One of many Toronto construction projects you can get a good view of from the CN Tower is the new Kingly Condos and King Portland Centre. The Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed development from Allied Properties REIT and RioCan combines a 15-storey residential building with a 13-storey office building on an irregularly shaped lot, mid-block west of Portland Street, and with frontages on Adelaide and King streets.

The King Portland Centre and Kingly Condos as seen from the CN Tower, image by Craig White

We last looked at the development in detail in early May. In the time since, one of the two cranes has come down, and a lot more has gone up. Office floors—other than the lowest levels—are now clad and work is going on inside to fit them out for future tenants including Shopify, who is taking approximately 158,000 of the 256,000 square feet of space, while Indigo Books and Music is taking four floors totalling 79,000 square feet for its new headquarters.

The King Portland Centre as seen from King Street, image by UT Forum contributor ADRM

Near ground level, work has begun on cladding the decorative precast columns with real brick. Above, real brick-impregnated precast panels have already been installed between windows to articulate the exterior, and blend the new building into the Victorian and Edwardian industrial warehouse architecture of the surroundings. 

Architectural details of The King Portland Centre, image by UT Forum contributor interchange42

An I-beam has now been fitted to the second floor slab edge facing King Street. A rendering, below, shows how it will be painted black, and have windows fixed to it when complete. A restaurant is to open onto the King Street sidewalk.

Rendering of the King Portland Centre King Street frontage, image by Hariri Pontarini Architects

At the north end of the block facing Adelaide Street, Kingly Condos have all but topped out, and a steel structure for the mechanical penthouse has been erected atop the building, while over half of the brick panels are now in place here. The building is targeting a 2019 opening.

Architectural details of Kingly Condos, image by UT Forum contributor ProjectEnd

We will be back with more updates on construction as milestones are reached, but in the meantime you can find out more about the building in our database file for it, linked below. You can get in on the conversation in our associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.