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Toronto's waterfront of today is a far cry from the once heavily industrialized south edge of the city. Following the successful redevelopment of the central waterfront in the last quarter of the 20th century, the 2001 creation of the tripartite government agency Waterfront Toronto paved the way for a more intensive re-imagining of the waterfront. One of the most substantial elements in Waterfront Toronto's vision is the redevelopment of the East Bayfront, which began in the mid 2000s with the construction of projects like Corus Quay, Sugar Beach, the George Brown Waterfront Campus, and Sherbourne Common. The process of redeveloping brownfield sites continues to this day, with four active construction projects in the East Bayfront area.
At the western edge of the East Bayfront area, construction is well underway on the below grade levels for the first phase of The Daniels Corporation's Daniels Waterfront - City of the Arts. Phase 1 consists of a 14-storey office condominium building, and is set to be joined by two residential towers to the north. At ground level, the development will have plenty of retail facing a pedestrian mews to be known as 'The Yard', and a nothern extension to the popular Sugar Beach.
A short distance east of the Daniels Waterfront site, construction of below-grade levels is underway at the site of Great Gulf Homes' Monde Condominiums, boasting a design by world renowned Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie and local firm Quadrangle Architects. The condominium tower is set to rise 44-storeys high beside Sherbourne Common's north half.
To the east of the south side of Sherbourne Common, and south of Monde, the first two condominium buildings in Tridel and Hines' 5.3 hectare (13 acres) Bayside community are both under construction. The 13-storey Aqualina and 12-storey Aquavista to the east—both designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica—are each in very different stages of construction. Excavation is now in the late stages for Aquavista—the square hole prominent in the image below—as Aqualina behind it presses closer to structural completion.
Aqualina's tallest portion—a cube shaped volume fronting the lake—is now just shy of its final 13-storey height.
The first elements of Aqualina's cladding have been spotted over the past few days, in the form of a white-pigmented precast concrete panels now attached to the base of the building.
Part of the larger East Bayfront area, Tridel and Hines' Bayside community will eventually include 2 million square feet of residential, employment, cultural and commercial space upon full build-out, plus an extension of the Water's Edge Promenade and a neighbourhood green space named Aitken Place Park.
Upcoming developments in the planning stage also promise to add some excitement to the area, including projects like Tridel and Hines' recently-unveiled 3XN at Bayside, and Waterfront Toronto and Menkes Developments' Sweeny & Co Architects-designed Waterfront Innovation Centre, while further public infrastructure improvements will eventually extend the Waters Edge Promenade to a WaveDeck at the foot of Parliament Street.
Additional information and renderings for the various projects mentioned in this article can be found in the associated dataBase files, linked below. Want to get in on the discussion? Check out the Forum threads, or leave a comment using the field provided at the bottom of this page.
