Tag Archives: Southcore Financial Centre

Winter building pics: December 2012

Above is a link to my December 2012 Flickr album of building and construction photos I shot during walks in the downtown area. Click once on the image to view a small-format slideshow of the pictures, or click twice to access the album and see full-size photos and captions.

 

Logo installation underway at PwC tower

 

PwC office tower Toronto

March 7 2012: One-third of the lead tenant’s logo has now been installed on the south side of the PwC office tower at Southcore Financial Centre

 

PwC office tower Toronto

… seen here from Lake Shore Boulevard to the south on January 6 2012.  (The two ÏCE condo towers being constructed in the foreground eventually will block this view of the 26-storey PwC office building at 18 York Street.)

 

Waiting for the WC: The logo for its namesake anchor tenant is finally being installed atop the PwC Tower at Southcore Financial Centre.

When I passed by the building back on February 20, a swing stage above the top left corner on the tower’s south side hinted that the PwC logo would soon be affixed to the face of the 26-storey headquarters for the Canadian head office of tax firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers International Limited.

 

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PwC tower aims for autumn occupancy as digging continues for hotel & office towers next door

PwC office tower at 18 York Street

June 20 2011: The exterior construction elevator has been removed from the south side of the PwC tower as the office building nears completion …

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

… while excavation work is underway for the Delta hotel and Bremner office building that will join PwC as part of the Southcore Financial Centre

 

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

July 1 2011: Only 10 floors of windows remain to be installed on the south wall

 

 

Nearly finished: Occupancy is expected to commence this fall for the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) office tower at 18 York Street, the first of three buildings that will make up the Southcore Financial Centre (SFC) complex occupying the entire block of Bremner Boulevard between York and Lower Simcoe Streets. When I walked past the SFC site recently, I saw that the temporary construction elevator had been removed from the south side of the PwC tower, where windows are gradually being installed where the elevator previously rose. Meanwhile, crews were busy with site preparation and excavation for the 45-storey Delta Toronto hotel and the 30-storey Bremner Tower office buildings currently under construction to PwC’s immediate west.

According to SFC, the 26-storey, 650,000-square-foot PwC tower is 96% leased. Its anchor (and namesake) tenant will be the PwC Canada accounting and consulting firm, while other major tenants will include personal and commercial insurance firm RSA Canada, engineering & construction organization SNC-Lavalin, and the commercial real estate services company Avison Young. The 700,000-square-foot Bremner Tower will rise right next door. Both office buildings were designed by Toronto’s KPMB Architects. The Delta Toronto, a four-star hotel with 566 rooms, was designed by Toronto’s Page + Steele/IBI Group Architects. Scheduled completion date for the Bremner Tower is December 2013, while construction of the Delta Toronto is expected to finish in the fall of 2014.

Below are pics of recent construction activity at the SFC site. Further information and photos of earlier construction progress, along with architectural renderings of the three towers, can be seen in my April 24 2011 post as well as my February 26 2011 post.

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

June 20 2011: The PwC logo will be mounted on the top left section of the tower

 

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

June 20 2011: Windows being installed where the temporary construction elevator used to rise on the south side of the PwC tower

 

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

June 20 2011: Workers apply finishing touches to the tower’s south face

 

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

June 20 2011: A closer view of the crew working on the glass curtain wall

 

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

June 20 2011: A construction entrance gate on Bremner Blvd. near York Street. Some of the new tower’s tenants will begin moving in this fall.

 

Southcore Financial Centre site

June 20 2011: The Bremner Tower will rise on this spot beside the PwC Tower…

 

Southcore Financial Centre site

… while the Delta Toronto hotel tower will rise a little farther west, at the corner of Bremner Blvd. and Lower Simcoe Street.

 

Southcore Financial Centre site

June 20 2011: Excavation activity in progress for the hotel and office towers

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 20 2011: The Delta Toronto hotel tower will sit directly across Lower Simcoe Street from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 20 2011: Buses parked on Bremner Boulevard near Lower Simcoe Street, outside the future location of the Delta Toronto hotel tower.

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 20 2011: The railway tracks sit to the immediate north of the SFC site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 20 2011: Overlooking the northwest corner of the SFC building site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 20 2011: Railway and commuter trains pass on the opposite side of the concrete and steel beam barrier at the northern perimeter of the SFC site.

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 20 2011: Two excavating machines at work on the site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 20 2011: A welder works on the retaining wall next to the railway tracks

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 2011: A crew works near the northeast corner of the SFC building site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction site

June 20 2011: The northwest corner of the site along Lower Simcoe Street

 

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

July 1 2011: Window installation should be completed soon on the upper 10 floors where the exterior construction elevator once rose

 

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

July 1 2011: A closer view of the former elevator location on the south wall

 

PwC office tower at 18 York Street Toronto

July 1 2011: Another view of the areas where windows will soon be installed

 

Keeping tabs on … Delta Hotel & Bremner office tower construction at Southcore Financial Centre

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: Pile driving and shoring activity continues as crews prepare the Delta Toronto hotel and Bremner Tower office site for excavation.

 

Shore thing: The site for downtown Toronto’s next new hotel and office tower — part of the Southcore Financial Centre (SFC) at the northwest corner of Bremner Boulevard and Lower Simcoe Street — continues to be prepared for excavation. Drilling rigs have been working on the property since the beginning of this year, installing steel I-beams  to shore up the north side of the site next to the railway tracks. Excavation for the 45-storey Delta Toronto hotel and the 30-storey Bremner Tower office building should commence within a few months. Meanwhile, the 26-storey PricewaterhouseCoopers office building — the first SFC tower to be built — is 86% leased, with occupancy expected to be begin this fall. Below is a rendering from the Southcore Financial Centre website, showing how all three towers will appear once completed, along with a series of photos I took of the construction site on Thursday.

 

Southcore Financial Centre hotel and office towers

From the SFC website, a south view of the hotel & office towers

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: Bremner Boulevard north view of the construction site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: The site sits south of the railway tracks, and across Lower Simcoe Street from the Toronto Convention Centre (left)

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: North view from Bremner Boulevard of the SFC site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: The west half of the site, along Lower Simcoe Street

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: Northeast view of the construction zone from Bremner Blvd.

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: North view of the construction area from Bremner Blvd.

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: An excavator and a pile driver on the site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: A steel I-beam sunk into the ground to shore up the south perimeter of the two-tower building site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: One of the drilling rigs preparing the site for excavation

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: Drilling rig parts next to a pile of steel I-beams

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: East view of the Southcore Financial Centre construction site from the Simcoe Street steps to the Toronto Convention Centre

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: A view of the row of steel I-beam foundation supports next to the railway tracks at the north end of the construction site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: The north half of the hotel and office tower site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: Pile driving machines near the SE corner of the site

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: I-beams along the north side of the property

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: A pile driving machine on the west side of the site

 

 

Southcore Financial Centre construction

April 21 2011: An excavator digging at the northeast corner of the site


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

Southcore Financial Centre tower renderings

Artistic rendering of the three Southcore Financial Centre towers…


Southcore Financial Centre

…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.

 

Southcore Financial Centre tower renderings

Website illustration of the south elevation of the three Southcore towers


Southcore Financial Centre tower renderings

Rendering of the Southcore Financial Centre towers viewed from the southeast


Delta Toronto hotel tower

Website rendering of the 45-storey Delta Toronto hotel tower


Delta Toronto hotel tower

Website rendering of the Delta Toronto hotel tower courtyard


PwC 18 York Street office tower

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


PwC office tower at 18 York Street

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


PwC office tower at 18 York Street

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


PwC office tower at 18 York street

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


Southcore Financial Centre site

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.


Southcore Financial Centre

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


Southcore Financial Centre

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.


Delta Hotel and Bremner Tower

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


Southcore Financial Centre

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


Southcore Financial Centre

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


Southcore Financial Centre

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


Southcore Financial Centre

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


Southcore Financial Centre

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


Southcore Financial Centre

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).


Southcore Financial Centre

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


Southcore Financial Centre

Construction workers guide the pile driver


Southcore Financial Centre

A closer look at the foundation-building machine


PwC office tower at 18 York

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


PwC office tower at 18 York Street

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


PwC office tower at 18 York Street

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


PwC office tower at 18 York Street

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


CN Tower reflection on 18 York Street office tower

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