Following the November 2015 ground breaking ceremony for Great Gulf Homes' Yonge & Rich Condominiums, the Downtown Toronto development site on Richmond Street east of Yonge had until recently been fairly quiet. The site of the future 45-storey architectsAlliance-designed condominium tower was cleared months ago, but activity stopped until building permits were issued. Earlier this month, shoring activity began, marking the restart of the project's construction.

Shoring activity at the site of Yonge & Rich Condos, image by Edward Skira

Shoring work—being conducted on-site by Deep Foundations Contractors Inc.—involves the installation of an earth-retention system that keeps the surrounding soil in place as crews dig out the project's below-grade volume. When water-tight walls are required to hold back ground water, a concrete caisson system is put in place. In more typical conditions, a pile and lagging system can be used where steel I-beam 'piles' are inserted vertically into the earth, and lengths of timber 'lagging' are slotted between the piles.

Shoring activity at the site of Yonge & Rich Condos, image by Edward Skira

Here it appears to be the pile and lagging system as the image above shows steel piles protruding from the ground along the Richmond Street frontage. A shoring rig is visible in the background, driving a steel casing into the earth along the site's west side. Over the next weeks, we expect shoring around the site to be completed, followed by the start of excavation.

Yonge & Rich Condominiums will add a total of 669 new residential suites to the area east of the Financial District, as well as amenity spaces featuring interiors by Burdifilek including a welcoming lobby on the ground floor, a lounge and 5,000 ft2 fitness centre on the fifth floor, and a sky-high outdoor pool and terrace atop one wing, landscaped by DTAH.

Yonge & Rich Condos, image courtesy of Great Gulf Homes

With construction underway, we will keep you regularly updated with progress on the site. In the meantime, check out our dataBase file for Yonge + Rich, which features further information about the project, including many renderings. Want to share your thoughts about the project? Leave a comment on this page, or join the conversation in our associated Forum thread, linked below.