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Toronto's largest construction site is moving along at the northwest corner of Front and Spadina, soon to bring a mix of retail, residential, office, and public space to the area between the Entertainment District and CityPlace/Fort York neighbourhoods. The massive project from Diamond Corp, Allied Properties REIT, Rio Can REIT, Tridel, and Woodbourne—known as The Well—will bring seven towers to a superblock bounded by Wellington, Draper, and Front streets to the north, west, and south, and Spadina Avenue to the east.
The project's various buildings feature design by various architectural firms, with the 36-storey office tower at the site's southeast corner designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, while architectsAlliance has designed residential towers along the south side of the site along Front Street, Wallman Architects has designed residential towers to the north along Wellington, BDP has designed the retail areas, and Adamson Associates Architects is serving as architect of record for the project as a whole.
Work is currently furthest along for the 36-storey office component at the corner of Front and Spadina, being led by Allied REIT. Since reaching grade at the end of 2018, the building's initial above-ground levels have been gradually taking shape. The latest update from the site shows that the second and third floors of the tower now rise above the Front and Spadina intersection.
Once completed in 2022, the office tower will stand 174 metres as the tallest building in the complex. The building will bring just under 1,000,000 ft² of rentable office space to the area, with advertising and technology firm Index Exchange and Shopify signed on as anchor tenants. In addition to the office tower, other parts of the complex will house an additional 125,000 ft² of office space.
To the west, work is progressing for the six residential towers, set to be connected by a 432,772 ft² retail galleria. The footprint of the westernmost rental tower lags behind, as crews simultaneously excavate and form a large underground water cistern. This massive tank is part of an energy-efficient Enwave district deep lake-water cooling and solar thermal system expansion. The walls of the tank are being built using the same slipform construction used to form the CN Tower, and will be capped by a thick transfer slab before the third rental tower’s underground levels can take shape.
To the south, progress on the three residential tower footprints mirrors the rental buildings to the north, with sections of the underground garage in place for the eastern two towers, and work following behind for the third tower to the west.
Additional information and images can be found in our database file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the field provided at the bottom of this page.
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