Tag Archives: SickKids

SickKids tower brings brilliance to Bay Street

The SickKids Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning at Bay & Elm Streets in downtown Toronto

SickKids Hospital will open its new Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning next week. The 21-floor tower, seen here on August 29 from the intersection of Bay and Edward Streets, was designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects in collaboration with HDR Architecture.

 

Shimmer and shine: When SickKids Hospital commenced construction of its Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning three years ago, the project website promised that the $400 million building would become an “architectural landmark” as well as a “beacon” that would attract the “best and brightest child health professionals” from around the world.

With construction nearly wrapped up and the building set to open on September 17, it’s now clear that the project’s designers — Diamond Schmitt Architects in collaboration with HDR Architecture — have delivered the splendidly-designed facility that executives at the world-famous children’s hospital could only dream of when they began planning the project more than a decade ago.

It’s also obvious that the Peter Gilgan Centre has become the luminous beacon that was pledged for Toronto’s Discovery District — in more ways than one.  Standing 22 storeys tall, the turquoise glass tower shimmers and shines at the corner of Bay and Elm Streets, drawing attention for blocks in every direction. It will bring together under one roof 2,000 scientists who have been scattered in six different locations downtown. And once they’ve settled into their bright, airy labs and cheerful meeting spaces, they will get their turn to shine, developing new ideas and sharing research information that will transform the way children’s health care is provided.

The Centre’s research and education professionals, who will begin moving in later this month, could not have asked for a more inspiring and uplifting work environment. 

 

SickKids Tower Toronto

September 11 2013: Sign installation on the east side of the tower. The Centre is named for lead donor Peter Gilgan, founder and CEO of Mattamy Homes.

 

 

SickKids Tower Toronto

September 11 2013: A crew continues work on the SickKids logo being installed near the upper right corner of the building’s south face

 

 

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Foundation work reaches grade at southern half of SickKids Research & Learning Tower building site

SickKids Research and Learning Tower

An aerial view from the SickKids Research and Learning Tower webcam shows the construction site under a light blanket of snow this afternoon


Making grade: Roughly half of the foundation for the SickKids Research and Learning Tower is virtually at street level on the southern half of the construction site at Bay and Elm Streets. The north half is taking shape quickly, and isn’t far behind. Shouldn’t be long before the 21-storey tower starts to rise above the bright blue and white hoarding that protects pedestrians passing the construction site on the west sidewalk along Bay Street. Below are some construction progress photos from yesterday morning.

 

SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Tower construction site viewed from Elm Street, east of Bay Street


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Main floor construction forms have reached ground level


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Looking north from a security fence at the Elm Street construction entrance


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

The gap should be closed early this week when work resumes


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Looking north from corner of Elm & Bay Streets


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Looking northwest from corner of Bay & Elm Streets


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Looking northwest from corner of Bay & Elm Streets



SickKids Research and Learning Tower

A glimpse of the first underground level, from the corner of Bay & Elm Street


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Looking northwest from corner of Bay & Elm Street


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Looking northwest from corner of Bay & Elm Street


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Looking west through a window in the hoarding along Bay Street


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

More foundation work remains to be done at the north end of the site


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Walton Street view of progress on the north half of the foundation


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Columns for west wing of tower visible above the hoarding along Bay Street


Construction site viewed from southeast corner of Bay and Elm Streets



Keeping tabs on … SickKids Tower on Bay Street

SickKids Research & Learning Tower

Elm Street view of SickKids Tower progress January 29 2011


Floor pours: A lot has been happening at the corner of Elm & Bay since I profiled the new SickKids Research and Learning Tower in a post on January 11. The tower’s underground levels have been filling in quickly, and the construction team expects to finish pouring the P1 floor by the end of next week. Below are some pics I snapped this past Saturday through the security fence and the smudgy peekaboo portholes in the hoarding along the Bay Street sidewalk.

 

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SickKids Tower construction viewed from Bay Street below Gerrard Street


SickKids Research & Learning Tower

Underground levels viewed from corner of Bay & Walton Streets


SickKids Research & Learning Tower

Underground levels viewed from corner of Bay & Walton Streets


SickKids Research & Learning Tower

SickKids Tower construction viewed from corner of Bay & Walton Streets


SickKids Research and Learning Tower

Floor pour for the P1 level should be finished next week


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Underground levels viewed through an observation window on Bay Street


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West end tower construction seen from an observation window on Bay Street


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SickKids Tower fourth level construction viewed from Elm Street


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

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