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As the Scotiabank Arena enters its summer concert season, construction of the south tower at CIBC SQUARE will be giving fans of Hugh Jackman, Ariana Grande, and many more acts a close up view of work at one of the most exciting buildings currently going up in Toronto. The concrete core of the WilkinsonEyre-designed complex's 49-storey first phase now rises well over 70% of the way towards the building's eventual 238-metre final height, while progress on the tower's steel skeleton, exterior cladding, and rail corridor overbuild elements continue to accelerate.
Being built by EllisDon for developers Ivanhoé Cambridge and Hines, the concrete tower core surpassed the 33-storey mark at the start of May, and is now approaching 40 storeys. A recent reduction in the size of the elevator core—the height of core now extends past where the mid-rise elevators climb to—has reduced the core's footprint, meaning that it now takes less time to form the core: over the past few weeks, they have been moving upwards at about 1.5 levels per week.
The most talked-about element of construction right now in our Forum is the recently started installation of curtainwall glazing. The first signs of it were spotted in May, and as more floors of it are now showing half diamonds, the emerging pattern has caught lots of attention.
In certain lighting, the facades' angles reflect sunlight to create a multi-tonal quality, apparent in the near-sunset view below from Yonge and The Esplanade.
North of the tower, the project's rail corridor overbuild component is adding a large steel deck over the east approach to Union Station. It will eventually support a privately-owned public space. A few years from now, this deck will connect with the project's 50-storey second phase, to start construction once the existing GO bus terminal is able to move into the first phase's podium.
Once the CIBC SQUARE south tower tops off, it will just overtake the taller of the Harbour Plaza Residences condominium towers, and taking the title of tallest structure south of the Financial District for the next while.
Additional information and images can be found in our database file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, (where you will also find several more recent shots of the glass), or leave a comment in the field provided at the bottom of this page.
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