One of the many high-rise condominium projects sprouting from Toronto’s Entertainment District, The Daniels Corporation’s Cinema Tower officially topped off at 43 floors just over a month ago, and we were there to cover it. This past Wednesday, an unseasonably warm and hazy afternoon, we were fortunate enough to be invited back to the Cinema Tower to take an extensive tour of the building, along with Ingrid Grittani, project manager for Cinema Tower, Sam Tassone VP of Construction at Daniels, Simona Annibale, VP of Marketing at Daniels, and David Eisenstadt of the Communication Group. With the sun racing towards the horizon across the November sky, we briskly made our way to the roof where we were greeted by a sea of rebar and concrete drenched in the spectacular late autumn sun.
Despite the fact that the Kirkor-designed tower topped off six weeks ago, the roof is still a very busy construction zone with plenty of work left to do. The HVAC unit (heating ventilation and air conditioning) was recently installed and the 43rd floor is now being used as a staging area for the work currently underway on the mechanical floor above.
The elevator control room, located on the 44th floor (one floor above the highest suites), is now in the hands of subcontractors who have just 16 weeks to install the first of four elevators, with the remaining three following in two-week intervals. Rails for the elevators are being built from the ground up, with work now reaching the 30th floor. Working elevators are a necessity in any functioning high-rise, so great care is being taken to ensure that everything is ready to go for expected occupancy date of July 2013.
Before making our way down the stairs to our next stop, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take in some of the magnificent views, made even more unique by the blanket of haze engulfing the city. The views themselves haven’t changed much since our last visit in October, but the irregular atmospheric conditions that day made the following photos impossible to omit:
Moving on, we make our descent from the roof down to the 39th floor. Before boarding the construction hoist to take us down to our next stop, we paused briefly to document workers installing window-wall cladding on what will eventually be an east facing living room.
Arriving on the sixth floor, we were met with an unexpected surprise — a striking hallway clad in antique red brick welcomed us to Cinema Tower’s amenity level. The bricks themselves are over a century old, and were salvaged from the two buildings which previously occupied the site where the tower now stands.
The amenities found on the sixth floor will include a lounge atop the podium roof, a screening room where residents will have access to exclusive TIFF programming, a sauna and hot tub, change rooms, fitness room and a full basketball court.
For additional renders and information, please check out our dataBase, linked below. If you want to join the conversation, or just keep up to date on construction, take a look at the related thread on our forum.
Related Companies: | Jablonsky, Ast and Partners, NAK Design Strategies, NEEZO Studios, The Daniels Corporation, The Fence People |