penthouse residences will rise from the west side of the property, while a connected 15-storey loft building will stand to the north. A grand two-storey lobby entrance will overlook a large landscaped garden gracing the southeast corner of Front & John.

Design-wise, Three Hundred Front Street West will bring a bit of Big Apple appeal to downtown Toronto. “I was inspired by the classic skyscrapers of the modern era to create a structure that is timeless and elegant,” Wallman explains in a video presentation on the Tridel website.  Three Hundred Front Street West, he adds, will be “a unique and elegant addition” to the neighbourhood, complementing the new Ritz-Carlton Toronto hotel and condo tower one block to the east, as well as the new Festival Tower and TIFF Bell Lightbox buildings two blocks north at John and King. Interior designer Alex Chapman of Chapman Design Group says Wallman has conceived a “Manhattan-style” tower that is “totally reminiscent of many of the famous complexes” in New York City. Unfortunately, I haven’t been to Manhattan yet, so I can’t draw any comparisons myself. But I do think that,  with its soaring height and its striking silver and charcoal grey glass exterior, Three Hundred Front Street West will become a landmark commanding attention both in its immediate area and on the city skyline. The neighbourhood is dominated by office and condo towers with similar green glass exteriors, so Three Hundred Front Street West’s unique silver and grey tower accents should provide a refreshing visual break from the rest as well as an attractive addition to the skyline.

Amenities-wise, Three Hundred Front Street West will be a contemporary condo offering the look and feel of an exclusive, upscale boutique hotel. The airy two-storey lobby off Front Street will be “a sophisticated urban arrival space” with a lounge atmosphere, Chapman says, while a 13,500-square-foot recreational center on the 15th floor will feature a “professional-level” exercise area. The rooftop of the loft wing will look like a chic “urban resort” with its infinity pool, sundecks, Roman fountain and barbecue. Interior recreational amenities will include a party room with south views, a private dining room with a catering-size kitchen and its own “cocktail balcony,” a poker room, billiards room and lounge. I’m jealous; with the exception of a ground-level swimming pool, all of the amenity areas in the downtown condo where I live are windowless basement spaces with all the sophistication of a recreation room from a 1970s-era suburban house.

Overall, I think Three Hundred Front Street West will significantly enhance the streetscape in one of the city’s most popular tourist areas, particularly since it will block many sightlines of the Windsor hydroelectric station on Wellington Street. And with plans in the works for John Street to get a major makeover in the next several years, Three Hundred Front Street West’s main entrance park will become a classy southern gateway to the Entertainment District’s main north-south street. The only downside to the development, that I can see, is the block full of ugly power transformers on its north flank. But since Wallman’s design means all of the loft suites face south, their residents will still enjoy good views and won’t get stuck overlooking electrical equipment.

Below are photos I’ve taken of recent construction activity at Three Hundred Front Street West, along with several artistic illustrations provided by Tridel that suggest how the tower, its street-level exterior, and its landscaped park will appear. Additional artistic illustrations of the building exterior, lobby and amenities, as well as floor plans and brief video presentations by Rudy Wallman and Alex Chapman, are available on the Three Hundred Front Street West website.

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

November 28 2010:  Signage on hoarding around the construction site

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

November 23 2010: North-facing view of the 300 Front West site

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

November 23 2010: A tall shoring machine at work on the condo excavation site

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

November 23 2010: Northeast view of the condo construction site. The building with the red window frames is the CBC broadcasting headquarters on the southeast corner of Front & John Streets.

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

November 23 2011: Northeast view across the 300 Front Street West condo site

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

January 14 2011: The ramp leading from Front Street into the excavation

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

January 14 2011: Some of the hydroelectrical equipment at the Windsor Station on the north side of the 300 Front Street West site. Thankfully, the condo will block views of the hydro station from most parts of Front and John Streets.

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

February 18 2011: A view of the crane recently installed on the site

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

March 29 2011: Excavation machines inside the pit at 300 Front West

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

March 29 2011: Looking toward the northeast corner of the excavation

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

March 29 2011: Excavation machines at the bottom of the deep pit

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

March 29 2011: The supporting wall on the north side of the excavation

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

March 29 2011: Excavation activity at the eastern half of the site

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

March 29 2011:  Considerable excavation work remains on the west side of the site

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

March 29 2011: Looking toward Front Street from the site’s NE corner

 

300 Front Street West condo tower

March 29 2011:  Slick white hoarding protects pedestrians on Front Street

 

Three Hundred Front Street West condo park

From the condo website, an illustration of the landscaped SE corner park

 

Three Hundred Front Street West condo lobby

Website illustration of the lobby exterior, viewed from the condo park

 

Three Hundred Front Street West condo

Website illustration of the Three Hundred Front West lobby exterior

 

Three Hundred Front Street West condo lobby

Website illustration of the Three Hundred Front Street West lobby interior

 

Three Hundred Front Street West condo lobby

Another illustration of the Three Hundred Front Street West lobby interior

 

 

Shovels in the ground at X2 Condos site

X2 Condos

The earth is moving at the X2 Condos project site


X2 marks its spot: I felt a touch of nostalgia when I saw a drilling machine and backhoe cutting into the snow-covered ground at the corner of Jarvis and Charles Streets this afternoon.

Don’t know why, but I suddenly started thinking about the ugly three-storey office building that used to occupy the site. For the longest time it housed an overpriced Becker’s convenience store and a sports bar called Caps that served awesome — but wickedly hot — BBQ chicken wings, good burgers and reasonably-priced beer. Caps was popular with sports teams as well as the cops who worked across the street in a police building that ultimately met its demise when the hugely popular 44-storey X Condominium tower started construction several years ago.

Eventually, the Becker’s store and the bar closed down. The PizzaPizza company acquired the property, spruced up the building, and moved its headquarters inside. But the days of the PizzaPizza place were numbered. X Condos was a tremendous success; its units sold like gangbusters, leaving no doubt there was a strong demand for more condos in the immediate neighbourhood. It was obvious that the PizzaPizza property would be worth an absolute fortune as a condo tower development site. Inevitably, signs were posted on the property in 2008 to advise the neighbourhood that plans were afoot to build a 44-storey condo highrise there.

In November 2009, a sales office for X2 Condos was constructed on Charles Street on the site of two brick mansions that formerly housed law firms and other offices (properties that also would ultimately be demolished to make way for the condo highrise.) Demolition of all three buildings began last August, and throughout the autumn the lot sat empty while soil testing and other preliminary site preparation work was performed.

In the meantime, the city approved the developer’s request to add more floors to X2, bringing the tower’s total height to 49 storeys. Now, digging has begun in earnest on the northeast perimeter of the site.

Don’t know why, but suddenly I’m craving beer and chicken wings! Too bad I can’t walk up the street to Caps anymore.

Below is a rendering of the X2 Condo building (designed by Toronto’s Rudy Wallman Architects, by the way), along with photos I’ve taken of the X2 site over the past three years. More photos can be viewed in an album accessible from the Photo Sets page of the blog (where you’ll find another album with pictures showing the construction of X Condos, from site excavation to fully-finished and occupied tower.

Although X and X2 look a lot alike, as sisters usually do, X was designed by a different architect — Peter Clewes of Toronto’s architects Alliance.)

 

X2 Condos rendering

Artistic rendering of X2 Condo tower at the corner of Jarvis & Charles


X2 Condos

August 14 2008: Condo development proposal sign on X2 Condos site


X2 Condos

Sept 3 2008: View of the former PizzaPizza offices on the X2 site


X2 Condos

Sept 3 2008: Jarvis Street view of the former PizzaPizza headquarters


X2 Condos

December 3 2008:  Charles Street view of the development site


X2 Condos

November 2 2009:  PizzaPizza building being prepared for demolition


X2 Condos

November 2 2009: X2 Condos sales office sign on Charles Street East


X Condos

November 2 2009: X2 Condos sales office being constructed on the project site


X2 Condos

November 22 2009: X2 Condos marketing signs on the PizzaPizza building


X2 Condos

November 22 2009: X2 Condos marketing signs on the PizzaPizza building


X2 Condos

Bright pink signs on exterior of X2 Condos sales office


X2 Condos

August 29 2010: Demolition of the PizzaPizza building underway


X2 Condos

August 29 2010: Big empty lot behind the PizzaPizza building being demolished


X2 Condos

August 29 2010: X2 Condos sales office gradually being demolished


X2 Condos

August 29 2010: Charles Street view of demolition activity at the X2 Condos site


X2 Condos

August 29 2010: Jarvis Street view of the PizzaPizza building demolition


X2 Condos

August 29 2010: Jarvis Street view of the PizzaPizza building demolition


X2 Condos

X2 Condos sales office in its new location: a townhouse at X Condos


X2 Condos

October 3 2010: View of the lot where X2 will be built


X2 Condos

November 11 2010: Work crew tests soil conditions


X2 Condos

November 11 2010: Soil testing operations at the west end of the site


X2 Condos

December 18 2010: X2 Condos site after a light snowfall


X2 Condos

January 9 2011: A blanket of snow covers the X2 Condos site


X2 Condos

February 8 2011: Machines digging away at the perimeter of the property


X2 Condos

February 8 2011: Digging at the northeast perimeter of the X2 Condos site


X2 Condos

February 8 2011: Tag-team excavation activity on the  X2 Condos site