Chaz Yorkville, a 47 storey condominium development by 45 Charles Ltd and project managed by Edenshaw Homes, has recently had its crane removed. The process of removing a crane is never a simple one, and this particular removal happens to have been photographed throughout the steps by UrbanToronto Forum contributors.

The crane as it appeared prior to disassembly, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Benito

Shorter buildings often have a large mobile crane come in on a weekend, close off an adjacent street, and remove the crane in one day. In fact this coming weekend, Sherbourne Street will be closed between King Street and Front so that a 300 ton mobile crane can come to dismantle the crane from the top of the 17-storey King + Condos development. While this is a realistic process for buildings short enough for the mobile cranes to reach the roof, it quickly becomes impossible once buildings start to get taller than any crane that can be driven in for the day. 

The first derrick removing the construction crane, image by Forum contributor victord66.

The process of removing a crane from tall buildings usually involves having the crane hoist a derrick, smaller than the crane, in pieces to the roof, and assembling it in free space. The crane can then be dismantled and lowered in pieces to the ground by the derrick. To get that derrick down, a smaller one is then hoisted in pieces to the roof, and the process continues until the derricks become small enough to be transported to ground level in the construction hoist, or sometimes even by the internal elevators if the external hoist has already been removed.

The second derrick removing the first derrick, image by Forum contributor Benito

As detailed in these photos, it took 3 such derricks to fully remove the crane at the Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed Chaz, progressing over roughly a month. Beginning in late January, the initial, large derrick was assembled, with removal of the main crane following several days later.

The third, smaller derrick disassembling the 2nd derrick, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Benito

Following the main crane's removal, a second, smaller derrick was installed to remove the initial derrick, followed by another derrick to remove the second. To remove the 2nd derrick, a 3rd derrick was brought in. The 3rd derrick was finally small enough to be brought down in the construction hoist, and with the process was completed in the last few days, Chaz now stands at its full height with no swinging metal arms towering over it.

CHAZ with the final derrick removed, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Benito

Want more information on Chaz on Charles? Feel free to click on our dataBase link provided below. To add your thoughts about the process, you can join in on the conversation in our associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.