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Two months after preliminary prep work began on the 6-storey Canadian Westinghouse Building at the southeast corner of King Street and Blue Jays Way, crews have begun the delicate task of disassembling the building's south and east facades. The Westinghouse building's other two facades will be incorporated into the podium of Greenland Group's King Blue, but these particular walls will disappear into the new development.
The heritage north and west facades will be preserved in-situ—a task to be overseen by heritage specialists ERA Architects—becoming a distinctive element in the Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed development which will include 48 and 44-storey towers in two of the corners.
Using work platforms installed along the south and east facades in November, workers are in the process of peeling away the outermost layer of bricks on the heritage structure, revealing the underlying brick and steel structural elements of the building for the first time since it was constructed in 1927.
As the exterior details of the south and east facades continue to be stripped from the building, work has commenced on the installation of temporary steel supports for the north and west facades. Once the north and west facades have been fully secured by the new supports, demolition of the remaining building will begin, making way for the development's excavation phase.
As demolition work picks up pace, work is continuing on the shoring process of the surrounding site to the south and east, until recently used as a surface parking lot. Excavation of the site is being targeted for completion in October, after which we can expect to see concrete and steel go in to form the foundation of the new buildings. Upon completion, the King Blue development will add 872 new homes to Toronto's Entertainment District, anchored at the base by a 122-room Primus Hotel, the new 9,000 square foot Theatre Museum Canada, and street front retail spaces.
You can learn more about King Blue by visiting our dataBase file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.
