Tag Archives: South Financial District

A peek at the Ten York condo tower excavation

September 16 2014: Excavation is well underway at the wedge-shaped site for the Ten York condominium by the Tridel development firm.

This illustration, from an image gallery on the Ten York website, shows how the tower podium will look when viewed from the approximate area where I shot the excavation photo posted above.

This image, captured from Tridel’s construction webcam, shows an aerial view of the site on the afternoon of Wednesday September 17.

Just before I began an extended break from blogging at the end of January, I published an update about the exciting Ten York condo tower project. That post, Drilling rigs ready to rumble at Ten York condo site, included a photo of foundation drilling equipment that had recently arrived at the future tower location — a triangular piece of property awkwardly situated between Harbour Street, York Street, Lake Shore Boulevard and the elevated Gardiner Expressay.

I walked past the Ten York site yesterday and had the chance to snap a new photo from a spot on the York Street sidewalk near the project’s northeast corner. The pic shows an excavation rig loading a dump truck in the pit, which is already several levels below grade. Once digging is complete, a six-floor underground parking garage will be constructed for the flatiron-shaped 224-meter tower (735 feet, approximately 65 storeys).

Ten York was designed by Wallman Architects of Toronto.

Below are two images from Tridel’s webpage for the Ten York project. Click on the link to obtain extensive information about condo floorplans and building details, as well as to view dozens of additional images and illustrations.

This illustration shows the “community master plan” for the Ten York site

This artistic illustration, from the Ten York project website, depicts a view of the north side of the condo tower and its podium.

Pit stop: ÏCE & Infinity3 construction progress

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April 21 2011: Lower Simcoe Street view of bottom level construction progress at the Infinity3 and ÏCE condo tower construction sites

Lower floor poured: The giant pit between York Street and Lower Simcoe Street is starting to fill in, as construction of underground levels at the ÏCE Condos and Infinity3 Condo projects moves along. Five construction cranes are now working on the site — up from the three that I mentioned in my February 25 2011 post. Below are some photos I took of the construction progress on Thursday.

April 21 2011: Four of the five construction cranes working the site are visible in this east view of the Infinity3 and ÏCE condo building progress

April 21 2011: All five cranes — four white, one red — are visible in this view from Roundhouse Park above Lower Simcoe Street

April 21 2011: The vast excavation for the two condominium tower projects stretches from York Street at the east to Lower Simcoe Street at the west

April 21 2011: Freshly poured concrete floor near the site’s northwest corner

April 21 2011: Forms in place to pour the next underground floor for ÏCE Condos

April 21 2011: Building activity is currently concentrated on the center of the site

April 21 2011: A view of the curved southeast corner of the ÏCE Condos site

April 21 2011: Wall forms for ÏCE Condos underground levels

April 21 2011: Floor and wall forms for the ÏCE Condos underground levels

April 21 2011: Rebar and freshly poured concrete

April 21 2011: A construction worker smooths a freshly poured concrete floor

April 21 2011: Underground floors take shape in the middle of the site

April 21 2011: The Lower Simcoe Street entrance to the Infinity3 excavation

April 21 2011: A loo with an Infinity3 view

April 21 2011: Construction of the bottom underground level for Infinity3 approaches the west end of the site near Lower Simcoe Street

April 21 2011: The ramp from Lower Simcoe Street into the deep excavation for the Infinity3 condo development

April 21 2011: A view of the Infinity3 condo excavation from Grand Trunk Crescent

April 21 2011: A view of the Infinity3 construction zone

April 21 2011: Another Grand Trunk Crescent view of the Infinity3 condo site

April 21 2011: Lower floor construction progress near the western third of the site

April 21 2011: Lower floor construction progress in the middle of the excavation

April 21 2011: A red and yellow crane works the east side of the ÏCE Condos site

1 up, 2 to go: Southcore office & hotel towers will change city skyline south of the railway tracks

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Artistic rendering of the three Southcore Financial Centre towers…

…and a southeast view of the Centre as it appeared on February 18. The 26-storey PricewaterhouseCooper head office building at 18 York Street (right) is nearing completion, but excavation is still in early stages for the Delta Toronto hotel and Bremner office tower office still to be built.

Trackside towers: As downtown’s newest office tower approaches the end of construction, site excavation has only just begun for its two younger siblings, who will gradually grow into prominent hotel and office towers standing proudly right next door.

Work on the 26-storey PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) office building at 18 York Street is winding down, and occupancy for most of its floors is scheduled for the third quarter of this year. (Four and a half floors of the PwC tower, which is 86% leased, won’t be ready for occupancy until early in 2013.)

Meanwhile, crews are preparing to build downtown’s next new highrise hotel, the Delta Toronto, as well as the city’s next new office block, the Bremner Tower, on lands along Bremner Boulevard just west of PwC.

But this young family of buildings, formally known as the Southcore Financial Centre (SFC), is already having a major impact on the city. Along with some newer neighbours (Telus Tower and Maple Leaf Square) who recently took up residence nearby, SFC is changing the look of the skyline and railway lands while at the same time drawing the Financial District to the south side of the train tracks.

And with construction currently underway for the ÏCE and Infinity3 condo towers just one block to the south, and construction expected to start later this year on the Ripley Toronto Aquarium one block to the west, this formerly derelict railway lands district is being transformed into a bustling and vibrant urban neighbourhood.

Sometimes I still can’t believe this is happening. Before I even moved to Toronto in the early 1980s, politicians kept promising new office and residential developments would revitalize the ugly railway lands between Union Station and Lake Shore Boulevard. As is typical for Toronto, it took so long for things to get going, I never thought I’d see construction actually get underway. But it has been happening, and the pace of transformation from blight to bright has been phenomenal.

For years, there wasn’t much more than a few parking lots and dusty, vacant fields on the vast swath of land stretching from the CN Tower in the west to the old Canada Post building at the corner of Bay Street and Lake Shore Blvd., in the east. Then the Air Canada Centre opened in 1999, followed in late 2005/early 2006 by the 35- and 16-storey Infinity condominium buildings at the corner of Bremner and Simcoe. Last year, both the Telus office tower and the Maple Leaf Square condo/office/hotel/retail complex opened on the east side of York at Bremner. This year, condos, offices and a hotel are under construction, and a major tourist attraction will be joining them soon. Whew! Three years from now, I might not even recognize the neighbourhood!

But let’s get back to Southcore, the new kids on the block bounded by Lower Simcoe Street to the west, Bremner Blvd. to the south, York Street to the east, and the railway tracks to the north. The Delta Toronto will be a 45-storey, 566-room, four-star hotel standing at the corner of Bremner and Simcoe, conveniently just across the street from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The 30-storey Bremner Tower will sit between the Delta and PwC, on Bremner Blvd.

When I walked around the area last week, a construction crew and pile driver were working along the north perimeter of the site, right next to the rail tracks. Below are some pics I snapped from street level and from the Convention Centre stairs, along with some hotel and office tower renderings from the Southcore Financial Centre website.

Website illustration of the south elevation of the three Southcore towers

Rendering of the Southcore Financial Centre towers viewed from the southeast

Website rendering of the 45-storey Delta Toronto hotel tower

Website rendering of the Delta Toronto hotel tower courtyard

January 3 2011: West view of the PricewaterhouseCoopers office tower, left, the Maple Leaf Square complex and the Infinity condos (right)

January 3 2011: The top floors of the west side of the PwC office tower

January 3 2011: Southwest view of the PwC tower and Telus Tower

January 3 2011: PwC office tower construction gate on Bremner Blvd.

January 3 2011: Northwest view of the Southcore Financial Centre location for the Delta hotel and Bremner Tower. Overlooking the site are the PwC tower and Telus Tower at left, Maple Leaf Square towers (center), and the Infinity condos.

January 3 2011: Trailers and dumpsters on the hotel and office tower building site

February 18 2011: Delta Hotel and Bremner Tower site viewed from the southwest corner of Bremner Blvd and Lower Simcoe Street. Once built, the two towers will completely block this view of the Financial District skyscrapers.

February 18 2011: Another view of the hotel and office tower building site

February 18 2011: Yellow pile driving machine (center) on the Southcore site

February 18 2011: Toronto Convention Centre view of the Southcore building site

February 18 2011: Another convention centre view of the building site

Within months, full-scale excavation of this site will be in progress

February 18 2011: Pile driver at the site’s railway perimeter

While the pile driving machine prepares the Southcore site for excavation, another huge construction project is underway nearby — the Union Station railway platform revitalization project (the covered area at the rear left side of the photo).

The structure behind the pile driving machine is the north side of the PwC tower

Construction workers guide the pile driver

A closer look at the foundation-building machine

February 18 2011: PwC tower viewed from corner of York St. and Bremner Blvd.

A closer look at the top southeast corner of the PwC tower

February 18 2011: Simcoe Street view of the cranes atop the PwC office tower

Closer view of the upper west side of the PwC office tower

February 18 2011: A Simcoe Street view of the CN Tower reflecting in the west windows of the new PricewaterhouseCoopers office building.

Infinity views and ÏCE foundations

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Three white cranes rise from the massive South Financial district (aka railway lands) excavation where the Infinity3 and ÏCE condo towers are being built.

From black asphalt to green courtyard canopy: What was once a vast asphalt-paved open-air parking area near the foot of York Street is gradually being transformed into an environmentally-conscious urban courtyard, covered by a 6,000-square-metre green canopy that will surround the base of two slender cylindrical skyscrapers — the 55- and 65-storey ÏCE Condominiums.

At the same time, what used to be a scruffy vacant lot right next door has become the building site for a new highrise condo complex, too — the 35-storey Infinity3 condos off Lower Simcoe Streets. The parking lot, which sat to the north of Lake Shore Blvd. and the Gardiner Expressway, used to be popular with people driving into the city to attend events at the nearby Air Canada Centre and Harbourfront. But it’s now one of downtown Toronto’s largest condo building excavations, where foundations for underground parking levels are in the early stages of construction.

Three construction cranes operate high above the enormous, L-shaped pit, while the construction entrance ramps off Grand Trunk Crescent and Lower Simcoe Street handle a steady stream of cement and dump truck traffic.

Below are photos I have taken from the CN Tower of the ÏCE and Infinity3 locations both before construction started, and during the early stages of site excavation. There’s also several pics I snapped at the side-by-side condo building site on a sunny day last week, along with some artistic renderings, from the ÏCE Condos website, of the two ÏCE towers and their courtyard canopy. Above left is a website rendering of the Infinity3 building under construction; it will be a new sibling to the two Infinity condo buildings that were constructed several years ago at the corner of Bremner Blvd. and Lower Simcoe Street.

ÏCE Condos is a project by Lanterra Developments and Cadillac Fairview; the buildings were designed by Peter Clewes of Toronto’s architectsAlliance. Infinity3 is a project of The Conservatory Group. The Infinity 3 website doesn’t name the project architects; however, the E.I. Richmond Architects Ltd. website includes the Infinity towers in its portfolio. Another rendering of the Infinity3 complex can be viewed on that site.

September 22 2008: CN Tower view of the two Infinity condo buildings and the site for the Infinity3 project — a vacant lot off Lower Simcoe Street

September 22 2008: A CN Tower view of the parking lot that is now an excavation for the two ÏCE Condos skyscrapers. The brown structure in the upper left corner is the foundation for the ÏCE Condos sales office being set up at the time.

September 22 2008: CN Tower view of the Infinity3 condo site off Lower Simcoe Street; the little square building was the Infinity3 condo sales centre.

November 2 2010: CN Tower view of substantial excavation progress at the construction sites for the ÏCE Condos and Infinity3 Condos

November 2 2010: ÏCE Condos and Infinity3 Condos site excavation progress

February 18 2011: The two existing Infinity condo buildings, left, overlook the deep Infinity3 excavation pit to their south.

February 18 2011: Worksite viewed from Lower Simcoe Street

February 18 2011: Eastward view of the Infinity3 and ICE Condos worksites

Infinity3 condo construction site entrance off Lower Simcoe Street

Infinity3 and ICE Condos foundations taking shape

A man standing outside the beige construction crew trailer (top center) supervises the ÏCE Condos building activity at the bottom of the pit

A closer look at the foundation forms taking shape in the pit

One of the construction crew building the condo’s underground levels

Construction workers at the bottom of the deep ÏCE Condos excavation

Surveyors at work near the construction entrance to the ÏCE Condos excavation. The building in the background is the new Maple Leaf Square complex.

The surveyors working above the ÏCE Condos excavation

ÏCE condos website rendering of the two condominium skyscrapers

ÏCE condos website rendering of the green canopy for the condo courtyard

The ÏCE condo towers depicted in an animated video on the project website

Website video suggests how the ÏCE towers might appear on the skyline

New year, new construction milestones

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2011 is getting off to a foggy, soggy start in Toronto (it’s 10 degrees Celsius and pouring rain as I write), but the wet weather won’t put a damper on the frenetic pace of building activity across the downtown area. When construction gets back to full speed next week once the holiday season has wound down, numerous projects will start, approach or reach significant stages of construction. At least five towers will make a major mark on the city skyline soon. In Yorkville, The Four Seasons Private Residences and Museum House on Bloor, both of which already have a substantial streetscape presence, will be pouring their top floors during the winter. Several blocks south, on Bay Street, the Burano condo tower is quickly climbing high, while the Living Shangri-La Torontoand Trump International Toronto hotel/condo skyscrapers are adding excitement to the Financial District skyline. Market Wharf is doing the same for the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood. In the next few weeks, streetscapes in several different areas will transform as construction climbs above ground level at 77 Charles Westin Yorkville, The L Tower on Yonge Street, Charlie Condos in the Entertainment District, The Modern at Sherbourne and Richmond, and the Clear Spirit tower in the Distillery District. Not too far behind are Aura at College Park on Yonge Street, Cinema Tower on Adelaide Street West, Three Hundred Front Street West, The Residences of Pier 27 on the waterfront, ICE Condos and Infinity3 Condos in the South Financial District, and Couture Condos on Jarvis Street; foundation work and underground levels are progressing fast at all seven sites. In the area bounded by Bloor, Bay, Wellesley and Jarvis Streets, demolition and excavation work should soon get in full swing for five key developments: U Condos, Five Condos, Nicholas Residences, X2 Condos, and the long-awaited One Bloor tower. Digging will get underway in earnest for the Ryerson University Student Learning Centre at Yonge and Gould Streets, and for the Delta Toronto hotel and Bremner Tower office complex in the South Financial District. Meanwhile, construction should soon conclude at the Sherbourne Common park at the waterfront, as well as for the 18 York office tower and seven major residential structures: the Ritz-Carlton Toronto, Crystal Blu Condos, Uptown Residences, James Cooper Mansion, Lumiere Condos, M5V Condos, and the YWCA Elm Centre. I’ll be taking a closer look at each of the above-mentioned projects — and many more hot construction spots — in the weeks ahead.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.

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Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing Building Boom.

Tag Archives: South Financial District

A peek at the Ten York condo tower excavation

Pit stop: ÏCE & Infinity3 construction progress

1 up, 2 to go: Southcore office & hotel towers will change city skyline south of the railway tracks

Infinity views and ÏCE foundations

New year, new construction milestones

Tracking Downtown Toronto's AmazingBuilding Boom.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.