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This past Friday, construction of First Gulf's Globe and Mail Centre officially topped off in Toronto with a ceremony attended by First Gulf CEO David Gerofsky, Ontario MPP Glen Murray, Mayor John Tory, and Publisher and CEO for Canadian newspaper and future anchor tenant, the Globe and Mail, Phillip Crawley. The 17-storey Diamond Schmitt Architects-designed office tower will add 500,000 square feet of office space to an area east of Toronto's downtown core, and will soon be home to more than 3,000 employees.
Guests gathered inside the raw first floor that will eventually serve as the office tower's lobby and retail level. This lofty space stretches from King Street East in the north to Front Street East in the south, though much of it was partitioned off to keep guests safely concentrated on the north side.
After remarks, each of the dignitaries signed a large structural support column with their own personal messages about the building. MPP Glen Murray left "Welcome to the hood," Mayor Tory followed with "Great jobs in a green building! Congrats." Next was Philip Crawley with "An historic day. Great for the Globe," and finally David Gerofsky closed with "We did it!"
As the celebration wound down on Friday afternoon, we were afforded the opportunity to tour the office tower, ascending the 17 levels by foot and stopping to take in our surroundings along the way. Above the first floor retail and lobby level, floors two through six will eventually be the new home of loyalty marketing and enterprise service LoyaltyOne.
The tower features indented portions, creating terraces for office tenants on select floors. In the image below, we are shown one of the terraces on the east side of the tower. Glazing will soon be installed in the mounting section visible bisecting the image.
The tower's exterior features alternating volumes of light reflective and dark grey tinted curtain wall glazing. Curtain wall hooks can be seen on the outer slab edge in the image above, while the connecting hardware for one of these curtain wall sections hanging from the hooks can be seen in the image below.
The development is currently 95% leased, with only a portion of space remaining on the seventh and eights floors. Above, levels nine through 12 will be occupied by Yellow Pages, while floors 13 through 17 will be occupied by the Globe and Mail. Along with a large event space, the Globe and Mail's portion of the building will feature two large terraces on the north and south sides where the final office floor steps back to the mechanical penthouse level.
The terraces will give workers a refuge from the daily hustle and bustle, with impressive views overlooking the surrounding cityscape. To the west, an unobstructed view of the Financial District skyline will be preserved by the neighbouring 333 King Street East development, also owned by First Gulf.
The northwest view looks across the areas east of Toronto's downtown, towards the growing north downtown and Bloor-Yorkville skyline.
The trendy Distillery District and newly built Canary District are both located just a few blocks to the southeast of the development, and tenants with views facing this area will be able to watch this part of the city continue to evolve as new buildings replace existing parking lots in the coming years.
For additional information and renderings, head over to the project's Database file. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the Forum thread, or leave a comment below.
| Related Companies: | ANTAMEX, Diamond Schmitt Architects, First Gulf, LiveRoof Ontario Inc, RJC Engineers, Trillium Architectural Products, Vortex Fire Consulting Inc. |
