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Yesterday we stopped by Aspen Ridge Homes’ Studio and Studio2 on Richmond, one of the many high-rise condominium developments currently rising in Toronto’s Entertainment District. The 31 and 41-storey Quadrangle Architects-designed towers will add a combined 762 condominium units to the rapidly densifying area just west of the Financial District.
A quick walk around the site perimeter reveals the layout of the site. The southern mid-rise which fronts onto Nelson Street is structurally complete while work is underway on the 10th floor of the 31-storey Studio north tower.
Level 10 is the first of Studio’s tower floorplate, which is now expected to rise at an unprecedented rate of one floor every 3 days until topping out this Summer.
Work is also moving along on cladding the podium of the north tower and south mid-rise. At the time of our visit, an extra lane of Richmond Street was closed to accommodate a portable crane onsite to hoist pieces of the podium’s precast cladding into place.
Varied shades of precast will help to break up the almost block-long north and south podium façades.
At Duncan and Nelson, construction has reached another major milestone with work now underway on the ground floor of the 41-storey Studio2.
Much of Studio’s ground floor Richmond Street frontage will be handed over to OCAD University after construction concludes, at which point the art and design school will transform the space into a new gallery.
Ample walls dividing the room into segments on a north-south axis will provide plenty of display space with lots of natural light. This gallery serves as the Section 37 contribution for Studio.
Immediately east of the future OCAD space is the site for the first phase’s main residential entrance.
A few feet further to the east, Studio’s fitness centre will occupy the ground floor’s northeastern corner.
Below ground, the Studio/Studio2 complex holds 485 parking spaces. The uppermost floor of this parking garage will be a public lot, and double as paid visitor parking.
Up until recently, three cranes were in use at the Studio/Studio2 site. With much of the work on the southern mid-rise portion complete, one crane has since been taken down leaving an empty column running from the roof down to the foundation.
This gap is now being filled in by crews floor-by-floor, and the same process is soon to begin on the lower floors of the towers as the two cranes continue to rise.
Back above ground, an expansive 3rd floor terrace divides the south mid-rise and the (currently at-grade) 41-storey Studio2 from the rising 31-storey Studio.
Moving higher up, the 9th floor of the complex will be home to Mike Niven Interior Design's extensive "MeZone" and "WeZone" amenity spaces, the former aimed at relaxation and the latter at socializing. In the image below we can see the concrete forms of level 10, the first tower floorplate, taking shape.
While we have already discussed Studio and Studio2’s amenity spaces in previous articles, we had yet to see the very urban views from these 9th storey spaces.
The elevated vantage points found on the upper levels of Studio’s podium also provide an overview and better understanding of the complex and its local context.
We will return to Studio and Studio2 in the coming months as construction progresses. In the meantime, additional information including building facts, renderings and floorplans for Studio and Studio2 on Richmond can be found in our dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Head over to one of the associated Forum threads, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided at the bottom of this page.
| Related Companies: | BDP Quadrangle |
