Toronto L-Tower | 204.82m | 58s | Cityzen | Daniel Libeskind

For me, I believe L Tower would not be right at all with the Aura's cold and imposing cladding or the Ritz's elegant light green tinge or the Four Season's understated sophisticated grey/blue. The only other colour scheme that I can think of that would have been acceptable for L Tower is white cladding with blue streaks but One King has already claimed that colour scheme, Therefore, the blue seems right for me. L Tower is in a neighbourhood on the cusp of the financial district with half it's foot (or former foot) in the artsy St. Lawrence area. The design needed a wow factor (the curve) for the wall street crowd to talk about while they sip martini's at O&B or Biff's and the colour needed to be a splash of something (in this case blue) for the community theatre crowd.


^ Exactly. The glass represents about 80% of each panel. The blue might look jarring in a small sample size but will fall back to a subtle detail once a larger surface is covered.
 
How other types of cranes are raised

Franco commented about the raising of the L-Tower "top-climber" crane:

"these types of cranes are rarely used in toronto. i'd love to see how the climbing cranes located within the building are raised."

After some googling on the internet I found the following explanation in a book called "Cranes and Derricks - Fourth Edition" by Lawrence K. Shapiro and Jay P. Shapiro:

Climbing Procedures
A variety of systems have been devised by manufacturers to raise their tower cranes from one operating level to the next. One of them uses "Climbing Ladders":

7009249905_ffd8498eb4_b.jpg

(a) Working dogs impose the crane weight on the lower support frame.
(b) Climbing dogs linked to the hydraulic ram engage the climbing ladder and lift the crane.
(c) A second set of climbing dogs is engaged after the crane has been raised by one rung.
(d) The hydraulic ram is retracted to reengage its dogs on the next rung.
(e) After a number of repetitions, the crane reaches a sufficient elevation to come to rest on the next support frame.


You can find and even download the book from from here.

What I was always wondering about is how these internal climbing cranes are dismantled on the top once the construction is finished. The answer to that I found in "Concrete Construction Engineering Handbook" by Edward G. Nawy from which large excerpts are freely available in Google Books:

The pros and cons of an internal vs. external climbing crane were mentioned earlier, as were those of climbing the crane in the elevator shaft or through openings in the slabs. A major issue with regard to an internal climbing crane is dismantling it at the top of the high-rise host building at the end of construction. In the case of more than one internal climbing crane servicing the building, the contractor should opt for taking down all cranes, but one, with each other. Sometimes, a high-rise building is serviced by two climbing cranes, one external and one internal, in which case the former may be able to dismantle the latter. In such cases, careful consideration of dismantling issues at the equipment-planning phase may affect crane location, lift capacity (i.e., greater than might otherwise be needed), and jib length (i.e., longer than might otherwise be needed). In most cases, if the use of an external tower crane for dismantling is not an option, then climbing cranes can be dismantled by one of two means: a mobile crane or a derrick. The mobile-crane option is faster and less complicated; however, it is an option only if two conditions are satisfied: (1) a mobile crane with the required vertical and horizontal reach is available, and (2) the vicinity of the building allows for setup of the mobile crane. It would be advantageous if the internal crane climbed near the facade of the host building alongside which the dismantling mobile crane would be set up. If a mobile crane is not an option, which is always the case in the construction of ultra-high-rise buildings, then the tower crane to be dismantled can erect a derrick, which can then dismantle the tower crane and, in turn, be dismantled manually and taken down in small parts using the building elevator. Similarly, a custom-made hoisting apparatus may be used instead of a derrick. Another option, though seldom used, is the use of a helicopter.
 
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royal bank plaza always looks weird in that lighting. i guess it's worth all that gold if it makes the building stand out.
 
Omg. And there I am too. I'm the one climbing over the centre concrete wall on Yonge further down.
 
Amazing density there. Now if they could just get rid of that sidewalk clutter and crappy signposts this would look more like a respectable alpha or world city, or whatever it is we're supposed to be now.
 
Amazing density there. Now if they could just get rid of that sidewalk clutter and crappy signposts this would look more like a respectable alpha or world city, or whatever it is we're supposed to be now.

in other words, widen the sidewalks and get rid of a lane on younge.
 
in other words, widen the sidewalks and get rid of a lane on younge.

Why stop there? Make it completely pedestrian from Front to Bloor. Why should cars have dominion over a stretch of the city that has far more walkers than drivers? Many world cities already have such avenues.

Anywho, I suspect this debate should be on another thread.
 

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