The recent demolition of the former Guvernment night club at Queens Quay and Jarvis cleared the way for The Daniels Corporation's ambitious multi-phase development, dubbed Daniels Waterfront - City of the Arts. The development will feature four buildings with heights ranging between 169 feet and 508 feet, offering residential, institutional, office, and retail space, as well as some key upgrades to the surrounding public realm.
Shoring work is now under way in advance of the first phase of the development, located at the southern end of the site along Queens Quay Boulevard. The first phase will take the form of two connected buildings offering 280,000 square feet of commercial office space, a 150,000 square foot 'Creative Industries Hub', and 27,000 square feet of retail space at street level.
Mere weeks after demolition of the Guvernment concluded, the project is moving forward with at an impressive pace. Piles are being driven deep into the landfill around the perimeter of the site to support a wall that will hold back the surrounding earth to allow excavation of the site.
The image above shows three different shoring rigs working the site simultaneously, expediting the early construction stages for the project's initial phase. The actual shoring process involves the boring of hollow steel casings into the ground, after which the contents are removed with an auger. The final step is the injection of concrete into the hole and removal of the hollow casing, leaving behind a long concrete pile.
Once initial piles have been created, intermediate piles will be drilled between them, cutting into them slightly and interlocking with them to create a watertight wall. Once the wall is in place, the earth can be removed behind it to build the foundations and parking garage for Daniels Waterfront.
The first phase already has a number of major tenants signed on, with occupancy expected for Spring 2018. These tenants include The Daniels Corporation, who will be relocating from their existing address on Queen Street, as well as non-profit arts development organization Artscape, talent management firm Last Gang Entertainment, entertainment law firm Taylor Klein Oballa LLP, non-profit organization The Remix Project, and the youth organization Manifesto.
Additional information and renderings can be found in our dataBase file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment using the space provided at the bottom of this page.