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Two months since the pouring of the ground floor at MOD Developments' Massey Tower, more progress is apparent at the Downtown Toronto site of the 60-storey, Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed condominium. Forming is now underway on the second and third levels of the building's 8-storey podium, which will incorporate the 1905-built Canadian Bank of Commerce Building. To be its face on Yonge Street (visible on the right in the image below), the bank building's restoration work is being guided by heritage specialists ERA Architects.
The tower is rising from a narrow footprint on Yonge Street, just north of Queen. The building's slender 9-storey podium will house the development's automated parking garage, situated largely above grade but hidden behind a sculpted facade. It will be accessed by residents via a car elevator/stacking and turntable system from parking supplier 5BY2.
At the time of our visit to the site yesterday afternoon, a procession of concrete trucks was lined up along Shuter Street to the north of the development, where they had queued at the entrance to St. Enoch Square, a laneway to the east of the site being used as a staging area for the site. One by one, the trucks travelled to the south end of the laneway, where they were fixed to a waiting concrete pump being used to pour the podium's second level.
Due to the confined construction site and limited staging area, the process of forming the podium levels is expected to take some time. Once construction rises above the podium levels and the tops of abutting structures, the smaller, repetitive floor layouts of the residential levels above will be able to rise at a faster rate. With these floorplates remaining unchanged from level to level, floors can be formed as quickly as every four days as construction crews to get into a rhythm of laying out rebar and conduits, placing the concrete, allowing for the first stage curing, then flying the forms up a level and repeating the process.
Once complete, the 679-foot tower will act as a northerly extension of the Financial District skyline, while giving residents spectacular views from this central location. Closer to ground level but still perched above bustling Yonge Street, residents will also enjoy a selection of indoor and outdoor Cecconi Simone-appointed amenity spaces occupying the building's 9th floor.
Additional information and renderings can be found in our dataBase file for the Massey Tower, linked below. Want to get involved in the conversation? Visit the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment using the space provided at the bottom of this page.
