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What does one month of construction activity look like? The answer to that question varies for every project, depending on the stage of construction the building is at, and the size and shape of the development. At Great Gulf Homes' One Bloor East, concrete forming and pouring progressed a couple months ago beyond the building's six-storey podium, and on to the tower floors above. Thanks to the (mostly*) repeating layout of the tower's floor plan, the pace of construction has picked up considerably.
Since our last look at the project in mid-June, work has progressed to the 15th floor of the 75-storey, Hariri Pontarini-designed condominium development, moving at a rate of about one floor per week. That's a pretty standard pace for the construction of a point tower, but we suspect things are about to speed up a bit as a concrete pump has now been installed through the elevator shaft in the centre of the tower. The addition of the pump will allow work to proceed at a faster rate as concrete will no longer need to be hoisted one bucket at a time by the crane. The speed of concrete pours will now depend on how quickly cement trucks can keep the pump supplied.
Now standing at 15 storeys in height, One Bloor East is just starting to make an impact from various vantage points in this increasingly high-rise Bloor-Yorkville vicinity. Seen from the 24th floor of a building to the south, despite the rise so far, One Bloor is still dwarfed by some of its neighbours. With 60 more storeys to go though, One Bloor will be the new king of the neighbourhood soon enough.
Back down closer to ground level, the installation of cladding on One Bloor East's podium continues to fascinate. The reflective curtain wall glazing rising on the podium's north façade has seen an overwhelmingly positive response since the first panels were installed earlier this year, with the praise for the curved glass corner treatments making the loudest noise.
On the Yonge Street side of the podium, metal brackets are being installed on the underside of the uppermost podium slab. A dropped soffit will be attached to the brackets, creating a thicker, more robust line to top this public-realm part of the development.
We will be back for more as this very interesting project progresses. In the meantime, additional information and renderings can be found in our One Bloor East dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave your comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.
