There has been a flurry of progress at First Gulf's Globe and Mail Centre since our last update in April. Over the last 4 months, the 17-storey Diamond Schmitt-designed project currently rising at 351 King Street East has truly begun to take shape, with construction now reaching up to about half of the building's final height. While the massive, 500,000 square foot Globe and Mail Centre is not scheduled to open until next year, passersby will not be able to ignore the dramatic new addition to King Street East, which is now beginning to dominate this once sleepy stretch of the Downtown east side.
Located in the midst of the regenerating King-Parliament area, and within in a modest walking distance of the Distillery District, the Central Waterfront, and Union Station, the new Globe and Mail Centre will take up an important role in the development of Toronto's Downtown east side, with frontages on both King and Front Streets. The Globe's new headquarters will place itself—whether planned or not—next to George Brown College (which took its name from the Globe and Mail's founder), along with an eclectic mix of neighbouring retail and restaurant options. It is the King Street frontage which shows off the Globe and Mail Centre's best side, as a part of that street's ongoing urban development.
Recent aerial views of the construction underway highlight the rate of progress as the Centre continues to rise, the eventual height and massing of the structure becoming more fathomable as the weeks go by. Once completed, the Globe and Mail Centre, along with its own operations space, will be filled out with a mixture of office and retail space for lease, and will have a large presence both above and at street level.
At ground level, progress on the building's most prominent design feature, its outdoor terraces and full-height glass curtain walls, are well underway. The warm weather has been ideal for pouring the floors, and construction has been humming along at a steady pace since April.
The Globe and Mail Centre will soon be a welcome addition to the area, its arrival into the neighbourhood signalling another giant leap forward on the path to bringing the Downtown east side into the larger urban context.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow-up with construction updates as work progresses at the Globe and Mail Centre. Readers can check out the project on our dataBase as well for further information.
Related Companies: | Diamond Schmitt Architects, First Gulf, LiveRoof Ontario Inc, RJC Engineers, Trillium Architectural Products, Vortex Fire Consulting Inc. |