Phase 3 of The Daniels Corporation and Toronto Community Housing Corporation's (TCHC) revitalization of the Regent Park neighbourhood is well underway on the east side of Downtown Toronto. The mixed-income rebuild of what was once Canada's largest purely social housing community includes both new affordable rental housing and new market condominiums, implementing lessons in urban social planning learned over the last half-century. The latest market condominium development to begin construction in the neighbourhood as part of Phase 3 is DuEast Condominiums, a pair of 11 and 29-storey Core Architects-designed buildings coming to the northeast corner of Dundas and Sumach.

Facing southeast across the DuEast site, image by Jack Landau

We last checked in on the early stages of construction at the DuEast site back in December, when crews from Rumble Foundations had recently started working on the site's pile and lagging shoring system. Since then, the remaining soldier piles have been driven around the site perimeter, allowing for the start of excavation. The latest views of the site show that horizontal timber lagging is being installed between the piles to hold back the surrounding earth as crews continue to dig down.

Facing northeast across the DuEast site, image by Jack Landau

With large sections of the retaining wall now visible as the pit takes shape, a tieback drilling rig is working away at the east end of the site. This equipment is used for the installation of rock anchors, ensuring that the shoring walls are properly secured to the surrounding soil throughout the excavation of the site's three-level underground parking garage.

Excavation at DuEast, tieback rig visible at the rear, image by Jack Landau

The two buildings are set to respectively add 318 and 126 new homes to Regent Park, with one-to-three-bedroom layouts sized from 390 ft² to 1,217 ft². DuEast will offer a collection of amenities to residents, with indoor spaces appointed by Mason Studio and outdoor spaces by landscape architects Brook McIlroy. You can learn more about these amenities in a recent article covering the spaces.

Facing northwest across the DuEast site, image by Jack Landau

Additional information and renderings can be found in 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 field provided at the bottom of this page.