Another office tower is soon to join the skyline of Toronto's Financial District, as Oxford Properties' EY Tower at 100 Adelaide West has hit a major milestone, reaching grade at the corner of Adelaide and Sheppard. We have been closely following the process of constructing the 40-storey, 900,000 square-foot office tower since the 16-storey Art Deco Concourse Building standing on the site was disassembled last year.

Looking north across the EY Tower site, image by Jack Landau

Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, WZMH Architects, Stephenson Engineering, and heritage consultants Goldsmith Borgal and Company Architects, the new office tower will juxtapose the rebuilt and re-proportioned Art Deco facade of the Concourse Building into the new tower's contemporary design, one which features gleaming chamfered facets and a crystalline crown.

Looking west across the EY Tower site, image by Jack Landau

While work on the southern portion of the site has reached street level, the northern half of the site, which is divided by a temporary bridge over the site linking with the existing Richmond-Adelaide Centre loading docks, is now sitting just below grade. Once construction proceeds around and above the bridge, its current location will mark the final entrance to the complex's loading docks.

Looking south across the EY Tower site, image by UT Forum contributor Scamander

Concrete and steel hitting grade is just the latest in a string of milestones for this project, which kicked off in Fall of 2013 with the start of disassembly of the heritage but obsolete Concourse building, followed by the completion of disassembly in November of that year. Excavation was completed early this year, and by May, the first of two tower cranes had been installed on site. Completion of the project, which is seeking LEED Platinum status, is currently slated for the Summer of 2017.

Additional information and renderings for the EY Tower be found in our dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided at the bottom of this page.