Last summer City Council approved the plans for a new $30 million practice facility for the Toronto Raptors to be located at Exhibition Place adjacent to Medieval Times. The building, designed by Baldwin & Franklin Architects in partnership with Oklahoma-based architects Guernsey, is targeted for completion in January 2016; this is a critical deadline to keep since Toronto will be hosting the NBA’s All-Star Game that year.

Site of the training facility within Exhibition Place, image retrieved from Apple Maps

Since the announcement, work has rapidly progressed on the building, originally named the “High Performance Basketball Development and Training Centre”, now more simply renamed as the Toronto Raptors Training Centre by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE). Having a hard deadline to keep is a great motivator for expediting construction, which Toronto can attest to with the slew of projects being completed in time for the Pan Am games.

Architectural Rendering of the new Raptors Training Facility (South-East), image courtesy of MLSE

UrbanToronto was on site in April to document the construction progress, capturing the completion of the foundation and a large part of the steel superstructure. Our site visit this week shows the extraordinary amount of work that has been finished in just a 4 month period: completing the main steel structural skeleton, closing up parts of the building, attaching insulation panels, and installing a majority of the glass curtain wall.

The structure as seen looking north over British Columbia Road, Image provided by Craig White

About half the facade is covered with dark blue glass panels; the long south face is fully clad, while work is still progressing on the glass covered portion of the eastern face.

South face cladding completed, Image provided by Craig White

East face cladding nearing completion, Image provided by Craig White

The northeast corner of the building has not progressed as far: insulation is still being put up and secondary steel supporting members are being installed.

Secondary steel members being installed on Northeast corner, Image provided by Craig White

UrbanToronto will continue documenting the construction progress so be sure to check our Forum thread and database file for further updates on the project.

Related Companies:  EllisDon, Entuitive