Bay Adelaide Centre East has made a good deal of vertical progress since we last checked in with the project  almost two months ago. The building, under development by Brookfield Office Properties and designed by KPMB Architects and Adamson Associates Architects, with heritage work by ERA Architects, has about doubled its height since the middle of April. This fast construction is possible due to the steel frame construction method being used here.

In the image below, captured from the Bay Adelaide webcam live feed this morning, we can see a new three-storey section of steel in place on the East Tower's northwest corner, while the concrete tower core rises several storeys above.

Bay Adelaide East construction, image courtesy Bay Adelaide Webcam

Back down at ground level, there's a lot going on. The glazing of the East Tower has begun, revealing a similar design to that which was employed on the complex's completed 51-storey West Tower.

Bay Adelaide East Centre installs cladding on first two storeys, photo by Craig White

The latest big move here is that the structure of the East Tower's podium is also starting to take form, with concrete, rebar and steel columns now rising at the northwest corner of Yonge and Adelaide.

Beginnings of the BAC podium looking on the northwest corner of Bay and Adelaide, photo by Craig White

Close-up image of the beginnings of the BAC podium, photo by Craig White 

The Bay Adelaide Centre, clearly a modern structure, offers a touch of the past by incorporating a heritage facade at the southwest corner of Yonge and Temperance Streets. The heritage facade comes from a building formerly located at Yonge and Adelaide Streets, where the glass podium seen in the rendering below will soon rise. While the rest of the heritage building was demolished, its façade was dismantled and its materials cleaned.

Heritage component including 'ghost wall' in the three southern bays along Yonge Street, image courtesy of KPMB Architects

Brookfield and their architects and heritage consultants devised a clever plan for the façade's reuse which has resulted in its reassembly north of its original location, and turned 90 degrees. The façade replaces a PoMo style cladding of a modern building on the site which recently was the home an Addition Elle store at ground level, and which houses mechanical facilities for the Bay Adelaide Centre garage on the upper storeys. The reassembled façade is not quite long enough to cover the whole building however, leaving a void to fill. It is being remedied by creating concrete casting of the heritage facade, and replicating three more bays of it to the south. The new section will replicate the shapes and texture of the heritage façade, but colour details included. This will create a "ghost wall" section, not pretending to be part of the heritage façade, while still extending it.

Restored heritage facade at Bay Adelaide East site, image by Forum member kram74

The 44-storey Bay Adelaide Centre East Tower is slated for completion in late 2015, but even this early the tower has begun to mark its arrival on the skyline and is giving passersby something to be excited about. In the image below, Bay Adelaide's east tower can be seen rising into the skyline as seen from the green roof at Toronto City Hall.

Bay Adelaide East seen rising beyond Nathan Phillips Square, image by Marcus Mitanis

For additional information about this project visit the linked dataBase page below. Have a comment? Leave it in the associated Forum thread or in the comments section provided below.