Tag Archives: Uptown Residences condos

Crane removed from Uptown Residences roof

Now you see it … the Uptown tower sports a rooftop crane on March 1

Now you don’t … The Uptown on March 8 after its crane was removed. The crane boom poking out from behind the Casa condo tower (right) is building the new Four Seasons Toronto hotel & condo in Yorkville.

Condo craniotomy: The YWCA Elm Centre wasn’t the only major downtown construction project to lose its crane this week.

In my “Yorkville awaits the Uptown girl’s grand entrance” write-up a week ago, I posted photos of The Uptown Residences, and described how construction of the 48-storey Yorkville condo tower is winding down. I also mentioned that a small construction crane still had to be removed from the condo tower rooftop.

Well, it’s gone now — it was disassembled and removed from the building yesterday. And even though I had been expecting the crane to disappear at any time, I wasn’t quite ready to see The Uptown Residences sporting a naked roof. I had an unsettling feeling while snapping photos of the crane-less tower shortly before sunset yesterday, and I kept thinking something about the Yorkville skyline just didn’t look right.

From my balcony, I have watched cranes working on The Uptown’s roof since the late fall of 2009, and during some of those 18 months The Uptown’s crane stood higher than any other structure in the Yonge & Bloor area. It became such a familiar sight on the skyline, I was bound to miss its presence.

But there are two other cranes I can see soaring above Yorkville from time to time — those atop the Four Seasons Toronto towers currently under construction at the corner of Bay Street and Yorkville Avenue. Unfortunately, they’re largely blocked from view by the 46-floor Casa Condominium tower, but I do get an occasional glimpse as their booms swing toward the office buildings at Yonge & Bloor.

Below is a series of pics showing the Uptown’s crane during various stages of the condo tower’s construction — since October 2009 when I was first able to see the crane from my balcony, until its last day on the job this week.

August 6 2008: The Uptown’s crane stands only two storeys above street level during construction of the luxury condo tower’s foundation.

October 25 2009: My first glimpse of The Uptown’s crane, as the tip of the boom pokes above a nearby apartment building. The crane at left is atop The Uptown’s next-door neighbour, the Crystal Blu condominium tower.

November 2 2009: The Uptown’s crane still has a ways to go to catch up to the height of Crystal Blu’s and ultimately reach above the nearby towers.

December 21 2009: The Casa condo tower crane has been removed, Crystal Blu condos is climbing higher, and The Uptown’s crane is more visible on the skyline.

January 21 2010: The cranes on Crystal Blu and The Uptown Residences appear synchronized, both pointing in the same direction at the same angle

February 1 2010: The Casa condo tower nears completion, but The Uptown Residences tower still hasn’t come into view.

March 15 2010: The crane cab’s tinted windows stand out against the cloudy sky

March 29 2010: Now that the Crystal Blu condos crane has been removed, the Uptown Residences crane is the tallest in the Yorkville area

March 31 2010: The white boom looks bright against the blue morning sky

April 4 2010: The crane’s boom glows orange in the sunrise at 6 a.m. Easter Sunday

April 6 2010: White crane against a deep blue sky shortly before 8 a.m.

April 8 2010: The crane’s striking silhouette during a gorgeous sunset

May 10 2010: Another sunset silhouette of the crane and Yorkville towers

June 20 2010: Uptown Residences construction crane at sunset

June 20 2010: With its crane, the Uptown is the tallest structure in Yorkville

June 20 2010: The crane and another spectacular sunset

July 1 2010: The crane and nearby towers during an awesome Canada Day sunset

July 9 2010: The Uptown and its crane get upstaged by a fiery sky at sunset

July 17 2010: The crane and yet another brilliant July sunset

July 20 2010: The crane points to clouds glowing in another wonderful sunset

August 17 2010: The Yorkville skyline and another dramatic Toronto sunset

September 8 2010: Thick, dark storm clouds approach the tower

September 10 2010: The crane points straight up on a partly cloudy summer day

October 29 2010: Stormclouds advancing toward Yorkville

October 29 2010: The tower’s top southeast corner cladding cannot be installed until the construction crane has been removed from the roof.

November 28 2010: A storm front pulls over Yorkville like a thick woolly blanket

December 7 2010: A small red temporary crane has been assembled on the roof of The Uptown Residences tower to begin removing the larger crane

December 8 2010: The two cranes tower above the Yorkville neighbourhood

December 11 2010: The red crane pulls the last segment of the big white crane through the top of the Uptown Residences roof

December 15 2010: The big white crane has been completely removed

December 15 2010: A gaping hole in the wall and roof marks the spot where the large white crane had been positioned

December 21 2010: South view of the temporary red crane atop the tower

January 2 2011: Patching up the gaps where the white crane used to sit

January 18 2011: The Uptown’s rooftop cladding is nearly all in place

February 23 2011: North side of Uptown Residences (right) viewed from the roof of a Yorkville Avenue parking garage

March 2 2011: The temporary crane just days before its removal from the roof

March 8 2011: Uptown Residences condo shortly after the crane was removed

Yorkville awaits the Uptown girl’s grand entrance

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The Uptown Residences condo tower on Balmuto Street February 23 2011

Deco darling: She’s waiting patiently for the installation of her main entrance, and the shiny black granite facade of her six-storey podium needs some polish and a few finishing touches. A small crane must be disassembled and removed from her rooftop, and concrete traffic barriers cleared off the street out front. But the belle of Balmuto Street looks like she will be ready for her big reveal to the Yorkville condo community very soon.

She is The Uptown Residences and, with her impressive 48-storey height and her elegant Art Deco-inspired design, she has already been cutting a distinctive silhouette on the city skyline for the past eight months. Now that her construction is winding down, I’m eager to see how she’ll look once she’s fully occupied and lit up at night. That shouldn’t be much longer.

Work has nearly finished on the exterior of the gracefully tapered tower, and tradespeople are inside, putting together the posh private residences and luxurious building amenities. From all accounts, the interiors will be opulent. But unless I win a lottery, or someone I know holds a lucky ticket, I’ll have to be content admiring this exclusive enclave from the outside.

However, I probably wouldn’t want to live there even if I could afford it. I like space and views, and The Uptown Residences is situated far too close, to my liking, to other condo and office towers.

The recently-constructed Crystal Blu condo building sits right next door to its south, with a service lane merely two vehicles wide separating the podiums of the two towers. The 51-storey Manulife Centre stands directly across the street to the west, the Yonge & Bloor office towers are one block to the northeast, and the 70-storey One Bloor condo tower will be built only one block away to the east.

But maybe it’s just me who doesn’t like living in such close quarters. Since almost all of The Uptown’s 300 suites have been sold (a few upper-level units are supposedly still available), there’s obviously plenty of people who don’t mind having company close by.

A project of The Pemberton Group, The Uptown Residences was designed by Toronto’s Burka Architects Inc.

Below are some of the photos I have taken of the tower during the past two and a half years of construction.

November 13 2007: The “Uptown girl” billboard on the building site

August 6 2008: Construction of the tower foundation is well underway

September 28 2008: A south view of the side-by-side foundations under construction for The Uptown Residences, left, and Crystal Blu

March 15 2010: The crane that built The Uptown Residences

July 20 2010: A sunset view of the crane atop The Uptown Residences

November 2 2010: CN Tower view of The Uptown Residences

December 5 2011: The Uptown Residences on the Yorkville skyline

January 24 2011: The Uptown and its shorter neighbour, Crystal Blu

January 24 2011: Southeast view of The Uptown’s upper floors

January 24 2011: The Uptown and some of its highrise neighbours

January 29 2011: West view of The Uptown and Crystal Blu

January 29 2011: From this unusual perspective on the west side of Bay Street, the Manulife Centre towers (left and right) appear to completely dwarf The Uptown Residences and Crystal Blu condo towers

January 29 2011: Balconies under construction on the tower’s west side where two external construction elevators had been installed

January 29 2011: Southwest view of The Uptown Residences

January 29 2011: North side of the tower viewed from Yorkville Avenue. Not quite sure why, but I find the tower’s north profile to be considerably less attractive than its east, south and west sides.