Toronto CIBC SQUARE | 241.39m | 50s | Hines | WilkinsonEyre

  • Thread starter Suicidal Gingerbread Man
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WaterPark Place 3, One York and The Well - all concrete structure office towers
 
pman said:
I’ve noticed that steel builds are pretty common outside Canada, but aren’t used in many Toronto towers. Why are we different?
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innsertnamehere said:
most towers in Toronto are residential, where steel makes no sense. Steel has been used in office projects, but even then it depends a lot on raw material pricing when a project goes to tender.
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@innsertnamehere has it pretty much correct. Another factor (and this is less of an issue in Toronto) is who controls a particular industry. Concrete towers were (and to a degree, are) rare in New York City because the industry was particularly intertwined with the mob. Hence, it was "weird" at the time when Trump used concrete to build his eponymous tower on Fifth Avenue in the late 70s-early 80s.
 
There's also the added benefit of sound insulation for concrete builds which is ideal for residential towers. Steel works great for the high ceiling open spaces we see for many office towers.
 
More steel, the more expensive. The tensile strength of steel beams over steel reinforced concrete is an advantage to column free spaces which 400 square foot one bedrooms don't need. Bay Adelaide East, for example, has the better, workable, floor plan than any of these concrete office towers with fewer, thinner columns and positioned right on the perimeter of the floor plate. The others all have their larger columns inset from the perimeter. There are more of them as well.

The only new steel tower that comes to mind in Canada is The Bow in Calgary. All other are composite structures with a concrete core and a steel floor area.
 
Happy Friday

South West Corner: Earlier this morning a white cloth like material was spread over a gravel base. A new floor is being poured in the section under the platform along Bay Street. You may also notice that the P3 ramp has been graded from from east side up to west side. It's presently being used as storage for rebar and is covered in snow

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Westside Story: A floor is being poured over the white cloth like material. There is no rebar being used for this pour. The core continues to grow, floors have been poured and the tops are being covered in plywood. There are access doors to each of these rooms. At ground level on the west side of the core, towards the north section of the core, (a very dark looking rectangle) there is a new rebar foundation and some type of mounting bracket that is similar to the crane bases that were previously build, except the size is considerably smaller. Could this be a base for a more permanent concrete pumping machine?

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Eastside Story: Not much new here this week

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Here will explain the layout of the core a bit more - there's new drawings on the city website from last month - those 2 large rooms with the X's through them are stormwater cisterns - see the ladder on the right of each room.

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Southcore rises! A total new skyline within a skyline. After both CIBC Towers go up that will drastically change that view. And if THE HUB ever goes ahead that will be the icing on top. Not sure if 30 York St will have a presence from this angle?
 
Michael62 said:
A floor is being poured over the white cloth like material. There is no rebar being used for this pour.
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Speaking to this, the white material is a vapour barrier which is installed below the slab-on-grade - helps to control the flow of moisture through the slab-on-grade. The pour you are talking about is for the lowest level slab and this does not require reinforcing as it is not a structural floor slab.
 
travis3000 said:
Southcore rises! A total new skyline within a skyline. After both CIBC Towers go up that will drastically change that view. And if THE HUB ever goes ahead that will be the icing on top. Not sure if 30 York St will have a presence from this angle?
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Not much will be seen of Southcore from that angle when Larco eventually builds over top the back of that Dominion of Canada building
 
Wow this is moving at such a pace. We'll be at grade before we know it and I bet after the podium it'll rise more than a floor a week. Anyone care to predict a top out?
 
coopEng said:
Speaking to this, the white material is a vapour barrier which is installed below the slab-on-grade - helps to control the flow of moisture through the slab-on-grade. The pour you are talking about is for the lowest level slab and this does not require reinforcing as it is not a structural floor slab.
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The geotechnical reports for this project and 30 Bay available from the Dev App are very interesting reads, especially with respect to the discussion around foundation, water control and the issue of rock squeeze mentioned previously.

AoD
 
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