Above is a link to my February 2013 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 directly on Flickr and see full-size photos and captions.
Above is a link to my January 2013 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 directly on Flickr and see full-size photos and captions.
June 13 2012: The Burano condo tower, viewed from the north on Bay Street, has long been in public view as the construction climbed 50 floors above the ground …
… and the 3-storey glass atrium at the north side of the Burano condo site is finally in full view, too, now that hoarding has been removed from Grosvenor Street
June 13 2012: Landscaping and construction of an Italian-style piazza is underway next to the atrium on the Grosvenor Street flank of the condo complex
June 13 201: Most of the rebuilt Bay Street facade of the historic Addison automotive building is now visible as construction hoarding is gradually removed from the sidewalk
June 13 2012: The new Women’s College Hospital building (left) rises behind the Burano condo complex, viewed here from the southeast corner of Bay and Grenville Streets
Better views: Construction progress on the Burano Condominium on Bay Street has been clearly visible for many months as the tower climbed 50 storeys into the sky, but now passersby are getting to see how downtown’s newest skyscraper looks at street level.
With exterior work on the Burano tower nearly complete, crews have been able to begin removing the wooden hoarding and the chainlink security fences that have obscured street-level views of the building, including its signature glass atrium on Grosvenor Street and the rebuilt brick facade of the historic Addison on Bay automotive showroom and garage along Bay Street and Grenville Street.
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February 9 2012: The south side of Burano Condos, viewed from Grenville Street
Progress updates: I had the opportunity to pass through the Bay & College area on my way to some recent appointments, so I brought along my camera to catch up on construction progress in the neighbourhood. My “winter photo walk” series will show you what I’ve been seeing:
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The vast construction zone for the new West Don Lands Community is seen in this image taken by a Waterfront Toronto webcam this afternoon. The 80-acre site was blanketed with light snow this morning, less than 24 hours after Waterfront Toronto and Infrastructure Ontario announced that long-awaited construction is finally commencing on the new mixed-use residential community a short distance east of the downtown business district. The highrise under construction at upper left is the 40-storey Clear Spirit condo tower in the nearby Distillery District.
Construction progress on the 75-storey Aura at College Park condo tower is seen in this image captured from a webcam on the Aura website.
Excavation activity at the Nicholas Residences condo site near Yonge & Bloor
Shoring work continues on the FIVE Condos site at Yonge & St Joseph Streets
Snow-covered steel I-beams and construction equipment on the FIVE Condos site
A worker directs traffic past the ETFO office building site on Isabella Street
Another view of progress on the 4-storey ETFO office headquarters
Overlooking the long, rectangular excavation for the 49-storey X2 Condos tower under construction at the southwest corner of Jarvis & Charles Streets
Crews have nearly completed digging the deep excavaton for the X2 Condos tower. The construction crane is expected to be installed soon
Interior demolition work continues on the eight-storey office building at 45 Charles Street East, future site of the Chaz.Yorkville condo tower.
Despite the light snow cover, a drilling rig (rear right) was busy jackhammering a concrete pad at the northwest corner of the Chaz.Yorkville site
Two major construction projects at the southwest corner of Bay & Grosvenor Streets: Burano Condos, left, and the Women’s College Hospital redevelopment.
The new Women’s College Hospital building has risen five floors so far on what was formerly the site of the hospital’s multi-level parking garage
The soaring glass atrium on the north (Grosvenor Street) side of Burano Condos
A view of the atrium from the north side of Grosvenor Street
A publicly-accessible piazza, designed by landscape architects Janet Rosenberg + Associates, will be constructed next to the atrium
The sharply angled glass panels of the atrium provide a striking contrast to the condo tower that soars 50 storeys straight up above it
A Harbourfront Centre webcam image of progress on the new underground parking garage for York Quay Centre. Concrete floor slabs have been poured for the 3 below-grade levels, and work will start soon on the ground-level roof over the structure. New outdoor public spaces will be created on top.
March 27 2011: With the installation of this crane at the north end of the Women’s College Hospital construction site on Saturday, there are now two cranes building a new medical facility on the east side of the hospital property
The two construction cranes at the Women’s College Hospital building site, seen in a photo shot from Grenville Street this afternoon. The crane in the center of the picture was installed earlier this month; the other, on Saturday.
Two cranes in the crater: A second crane was installed yesterday at the excavation site where a new Women’s College Hospital building is under construction. It joins another crane that went up on the site earlier this month, as I reported in a March 14 post. Meanwhile, site excavation continues. Below are some photos taken Friday, showing work crews preparing the pit for the installation of the second crane. There’s also several photos of the new crane being assembled on Saturday, along with some pics from today of the crane and the excavation site.
March 25 2011: Grenville Street view of the Womens College Hospital excavation
March 25 2011: Grenville Street view of excavation activity at the Women’s College Hospital construction site
March 25 2011: Excavation activity at the northeast corner of the site
March 25 2011: Pink shed in the southwest corner of the excavation
March 25 2011: Digging deeper at the north end of the site, to prepare for installation of a second construction crane the next day
March 25 2011: The new hospital building is scheduled for completion in 2015
March 25 2011: Grosvenor Street view of excavation progress
March 25 2011: Grosvenor Street view of the excavation, looking south
March 25 2011: A giant mound of earth still must be removed from the site
March 25 2011: Grosvenor Street view of the east side of the construction site
March 26 2011: It took the entire day on Saturday for these two portable cranes on Grosvenor Street to install a second construction crane on the Women’s College Hospital building site.
March 26 2011: This crane, erected earlier this month, stands at the south end of the site, near Grenville Street. A second crane was installed at the north end of the site on Saturday
March 26 2011: Part of the main platform for the second crane is hoisted into position. The new hospital facility will rise between the Burando condo tower at left and the old Women’s College building at right.
March 26 2011: The crane installation started before sunrise on Saturday and continued non-stop all day until after sunset.
March 27 2011: The platform is lowered into position
March 26 2011: Crane segments are assembled on Grosvenor Street
March 26 2011: Workers maneuver a crane segment on Grosvenor Street
March 26 2011: The operator of the portable crane that lifts segments of the new construction crane into place above the hospital building site.
March 26 2011: A worker waits on the partially assembled crane platform while the next piece of the construction crane is hoisted up from Grosvenor Street.
March 26 2011: Waiting patiently for the next piece of crane to arrive
March 26 2011: Another piece of the crane on its way up
March 26 2011: A Grosvenor Street view of the two portable cranes, the partially assembled crane, and the first crane installed earlier this month.
March 26 2011: Two workers position a crane segment
March 26 2011: The big hook used to hoist the heavy crane segments into place
March 26 2011: One of the cranes on Grosvenor Street unloads crane segments from transport trucks and moves them into position so workers can bolt them together. Another crane later lifts the assembled boom into place.
March 26 2011: The partially assembled crane casts its shadow on Burano
March 26 2011: One crane up, the other nearly there
March 27 2011: The Burano Condos construction crane, left, and the crane on the south side of the Women’s College Hospital redevelopment site, right.
March 27 2011: The crane at the south end of the hospital construction site
March 27 2011: The counterweight on the south crane
March 27 2011: The newly-installed construction crane in late afternoon sunshine
March 27 2011: The two cranes at the Women’s College Hospital site
A recently-erected construction crane soars above the Women’s College Hospital redevelopment building site on Saturday. Behind the crane is the Burano condo tower, also under construction, and the Murano South condo tower (right).
Pit stop: The foundation for the new Women’s College Hospital building on Grenville Street should take shape at a quicker pace now that a construction crane has been erected on the site. When I last reported on the hospital’s building progress in a January 28 post, excavation had reached to more than one level below ground. During February, crews continued digging while building a base for the construction crane in the southwest corner of the site. The crane was installed sometime during the past week. Below are photos showing excavation progress during February, as well as foundation building progress around the crane.
February 12 2011: Grenville St. view of the excavation for the new hospital building. This site formerly was occupied by the hospital’s parking garage.
February 12 2011: Foundation shoring equipment at the northwest corner
February 20 1011: Southwest corner being prepared for the crane base
February 20 2011: Excavation continues while the crane base is constructed
Another view of the base being built for the construction crane
February 20 2011: Construction crane base taking shape
March 12 2011: Excavation is now two levels deep
March 12 2011: Considerable construction progress has been made on the west side of the site but a huge amount of earth still must be removed from the east
March 12 2011: Building foundation takes shape around the base of the crane
March 12 2011: Building activity is focussed on the west side of the construction site next to the existing hospital building.
Innovative redevelopment:This is a big year for Women’s College Hospital (WCH), which is celebrating its 100th anniversary throughout 2011. But the hospital isn’t just looking back and proudly resting on its laurels — a full century of medical milestones and important achievements in all facets of women’s health care. It’s also looking forward, and kicking off construction of a new building that it proudly proclaims will be “The Hospital of the Future — a hospital designed to keep people out of hospital.”
The new facility, expected to launch in 2015, will give WCH a huge boost in capacity for its leading-edge urgent care services and ambulatory surgery. As the hospital explains on its website, “We’re providing the most advanced care for women living with the diseases and conditions that affect them throughout their lives — diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, mental illness, migraine and cancers. And we’re doing it all without overnight hospitalization.” That’s great news not only for women’s medical care, but also for neighbourhood rejuvenation, since the two-phase redevelopment project will drastically improve the appearance of an entire rather dreary-looking block in downtown Toronto.
WCH sits just east of the Ontario Legislature, bounded by Surrey Place and Grosvenor, Bay and Grenville Streets. (The Bay Street end of the block — once the Addison Cadillac dealership — is the site of the new Burano Condo tower currently under construction.) I’ve never liked the existing WCH complex which, in my view, has a hulking, bunker-like presence that isn’t the least bit friendly to the surrounding streets. In fact, WCB and its neighbours on the south side of Grenville Street — the Ontario Nurses’ Association headquarters and the former Archives of Ontario building — actually make Grenville a rather unpleasant street to walk along. The urgent care department entrance on Surrey Place is an ugly eyesore, and the hospital side of Grosvenor Street isn’t much better — its only saving grace was a tree-lined stretch alongside the low-rise Kenson apartment building that the hospital owned and has since demolished. But if artistic renderings are any indication, the new WCH building will vastly improve the neighbourhood and streetscape, especially since a landscaped, tree-filled park area is planned for the western end of the hospital property.
The five-year redevelopment project got underway last August when the hospital closed and then razed its multi-level parking garage next to Burano, along with the three-storey Kenson. Drilling and excavation work are presently underway. Below are several artistic renderings of what the new building will look like; they’re from a “building the hospital of the future” section of the WCH website that provided information about the redevelopment project. Also below are some photos I shot this week of the building site.
Excavation viewed from Grenville Street on January 5 2011
Excavation viewed from Grenville Street on January 5 2011
Excavation viewed from Grenville Street on January 5 2011
Excavation viewed from Grenville Street on January 5 2011
Excavation viewed from Grosvenor Street on January 5 2011
A construction crane at sunset April 8 2010
Construction season: We Canadians have long joked that our country sees only two seasons: winter and construction. Lately, however, Toronto has been under the influence of a microclimate that produces just one season lasting all year long: construction.
Toronto has been experiencing a building boom of unparalleled proportions since the early 2000s. There have been major construction projects in nearly every downtown neighbourhood, with more on the way. It’s almost impossible to walk more than a few blocks without passing a building site, a sandwich board sidewalk sign advertising a new condo development, or a zoning notice advising the public that a proposal has been submitted to City Hall to develop a specific property. On downtown streets, cement mixers and dusty dump trucks are as common a sight as buses and streetcars. So are scaffolding, sidewalk detours and traffic lane closures. And if you look up, you’re bound to see a nearby construction crane reaching skyward.
Just from my apartment balcony, I can see two office towers, one five-star hotel and seven condo highrises — each more than 30 storeys tall — that have been built in the past two years alone. I can see the tallest skyscraper in Canada, First Canadian Place, getting a $100 million facelift as new cladding is installed on its 72-storey façade. I can see the historic Maple Leaf Gardens hockey arena being converted into a mixed-use facility featuring a Loblaws grocery store and a student athletic centre for Ryerson University. In just a few weeks I’ll be able to see a new condo tower going up on Bay Street, and by spring I should be able to see as many as five cranes — three for condo projects, one for the Hospital for Sick Children’s new Research and Learning Tower, and one for a new Women’s College Hospital building.
I think it’s cool to see so much construction activity on the skyline – my balcony view is constantly changing, and there’s always something different to see. But when I walk around downtown and discover how much development is already underway or proposed for the near future, I’m almost blown away. Toronto is growing by great leaps and bounds. I have stumbled across fully-finished new buildings where I saw only a zoning sign or an excavation the last time I passed through the neighbourhood. Or I’ll notice that I can no longer see the CN Tower from a certain area because a tower under construction has completely blocked the view. Entire streetscapes and neighbourhoods change so rapidly, I can barely remember what they looked like before new highrises started going up. I daydream about construction frequently, imagining how the city streets and skyline will look with dozens of additional skyscrapers.
A few years ago, I began carrying my camera during walks downtown, so I could snap photos of construction projects and sites for proposed developments – just to keep track of what’s going on, and to show friends who used to live here just how much the city has changed since they left. Thanks to my little hobby, I’ve now got thousands of photos of dozens of different building projects. Organizing some of those pics into a blog seemed like a logical next step, so here you have it: The Toronto Blog. If you’re a resident or fan of Toronto, or just an architecture or construction aficionado, I hope you’ll come along as I track the building boom and watch T.O. grow!
