Tag Archives: York Street

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

 

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.


Infinity views and ÏCE foundations

Infinity3 condos ICE Condos

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. Infinity3 condosThe 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.

 

Infinity condos

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


Infinity condos ICE Condos

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.


Infinity condos Infinity3 condos

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.


ICE Condos Infinity3 Condos

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


ICE Condos Infinity3 Condos

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


Infinity condos Infinity3 condos

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


Infinity3 condos ICE Condos

February 18 2011: Worksite viewed from Lower Simcoe Street


Infinity3 condos ICE condos

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


Infinity3 condos

Infinity3 condo construction site entrance off Lower Simcoe Street


Infinity3 Condos ICE Condos

Infinity3 and ICE Condos foundations taking shape


Infinity3 condos ICE condos

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


Infinity3 ICE Concods

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


Infinity3 condos ICE condos

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


ICE condos

Construction workers at the bottom of the deep ÏCE Condos excavation


ICE condos

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


ICE Condos

The surveyors working above the ÏCE Condos excavation


ICE condos

ÏCE condos website rendering of the two condominium skyscrapers


ICE condos

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


ICE condo towers

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


ICE condo towers

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