Just south of the Art Gallery of Ontario and OCAD U, construction is well underway at the site of Tridel's Form Condos, a 14-storey, architectsAlliance-designed condominium development on Toronto's McCaul Street between Queen and Dundas. We last checked in on the construction site back in late July, when shoring rigs were hard at work drilling piles for the site's earth retention system. With these combined caisson wall and pile and lagging shoring systems now fully in place, excavation work for the building's 2.5-level underground parking garage has begun. 

Facing north across the Form Condos site, image by Forum contributor Benito

Form's excavation is now roughly one level deep, revealing a row of steel tiebacks used to anchor the shoring walls to the surrounding earth. Views into the pit also reveal the presence of timber lagging, part of the pile and lagging shoring system being employed across the bulk of the site.

Facing southwest across the Form Condos site, image by Forum contributor Benito

As the excavation grows deeper, individual pieces of timber lagging are inserted between vertical soldier piles (steel i-beams) to create the below-grade walls of the site. The concrete walled sections of the site visible in the images above and below were built using the waterproof caisson wall method generally used for areas with higher water tables.

Facing southwest across the Form Condos site, image by Forum contributor Benito

The project's architectsAlliance design will contribute another statement to the area's already impressive collection of architecture, which includes Will Alsop's table-top Sharp Centre for Design and Frank Gehry's AGO. Future OCAD expansions like 100 McCaul and the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion promise to add even more interesting designs to this architecturally cutting-edge area.

Form Condos, image courtesy of Tridel

Additional information and images can be found in our database file for Form Condos, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the field provided at the bottom of this page.