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Toronto's skyline has been dominated by the 553-metre CN Tower and the nearby Financial District for nearly 40 years. Some of Canada's tallest buildings, including First Canadian Place and Scotia Plaza, are located in this area. But a new cluster of developments has formed in what used to be considered Toronto's Uptown. Centred at Yonge and Bloor Streets in the trendy Yorkville neighbourhood, several new condominium and hotel towers have recently shot skyward, completely transforming the cityscape. The former tallest building in this neighbourhood, the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences, tops out at 204 metres. It has now been surpassed by the 76-storey, 257-metre One Bloor East, which is currently under construction.
Upon completion, the building will become Toronto's second tallest condominium behind Aura at College Park. Due to Toronto's elevation shift northwards, One Bloor East is also the tallest habitable building in the city above sea level. Developed by Great Gulf Homes, the Hariri Pontarini design features undulating balconies which create a wavy vertical expression. Its dynamic form has drawn comparisons to Chicago's Aqua, which also uses balconies to form a flowing facade.
SkyriseCities toured the site last week to take a look inside the ground floor retail spaces and the exposed upper floors of the tower. The three-storey commercial podium offers 85,000 square feet of customizable retail space. The northwest quadrant of the building opens up to a 40-foot high area which will be enclosed with glass, allowing ample light to pour in. To match Bloor Street's public realm, granite sidewalks are being installed at the entryway to the building, an opulent reminder of the neighbourhood's prestige. Though no tenant has been announced for this space yet, its prime location and contemporary layout will surely attract the big-name luxury retailers that Bloor Street has become famous for.
The tower is nearly topped out, with concrete being poured on the final mechanical levels. At 76 storeys, concrete makes the long journey from the base of the building to the very top via a pipe that traverses the entire length of the tower. It is powered by a forceful pump that fills the halls with a strong thumping noise every few seconds, and a row of concrete trucks at the base of the building line up to feed the mixture through the pipe.
On the 76th floor, shoring rods help secure the floor above, concrete for which had been recently poured. Temporary platforms holding rebar and other construction material wrap around the upper floors of the building for easy access. With most of the tower still a concrete shell awaiting glass fixtures, the interior remains exposed to Toronto's weather. As one might expect, the wind can be unsettling.
Seeing the interior spaces in their infancy gives us an interesting peek into the world of tall building construction, and it also gives us the the opportunity to bask in some mesmerizing, mostly unseen views of the city.
Up on the 75th floor, it's obvious that Toronto is in the midst of Autumn. Heavy rain clouds start to cover the city as the changing leaves of the city's healthy tree canopy add some natural colour to the predominantly urban scene. The image below shows this lush canopy surrounding Yorkville and the glassy Four Seasons Hotel standing tall.
Unlike some other lakeside cities, especially Chicago, most of Toronto's buildings stretch away from the waterfront. Featuring a subway line that travels about 15 kilometres to North York—which amalgamated with Toronto in 1998—and Yonge Street is the spine that holds these buildings together.
Panning to the east, the recently completed Couture, X and X2 steal the show, while Bloor Street continues to cut through the landscape into the distance.
Looking to the west, building heights taper off in favour of a mid-rise urban fabric. Clusters of buildings can be seen in the distance, including the numerous condominium towers of Humber Bay Shores, where the Humber River meets Lake Ontario.
Zooming in, Canada's sixth largest city comes into view. Mississauga's modern towers help accommodate the city's population of just over 700,000 people.
The southern view is surely the most dramatic. Toronto's impressive and dense Downtown core is accented by the landmark CN Tower. Beyond the skyscraping architecture of the Financial District, Lake Ontario and slivers of the Toronto Islands become visible.
Taking a closer look, the popular tourist destination of Niagara Falls peeks up above the lake at a distance of about 70 kilometres. The slender Skylon Tower is unmistakable, with several hotels comprising the rest of the skyline.
Upon completion, One Bloor will include a number of amenities to service residents of the 789 units in the building, including pools, a fitness room and a landscaped outdoor terrace. For everyone else, the tower is set to become one of the most recognizable in the city's expanding skyline. Its sheer height is likely to become a wayfinding device, and the building is already being trumpeted as one of the most unique recent additions to Toronto.
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