Toronto West Block Est. 1928, The LakeShore, and The LakeFront | 130.75m | 41s | Choice Properties | a—A

As I remember it, these billboards were grandfathered as new billboards wouldn't be allowed. They would have had to maintain part of the building's structure to keep them up. I'm sure it was a consideration until surrounding development blocked the panoramic views of the billboards and the lighting would probably face new restrictions. Y'know, the whole Kenny Roger's Chicken situation.
 
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Excavation for West Block is continuing - and an interesting detail has emerged. In the south west section of the site, the shoring, and now the excavation does not extend all the way to Lake Shore Blvd - there is a series of large concrete piers running in a diagonal from Bathurst Street, just north of Lake Shore Bvld, to the Lake Shore Blvd edge of the property, near the east lot line and the Panorama building. The shoring piles and excavation start just to the north of the concrete piers.

While the perimeter of the reconstructed building will extend to the corner of Bathurst and Lake Shore, the basement will not - the southwest corner of the building will require its own separate foundation section.

It turns out the concrete piers straddle, and protect the culvert containing the remnants of Garrison Creek, as it flows to the waterfront. The concrete piers have to remain in place, with the new building being constructed around them. The following photo shows the piers as they angle towards Lake Shore Blvd, along with the laneway beside the angled building south of Lake Shore Blvd, under which Garrison Creek flows, until it reaches the waterfront by the tree shown in the photo. The photo is from my cell phone - please excuse the poor resolution.

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AHK said:
It turns out the concrete piers straddle, and protect the culvert containing the remnants of Garrison Creek, as it flows to the waterfront.
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I noticed this detail in the architectural plans and was curious about what ran through that culvert. Thanks for the info -- very interesting.

Here are the plans (P3 level):
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The Gardiner is directly north of the excavated area. It's a surprisingly tight site. Level P1, which extends north from here, is going to have some massive columns supporting the Gardiner above.
 

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They aren't building any new columns to support the Gardiner. The existing large circular ones are staying in place and they are excavating around them.

You can see them in the drawings on the city site dated Sept 2016.
 
Oct 10.
Just got around to fixing and uploading the photos of the site I shot some weeks ago. There about 100 shots up on site now.

A lot more of the old dock system found.
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Priestly Demolition has released a new video of the demolition process. Quite the informative clip with interviews, narration, etc.

 
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Drum has just posted some shots to his Flickr account (linked at the bottom of his post above) which are five weeks newer than the last ones he's posted above. (Maybe he'll get time to post them here soon too?)

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