As the first residential development in years to be built south of Queens Quay, we have been keeping a close eye on Cityzen and Fernbrook’s Waterlink at Pier 27. The architectsAlliance-designed development, consisting of two pairs of 11-storey buildings, each pair connected by 3-storey skybridges, has been under construction at the edge of Toronto Harbour since 2010. Now that all four structures have topped off, work is accelerating on the project’s finer details like cladding and interiors.

Waterlink at Pier 27 viewed from Yonge and Queens Quay, image by Jack Landau

While progress on the skybridge sections has remained more or less unchanged since our tour of the site in July, an almost unbelievably massive scaffold is being erected between the two easternmost towers, which will act as a staging space for the cladding of the skybridge's underside.

Scaffolding between the two easternmost towers, image by Jack Landau

Crews working on the scaffolding, image by Jack Landau

The scaffolding has been constructed at an impressive rate in the past several weeks. In the two images below, we compare the progress as seen on September 18th versus October 2nd.

Scaffolding progress as of September 18th, image by Jack Landau

Scaffolding progress as of October 2nd, image by Jack Landau

Though Pier 27 lies on the eastern boundary of the mixed-use central waterfront district, its immediate neighbour to the east, the Redpath Sugar refinery, stands as the sole survivor of the area’s industrial past.  Building a condominium next to a very active industrial facility involves the inclusion of some stringent safety features, like the imposing precast concrete wall seen on the east wall of the easternmost building in the complex. 

East wall facing the Redpath Sugar refinery, image by Jack Landau

The large concrete façade, broken up by a seemingly random pattern of horizontal slats, acts as not only a safety and noise buffer for the residents of the building, but also provides a perfect visual and contextual blending point between the residential and industrial land uses and their respective architectural styles. While much of this eastern façade is occupied by precast concrete, the uppermost floors are now being clad with a seafoam green hued glazing, while an asymmetrical portion of the ground realm is being clad in charcoal brick.

Charcoal brick cladding on the lower portion of the east tower's east façade, image by Jack Landau

The first row of glazing on the east tower's uppermost floors as seen on September 18th, image by Jack Landau

With scaffolding in place, it won’t be long until we return for another update on Waterlink at Pier 27. Until then, a comprehensive collection of project facts, floorplans and renderings can be found in our dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided at the bottom of this page.