This week's Throwback Thursday turns the clocks back 7 years for a before and after comparison of an infill office project in Toronto's Bay and Bloor area. Back in December 2010, a block of Victorian Bay and Gable-style houses at the southeast corner of St. Thomas and Sultan Streets awaited redevelopment as preliminary planning was underway for a new mid-rise office building on site.

Southeast corner of St. Thomas and Sultan Streets, 2010, image by Forum contributor androiduk

Seven years later, following years of work and the attendant mess, the same southeast-facing view of the intersection shows the new Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed office building at 7 St. Thomas, magically popped in behind the heritage house-fronts, as if nothing ever happened in between. Construction of the nine-storey building by St. Thomas Commercial Developments wrapped up last year, leaving the neighbourhood with the striking addition of an undulating office building juxtaposed above Victorian geometries.

Southeast corner of St. Thomas and Sultan Streets, 2017, image by Forum contributor Benito

We will return next week with another look at the changing face of Toronto!