High-rise infill development continues to add density to neighbourhoods around Toronto, including St. James Town, already one of the country's most densely populated neighbourhoods. On Sherbourne Street a short distance south of Bloor, Medallion Corp's intensification of a former retail podium within an existing 1970s-era slab-style rental apartment complex is expanding the boundaries of infill development.

561 Sherbourne viewed from the west, image by Stefan Novakovic

Sited between two existing apartment buildings, and on the footprint of a 2014-demolished No Frills grocery store, the new Page + Steele/IBI Group Architects-designed rental tower now stands 43 storeys above Sherbourne Street. Roughly a year and a half since work began on constructing the tower's below-grade levels, the last residential floor now appears fully formed from street-level vantage points, with work now beginning on the mechanical penthouse level above.

561 Sherbourne viewed from the north, image by Stefan Novakovic

Above the still-exposed one-storey retail podium, the first 13 and a half floors of the tower are now clad in a dark-tinted window wall system with similarly dark spandrel panels and mullions. The image below also reveals that the first of the glass balcony panels—installed on the west face of the tower's 7th floor—continues the uniform look of the exterior. The reflective cladding treatment of the new tower sharply contrasts with the brick and concrete exteriors of the adjacent towers.

Cladding progress at 561 Sherbourne, image by Stefan Novakovic

As cladding installation continues to seal off more of the tower from the increasingly harsh winter weather, interior work can also progress up the building, floor by floor. With the tower in the process of topping out and interior fit outs now in their early stages, the first apartment occupancies are expected for next year. Meanwhile, the ground level's future street-fronting retail spaces remain in a raw state: they are currently in use as part of the site's tightly confined construction staging area.

Street level at 561 Sherbourne, image by Stefan Novakovic

You can check out our dataBase for the development for renderings and more! Let us know what you think about this project by leaving a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page, or join in on the conversation in our associated Forum thread.