Tag Archives: X Condos

Looking up at some of the new skyscrapers making their mark on the downtown Toronto skyline

The new RBC WaterPark Place office tower practically blends into the clouds in this view from the west on lower York Street on September 16 2014 …

… while four new towers reach for the clouds above the south downtown core. At left are the Delta hotel and Bremner office tower at Southcore Financial Centre on Bremner Blvd. Soaring skyward at right are the two ÏCE Condos on York Street.

The sensuous curves of the One Bloor condo tower are already adding interest and excitement to the once-drab Yonge & Bloor intersection in Yorkville.

Below are more photos of the towers shown above, as well as other hotel, office and condo skyscrapers that I photographed this past week.

RBC WaterPark Place office building

West side of RBC WaterPark Place viewed from lower York Street

South face of RBC WaterParkPlace seen from Queen’s Quay Blvd. The tower was designed by WZMH Architects of Toronto.

Upper half of the 30-storey tower, viewed from the southwest

Another view of the tower from Queen’s Quay to the southwest

Studio on Richmond condominiums

Looking up the north side of the Studio on Richmond condo tower situated between Simcoe and Duncan Streets in the Entertainment District. It will top off at 31 storeys. Its 41-storey sister tower, Studio2, is currently under construction behind it on Nelson Street.

Studio on Richmond podium and tower viewed from the north side of Richmond Street near Simcoe Street

The two-tower Studio on Richmond condo complex was designed by Quadrangle Architects of Toronto.

A view of the Studio on Richmond condo from the west on Richmond Street near Duncan Street. The building is a project of Aspen Ridge Homes.

Delta Hotel and Bremner office tower at Southcore Financial Centre

The Delta Toronto hotel (left) and the Bremner office tower are nearing completion at Southcore Financial Centre on Bremner Boulevard between York Street and Simcoe Street. The buildings are seen here from Roundhouse Park, near the Toronto Railway Museum.

The 45-storey Delta Hotel tower reflects on the west wall of the 30-storey Bremner office tower in this view from the southwest corner of Lower Simcoe Street and Bremner Boulevard.

Looking up the northwest corner of the Delta Hotel. The Bremner office tower is partially visible behind it.

Upper west side of the Delta Hotel. Scheduled to open in 2015, the Delta will be a premium 4-star hotel with 567 guest rooms.

The angled south face of the Delta Hotel, seen from Bremner Boulevard

The L Tower condominium

Upper floors of The L Tower seen from the west on Sept 16 2014. The dramatically curved skyscraper was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind.

A closer view of some of the upper levels of the 58-storey L Tower, which is located at the corner of Yonge Street and The Esplanade, directly behind the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.

The L Tower makes an emphatic point on the downtown skyline

A telephoto view of the construction crane that has soared above The L Tower construction site for the past several years

The Mercer condo tower

Looking up the southeast corner of The Mercer condo building, which rises 33 storeys at the corner of Mercer and John Streets in the Entertainment District

The Mercer was designed by BBB Architects, and is a project of Graywood Developments Ltd. and Beaveerhall Homes.

Three Hundred Front Street West condominiums

The upper floors of the 49-storey Three Hundred Front Street West condo tower

Looking up the southeast corner of Tridel’s Three Hundred Front West condo. The building was designed by Toronto’s Wallman Architects.

Theatre Park condominiums

The 47-storey Theatre Park condo tower is under construction on King Street West, right next door to Toronto’s historic Royal Alexandra Theatre. I shot this photo of Theatre Park from two blocks to the northwest.

Theatre Park was designed by architectsAlliance of Toronto. The condo is a project of Lamb Development Corp., Niche Development and Harhay Construction Management Ltd.

Glass balcony panels are gradually being installed on the tower’s north side

Design details on the tower’s west side

ÏCE Condominiums

The upper west sides of the 67- and 57-storey ÏCE Condominiums, located at 12 and 14 York Street in the south downtown core

The top of the 67-floor ÏCE Condo at 14 York Street. A project of Lanterra Developments, the two skyscrapers were designed by Toronto’s architectsAlliance.

ÏCE Condo towers viewed from the southeast on Queen’s Quay Blvd.

A view of the two towers from Grand Trunk Crescent to their northwest

Aura condominium

I shot this pic of the 78-storey Aura condominium tower from the podium green roof at Toronto City Hall. Aura is the tallest condominium building in Canada.

The upper third of Aura, viewed from several blocks to the southwest

A view of Aura from two blocks to the west on Elizabeth Street

Aura viewed from the northwest corner of College Park. A Canderel development project, the tower was designed by Graziani & Corazza Architects Inc.

The top of Aura, viewed from the southwest

The top of Aura, viewed from the north

Nicholas Residences condominiums

A view of 35-storey Nicholas Residences from the north on Balmuto Street. The condo is a project of Urban Capital and Alit Developments.

Looking up the tower’s northwest corner, from the intersection of St Mary and St Nicholas Streets. The building was designed by Toronto’s Core Architects Inc.

Nicholas viewed from the southwest on St Nicholas Street.

West side of Nicholas, viewed from St Mary Street near Bay Street

FIVE Condominiums

Looking toward the 48-storey FIVE Condos tower from two blocks to the southeast, at the corner of Yonge and Maitland Streets. To its right is the Nicholas Residences condo tower, two blocks north.

FIVE Condos was designed by Toronto’s Hariri Pontarini Architects

Looking up the south side of FIVE Condos from Wellesley Street West

The tower has a wonky appearance when viewed from the south, thanks to the undulating pattern of balconies on the east and west sides.

Construction of the tower’s mechanical penthouse is underway. FIVE Condos is a project of MOD Developments Inc., Graywood Developments Ltd., Tricon and Diamondcorp.

Windows on the east side of FIVE Condos on September 5

FIVE Condos viewed from the east on the morning of September 11

A view of FIVE from the south on St Luke Lane, next to the Toronto Central YMCA Centre (left). This view will change drastically in several years when Lanterra Developments builds its 60-storey 11 Wellesley on the Park condo tower on the property partly visible on the left side of St Luke Lane (presently occupied by a row of trees and a condo presentation centre behind them).

Chaz.Yorkville condominiums

Chaz.Yorkville Condominiums, on Charles Street between Yonge and Church Streets, is a project of 45 Charles Ltd. and Edenshaw Homes Limited.

A signature design element of Chaz.Yorkville is the large rectangular box that juts from the tower’s south side. It’s the Chaz Club, a 2-storey private club for exclusive use of condo residents.

The tower was designed by Sol Wassermuhl of Page + Steele IBI Group Architects in Toronto. It will stand 47 storeys tall when complete.

Chaz.Yorkville is only a few weeks away from overtaking the height of its next-door neighbour, the 46-storey Casa Condominium tower, which was built in 2010.

One Bloor Condominiums

Although construction has climbed only one-third of the way to its ultimate 75 storeys, the One Bloor condo tower is already making a huge architectural statement at the Yonge & Bloor crossroads in Yorkville. I shot this photo from the southwest corner of Yonge & Charles Streets.

I often hear passersby comment favourably on the delightful sweeping curves of One Bloor’s podium and tower.

Looking up at One Bloor from the southwest corner of the Yonge & Bloor intersection. The building was designed by Toronto’s Hariri Pontarini Architects.

A view of One Bloor from the northwest, on Yonge Street just above Bloor

U Condos

A view of the two U Condos towers from two blocks to the south on Bay Street, at Phipps Street. The construction crane at left is building the 32-storey 1Thousand Bay condo tower at the southwest corner of Bay and St Joseph Streets.

The west U Condos building has topped off at 45 storeys, while the east tower continues its climb toward 55 floors. U Condos is a project of Pemberton Group, and was designed by architectsAlliance of Toronto.

X2 Condominiums

Construction crews are closing in the mechanical penthouse levels of the 49-storey X2 Condominiums at the southwest corner of Jarvis & Charles Streets

X2 Condos viewed from one block to the southwest on Isabella Street. The tower is a project of Lifetime Developments and Great Gulf Homes.

A September 3 view from the south of X2 Condos left, and the first X Condos, right, which was constructed in 2010. X2 was designed by Wallman Architects, while X Condos was designed by architectsAlliance.

Downtown skyline views from the Toronto Islands

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A Ward’s Island view of the downtown Toronto skyline earlier this month

Pics and video: A lunchtime bikeride on the Toronto Islands earlier this month gave me a chance to check out how much the downtown skyline has changed in the one-year period since my last trip to the islands.

Although there are dozens and dozens of condo towers and several office highrises under construction in downtown Toronto, only a handful of projects have so far made a significant impact on the skyline views.

The southwest downtown core is now dominated by the two ÏCE Condominium towers which are still under construction on York Street, while the nearby Delta Hotel tower at Southcore Financial Centre on Bremner Boulevard also makes a big impact from some perspectives.

Off to the west, the Library District Condominium tower is a noteworthy addition to the Concord CityPlace skyline; a year ago, only its construction crane was visible.

Over on the southeast side of the downtown core, The L Tower is the most eye-catching new building, with the water’s edge Residences of Pier 27 also commanding attention even though it’s only a midrise condominium project. Much farther east, the Distillery District is easier to locate now that construction is drawing closer to completion on the Gooderham Tower.

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Work starts on highrise apartment/condo addition to 42-year-old rental tower on Isabella Street

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February 12 2013: A construction crew begins cutting holes where new windows and balconies will be installed …

… on the southeast side of the 26-storey apartment tower at 66 Isabella Street

The work is just the first phase of a project in which a 23-storey addition will be built next to the rental highrise (left) in place of the trees and lawn that have provided an open space at the northwest corner of Church and Isabella Streets for more than 40 years. Meanwhile, city approval is being sought for a 3-storey walk-up condo addition to the south and west sides of the Town Inn Suites at 620 Church (right) in a separate project that would fill in the remaining greenspace on the corner property between Charles and Isabella Streets.

Apartment tower add-on: The area around Church & Isabella Streets has been buzzing — literally — with the sounds of crews preparing a 42-year-old apartment tower for construction of a highrise addition that will contain 12 condo suites and 199 new rental units.

Workers started cutting holes in the south wall of the 66 Isabella Street building this week, the first step in reconfiguring apartments on the tower’s east side before a 23-storey addition is constructed only a few feet away.

The renovation work started last month, slightly more than two years after City planners released a preliminary report outlining issues that the project posed, and recommending that a community consultation meeting be called to get public input into the redevelopment proposal.

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Pit stop: X2 Condos parking floors filling in

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September 9 2012: Another underground parking level takes shape at the X2 Condos construction site at the southwest corner of Jarvis & Charles Streets. Nearly three of the building’s six below-grade levels have been constructed so far.

September 9 2012: A closer view of an underground floor taking form

September 9 2012: Rebar is being put in place to prepare for a concrete pour

September 9 201: Jarvis Street view of construction progress on the 49-storey tower.

A project of Great Gulf and Lifetime Developments, X2 Condos was designed by Toronto’s Rudy Wallman Architects Ltd. The tower will have 470 suites.

This artistic rendering, which appears on the project website, depicts a view of the 49-storey tower from the northeast.

X2 Condos will be a sister to the X Condominium tower on the north side of Charles Street (seen here in a view from the southeast on August 30 2011). The 44-storey X Condos, which opened for occupancy two years ago, was designed by architectsAlliance. Together, the developers say, X and X2 will stand as an eastern “gateway to Yorkville/Bloor.”

Window and cladding installation close to completion at Couture Condominium tower

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September 1 2012: Couture Condo’s east side, from Mt Pleasant Road

Glassing in: Window and cladding installation is nearly finished on the Couture Condominium tower under construction at 28 Ted Rogers Way (the northernmost block of Jarvis Street, just below Bloor Street). With glass balcony panel installation currently in progress, the tower exterior should look complete within a few weeks.

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City Scene: Balcony views at X Condos

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March 16 2011: Balconies on the west side of X Condos near Bloor & Jarvis

Couture Condos quickly catching up to X’s height

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March 16 2011: Couture Condos, left, has now climbed to 42 storeys. X Condos, right, has 44 floors, but once Couture’s mechanical penthouse is built, Couture will stand a full 3 meters taller than its next-door neighbour

More details and photos on the next page.

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Crews digging deep for X2 Condos foundation

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January 1 2012: A New Year’s Day view of the deep excavation pit for X2 Condos, looking west from the sidewalk along Jarvis Street

February 5 2011: An excavating machine sits idle in the muddy soil near the western end of the deep rectangular pit…

… but in just four days it has dug several feet deeper …

… and on February 11 gets some assistance moving a mound of earth

Crane coming soon?: Every time I walk past the X2 Condos building site — which lately has been about four times a week — I expect to see a construction crane rising from the deep excavation at the southwest corner of Jarvis and Charles Streets.

In early January, one of the construction crew told me that workers had to excavate just 20 more feet of soil, after which time a 6-foot-thick slab of concrete would be poured throughout the bottom of the pit to create the base for the 49-storey building foundation. Once the concrete had cured, the crane would be installed. That would take place sometime in January, the construction worker said.

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Couture condo tower begins climb above grade

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June 22 2011: Forms for first floor walls stand in place as construction of the Couture Condominium tower climbs above street grade (seen here looking north from street level behind Couture’s neighbour, X Condos).

June 22 2011: Concrete walls for the first floor rise above the street near the tower’s northeast corner and right beside the construction crane

June 22 2011: A view of first floor construction progress, looking to the northeast

June 22 2011: First floor takes shape near the building’s northeast corner

June 22 2011: X Condos looms to the south as Couture’s first floor rises

Couture’s climb: Just weeks ago there was still a huge hole in the ground where the Couture Condominium tower has been under construction. Now that the underground levels are almost finished, the tower is pushing above grade, and walls for the first floor of the 44-storey skyscraper are taking shape. Passersby will no longer have to peer into a large pit to watch the tower’s progress — it’s all straight up from this point. Below is a series of photos chronicling Couture’s construction progress at various times this spring.

April 22 2011: The foundation’s southern third slowly fills in …

… by June 5 2011, it has made great strides in catching up …

… and by June 22 2011 most — but not all — of the foundation is finished

April 22 2011: Foundation viewed from the southeast corner, looking north …

… by May 1 2011 crews haven’t yet made tremendous progress on the SE corner …

… but on May 31 2011 they’re placing forms for the first floor concrete pour …

… and by June 22 2011, the corner has filled in right up to street level

May 1 2011: This view from the southeast corner shows how much work remains to be done on the foundation’s southern section …

… but by June 22 2011 most of the foundation has filled in up to grade

May 1 2011: Looking to the southwest, wall forms are seen approaching grade …

… and by June 22 2011 forms begin to rise high above the street

May 1 2011: Looking south at foundation progress at the front of Couture, along Ted Rogers Way (a.k.a. Jarvis Street) …

… by June 22 2011, the stretch of property along Ted Rogers Way is fully filled in

April 22 2011: Four underground levels visible from the site’s southeast corner

April 22 2011: Looking north across the center of the construction site

April 22 2011: Looking north across the west side of the site

April 22 2011: The view from the site’s southwest corner

April 22 2011: Looking across the site toward Ted Rogers Way

April 22 2011: The southeast corner has a lot of catching-up to do

April 22 2011: Looking west across the southern third of the Couture site

May 1 2011: Underground floors on the southern section slowly start to fill in

May 1 2011: Looking down into the southeast corner of the foundation

May 31 2011: Forms being put in place to prepare for concrete pour for the street-level main floor

May 31 2011: Another view of grade-level work on the northern third of the site

June 5 2011: Most of the foundation starts closing in on street level

June 5 2011: Looking across the Couture foundation from the southwest corner

June 22 2011: Looking south along Ted Rogers Way as Couture starts climbing above the street

June 22 2011: Looking west across the northern third of the Couture site

June 22 2011: Looking northwest from Ted Rogers Way

June 22 2011: Street-level floor nearly complete at the south end of the site

June 22 2011: The southwest side of the building isn’t completely at grade yet

June 22 2011: Part of the first underground level remains to be closed in

City Scene: Four new towers in north downtown

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June 21 2011: A Broadview Avenue view of four new glass and steel towers that rise high in the Bloor-Yorkville area. At far left is Casa Condominium; in center are X Condos and James Cooper Mansion Condos; at far right with the construction crane is the Toronto Four Seasons Hotel & Residences.

Demolition clearing way for construction to start on 4-storey office building at Huntley & Isabella

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This rendering, provided courtesy of KPMB Architects in Toronto, illustrates a southwest winter view of the new offices to be built at Huntley & Isabella Streets for The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) …

…while this photo shows how the building site appeared this past winter on February 28 2011. The two brown brick buildings on the corner site are former Children’s Aid Society of Toronto facilities that are currently being demolished

May 9 2011: This is how the site appears today, now that one of the two former CAS buildings has been reduced to a heap of rubble

This KPMB Architects rendering depicts a northwest aerial view of the ETFO office building, showing its frontage along Huntley Street

The main Isabella Street entrance to the ETFO office building is shown in this rendering provided courtesy of KPMB Architects

New HQ for ETFO: Residents in downtown’s Upper Jarvis area are bracing for two more years of dust, dirt, noise and increased traffic as construction gets underway on a new office building for The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) at the northeast corner of Huntley and Isabella Streets. The four-storey structure will be built on the 15 Huntley Street site once occupied by the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (CAS), which five years ago moved into new offices of their own only three blocks west on Isabella.

Designed by Toronto’s KPMB Architects, the ETFO headquarters will stand four storeys tall with one level of underground parking for 50 vehicles. The building is being designed to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification. It will replace a pair of 2-storey brick buildings that have been sitting vacant, and in a visible state of disrepair, since the CAS relocated to its new premises in 2006. Demolition of those structures started two weeks ago and should conclude shortly. Kael Opie, the ETFO project architect at KPMB , said construction of the new headquarters is expected to begin within the next month. Completion is anticipated for May 2013.

The Huntley-Isabella neighbourhood is bounded on three sides by busy downtown thoroughfares: Jarvis Street on the west, Bloor Street on the north, and Sherbourne Street on the east. Isabella runs east-west, linking Jarvis and Sherbourne. Earl Street and Earl Place, to its south, are quiet cul-de-sacs on the east and west sides of Huntley Street, respectively. The area is predominantly residential in character, with several highrise and lowrise apartment buildings plus numerous semidetached three-storey homes on tree-lined Selby, Linden and Huntley Streets, as well as on Earl Street and Earl Place. The area also is home to the Casey House HIV/AIDS hospice, the Isabella Hotel & Suites, the Sacré-Coeur Catholic elementary school, a campus of the Msgr. Fraser College adult learning centre, and various offices (the massive Rogers Communications head office building looms large over the neighbourhood from the northwest, while the Greenwin Square office tower, highrise apartment building and shopping centre complex do the same from their location to the north between Bloor and Selby Streets).

Like many other downtown neighbourhoods, Upper Jarvis has witnessed a flurry of condo construction during the past three years. The dust is still settling at the new James Cooper Mansion condo tower at the corner of Linden and Sherbourne Streets, where occupancy began in February and exterior landscaping is still underway. Two other condo towers — X Condos at Jarvis and Charles Street, and 500 Sherbourne just below Earl Street — both opened last spring. Two more — Couture Condos and X2 Condos — are currently under construction at Jarvis & Charles, while several more condo highrises have been proposed for nearby locations. Now, the ETFO project is tossing office construction into the neighbourhood’s mix of ongoing building activity.

Some Upper Jarvis residents are wondering what impact the 20-meter-tall ETFO building will have on their neighbourhood. Besides the usual building-period irritants of noise, dust, and movement of heavy construction vehicles and equipment, they’re concerned about a potentially substantial increase in traffic along Isabella Street, especially at evening rush hour. The entrance and exit to the employee parking garage for the gargantuan Rogers building is on Isabella, and when the place empties out at quitting time, traffic often slows to a crawl between Jarvis and Sherbourne, making it difficult for southbound motorists to turn from Huntley onto Isabella Street. Residents are still waiting to see how much extra traffic the new James Cooper Mansion condo will draw to their streets (the tower is only half occupied at this point), and fear that dozens more vehicles for ETFO staff could only worsen the situation.

For the next two years, though, one thing is certain already: they’ll definitely see a sharp increase in the number of dump trucks, concrete mixers and heavy construction vehicles driving down their streets. The ETFO held a groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site last Wednesday and, since then, demolition teams have reduced one of the two former CAS buildings to rubble. I will continue following construction of the ETFO headquarters, and will be writing a “Neighbourhood Watch” report on building activity in the neighbourhood this summer. Below is a series of photos showing the old CAS buildings on 15 Huntley Street both before and during demolition. There is also a series of photos showing buildings on Huntley and Isabella Streets that will be neighbours to the new ETFO offices.

A Google map view of the Upper Jarvis area and the ETFO office site (circled)

ETFO office building development proposal sign outside 15 Huntley Street

November 2 2009: Looking southeast from Huntley Street at one of the former CAS buildings on the 15 Huntley Street site for the ETFO office building

November 11 2010: Looking northeast toward 15 Huntley Street

February 16 2011: Southeast winter view of 15 Huntley Street

February 16 2011: The former CAS building at the corner of Huntley & Isabella

February 23 2011: The huge Rogers Communications head office sits at left rear; the Greenwin Square apartment and office towers on Bloor Street stand at right

February 23 2011: One of the former CAS buildings at 15 Huntley Street

February 23 2011: The second former CAS building at 15 Huntley Street. The tower at right rear is the James Cooper Mansion condo complex

February 28 2011: The former CAS buildings viewed from the southwest corner of Huntley & Isabella Streets

March 19 2011: Huntley Street view of the old CAS building, looking southeast

April 2 2011: 15 Huntley Street, looking north along Huntley from Isabella Street

April 2 2011: Looking east along Isabella Street at the two former CAS buildings

April 2 2011: Dumpsters have been delivered for the crews that will demolish the old brick buildings at 15 Huntley Street

April 2 2011: The one-storey east wing of the former CAS building at the corner of Huntley & Isabella Streets

April 2 2011: The dilapidated west side of the building at Huntley & Isabella

April 2 2011: The brick buildings have sat vacant since the CAS relocated to new headquarters on Isabella Street five years ago

April 22 2011: Security fencing has been installed around 15 Huntley Street so demolition crews can knock down the old buildings

April 22 2011: Tree protection zones have been established along Huntley Street to ensure that trees on the boulevard aren’t damaged by demolition and construction machines

April 22 2011: Looking east from Huntley Street at the tree protection zones and security fences outside 15 Huntley Street

April 22 2011: Northeast view along Huntley Street

April 22 2011: A security fence along the Huntley Street perimeter of the demolition site

April 22 2011: Looking north at the tree protection zone along Huntley Street

April 22 2011: Looking south at the tree protection zone along Huntley Street

April 22 2011: Equipment has been brought in to knock down the old buildings

April 30 2011: Demolition of 15 Huntley Street is well under way

April 30 2011: Another view of the 15 Huntley Street demolition progress

April 30 2011 The former CAS building at the corner of Huntley & Isabella is the first to be razed

April 30 2011: The east wing of 15 Huntley Street will be torn down shortly

May 4 2011: Demolition equipment on the Huntley Street side of the site

May 4 2011: The ETFO building site viewed from the top floor of an apartment building on Huntley Street

May 4 2011: An overhead view of the north half of the ETFO building site

May 4 2011: Construction crews, ETFO staff and guests begin to gather on the property for last Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony

May 4 2011: These trees at the north end of the property will be destroyed to make way for construction of the new ETFO office. The buildings next to the trees are semidetached private homes on Huntley and Linden Streets

May 4 2011: A demolition machine near the northeast corner of the property

May 4 2011: The north side of one building has already been ripped down

May 4 2011: Demolition progress viewed from the groundbreaking ceremony site

May 4 2011: Demolition progress viewed from the groundbreaking ceremony location, looking west toward the enormous Rogers Communications building

May 9 2011: All that’s left of one of the old CAS buildings is a large heap of rubble

May 9 2011: Looking north at the mound of rubble at 15 Huntley Street

May 9 2011: The corner building is toast; the second building goes next

May 9 2011: Looking east from Huntley Street across the demolition site

May 9 2011: Southeast view from Huntley Street across the demolition site

May 9 2011: An excavation machine has dug itself into a hole next to the rubble

March 1 2011: These charming brick homes at 37 and 35 Huntley Street sit to the immediate north of the ETFO office building construction site

March 19 2011: Brick homes on Huntley Street, between Linden Street and the EFTO building construction site

February 28 2011: The northwest corner of Huntley and Isabella Streets, directly across the street from the ETFO building site

March 1 2011: The building on the northwest corner of Huntley & Isabella is the Samuel R Wickett House, built in 1901 at 122 & 124 Isabella Street. The Rogers Communications building and X Condos tower loom large in the background

March 1 2011: The Alfred R Williams House and Francis Despard House were built in 1884 at 30 & 32 Huntley Street. Now rental apartments, they sit directly across the street from the ETFO building site

March 1 2011: The Charles E Calvert house built in 1905 at 34 Huntley Street

March 1 2011: The George Morphy House at 38 & 40 Huntley Street

March 21 2011: The rental apartment building at 44 Huntley Street

March 1 2011: This Coach House at 119 Isabella Street was built in 1889, and is part of the Casey House hospice. It sits on the southwest corner of Huntley & Isabella, kiddy-corner to the ETFO office building site

April 2 2011: The Casey House Hospice at 9 Huntley Street sits directly across the street from the ETFO office building site

April 2 2011: Another view of 127 Isabella Street and the Casey House Hospice at 9 Huntley Street, on the south side of the street across from the ETFO site

April 2 2011: The Msgr Fraser College adult learning centre will be the ETFO building’s next-door neighbour on Isabella Street

City Scene: The keys to X Condos

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April 22 2011: Lockboxes containing keys to units for sale at X Condos

Keys to your next condo: Looking to buy a condo in the Bloor-Jarvis area? You’ll have lots of options on Charles Street East, where at least 23 suites are currently up for resale at the X Condos tower alone. The photo above, taken at X Condos on Good Friday, shows real estate agent lockboxes containing keys to units listed for sale in the building.

The 44-storey condo tower is situated at 110 Charles Street East, on the northeast corner of Ted Rogers Way (aka Jarvis Street). The lowest-priced unit listed on the mls.ca website on Friday was $319,900 for a 545-square-foot 1-bedroom on the 17th floor. The most expensive listing was $918,000 for a 2-bedroom plus den with three bathrooms on the 40th floor. Most suites are priced in the $400,000’s.

If you’re not interested in X Condos, but want to live in the same neighbourhood, there’s still plenty of choice: Couture Condos is under construction right next door, while X2 Condos is starting construction right across the street.

A tacky marketing tactic for X2 Condos

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A condo ad detracts from views of Shayne Dark’s bold red “Double Vision” sculpture outside X Condos

An affront to art?: I remember the first time I saw the Shayne Dark sculpture, “Double Vision,” outside the new X Condominium tower. The slender, long lipstick-red tubes rising from the sidewalk at the southeast corner of the tall coal-black condo tower caught my attention from more than two blocks away, so I hurried up Jarvis Street to take a closer look.

Because of its striking visual impact next to the building, Dark’s sculpture, which reminds me of bamboo shoots, instantly became one of my favourite pieces of public condominium art. But it didn’t take long before the eye-catching art unwittingly became a tacky marketing tool for X Condo’s sister project, X2 Condos. In next to no time, a garish black, white and hot pink billboard advertising the X2 condo sales centre was plunked in front of “Double Vision.”

Not only does the sign spoil views of the stunning sculpture, it also cheapens the artwork — which I’m certain cost the condo developer a pretty pile of cash. And speaking of cash, I’m willing to bet lawyers could make a good case demonstrating that the sign violates Dark’s moral rights … after all, remember what happened when the Eaton Centre tied Christmas bows on artist Michael Snow’s Canada geese sculpture, “Flight Stop?”

Memo to the clever marketing people at X2: Time to find a more appropriate place to park the sales office sign; perhaps on the south side of Charles Street, away from the sculpture. Please show some respect and class for the art, folks.

For readers who haven’t seen it, here is a photo from last August showing “Double Vision” when it wasn’t obscured by advertising. A pink sandwich board sign for the X2 sales office looks much less obnoxious placed away from the artwork.

This is what you see now when you view “Double Vision” from the south

Shovels in the ground at X2 Condos site

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The earth is moving at the X2 Condos project site

X2 marks its spot: I felt a touch of nostalgia when I saw a drilling machine and backhoe cutting into the snow-covered ground at the corner of Jarvis and Charles Streets this afternoon.

Don’t know why, but I suddenly started thinking about the ugly three-storey office building that used to occupy the site. For the longest time it housed an overpriced Becker’s convenience store and a sports bar called Caps that served awesome — but wickedly hot — BBQ chicken wings, good burgers and reasonably-priced beer. Caps was popular with sports teams as well as the cops who worked across the street in a police building that ultimately met its demise when the hugely popular 44-storey X Condominium tower started construction several years ago.

Eventually, the Becker’s store and the bar closed down. The PizzaPizza company acquired the property, spruced up the building, and moved its headquarters inside. But the days of the PizzaPizza place were numbered. X Condos was a tremendous success; its units sold like gangbusters, leaving no doubt there was a strong demand for more condos in the immediate neighbourhood. It was obvious that the PizzaPizza property would be worth an absolute fortune as a condo tower development site. Inevitably, signs were posted on the property in 2008 to advise the neighbourhood that plans were afoot to build a 44-storey condo highrise there.

In November 2009, a sales office for X2 Condos was constructed on Charles Street on the site of two brick mansions that formerly housed law firms and other offices (properties that also would ultimately be demolished to make way for the condo highrise.) Demolition of all three buildings began last August, and throughout the autumn the lot sat empty while soil testing and other preliminary site preparation work was performed.

In the meantime, the city approved the developer’s request to add more floors to X2, bringing the tower’s total height to 49 storeys. Now, digging has begun in earnest on the northeast perimeter of the site.

Don’t know why, but suddenly I’m craving beer and chicken wings! Too bad I can’t walk up the street to Caps anymore.

Below is a rendering of the X2 Condo building (designed by Toronto’s Rudy Wallman Architects, by the way), along with photos I’ve taken of the X2 site over the past three years. More photos can be viewed in an album accessible from the Photo Sets page of the blog (where you’ll find another album with pictures showing the construction of X Condos, from site excavation to fully-finished and occupied tower.

Although X and X2 look a lot alike, as sisters usually do, X was designed by a different architect — Peter Clewes of Toronto’s architects Alliance.)