With the seemingly endless procession of groundbreakings, crane installations and other project milestones, it has become increasingly difficult to stay up to date on Toronto’s many construction projects. Though fret not reader, because today we are going to create a timeline to break down the recent progress at one of the highest profile developments in the city, if not the entire country; Great Gulf Homes’ landmark megaproject, One Bloor East.
When we last looked at the site in mid-June, the future Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed 75-storey tower had just recently reached the long-awaited milestone of rising to street level. In the time since, the beginnings of the large seven-storey podium have begun to take shape, and the progress has been quite interesting to watch. The favourite vantage point of the construction site for UrbanToronto photographers has undoubtedly been the top floor of the public parking garage, located immediately south of the One Bloor site on Hayden Street. As excitement continues to mount, let's rewind two months to mid-June, when the project reached grade.
Taken several weeks later, the following photo clearly shows the first above ground walls taking shape.
Forum contributor drum118 was on the scene the following day, July 21st, to document some of the progress as seen from ground level.
Just 10 days later, many of the ground level’s walls had appeared with formwork in full swing on the remaining sections. The following photo, by forum contributor androiduk on July 31st, shows a much different scene than the previous image taken from the same angle.
Androiduk returned to the scene eleven days later, and the resulting photo reveals a nearly completed ground floor, with most of the second floor slab forms and some column forms now in place.
With 74 floors plus the mechanical penthouse left to build, there is obviously a great deal of work to go before the 789-units are built and occupied, currently slated for 2015, but the presence of concrete and rebar above ground at this storied location is certainly worth celebrating.
For additional information including building facts, many renderings and floorplans, consult our dataBase page, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or voice your opinion using the comments section provided below.