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Construction has taken a major step forward at the site of Cadillac Fairview's 160 Front Street West, a new 46-storey office tower coming to Simcoe and Front at the west edge of Toronto's Financial District. The site has been active since demolition began to clear away previous buildings about ten months ago, and this week, work on the office tower—designed by AS+GG Architecture of Chicago working with B+H Architects of Toronto—passed a notable milestone with the installation of a tower crane at the base of the excavated pit.
After both the partial disassembly and retention of a heritage facade that will be incorporated into the southeast corner of the new building, and after shoring around the extent of the site, the first signs of excavation were spotted back in the summer. Crews have since dug down to a depth of 13.5 metres, making space for the foundations, four underground parking levels, plus an underground mezzanine level with bicycle parking that will ultimately serve office workers in the tower above. With excavation largely complete, crane assembly commenced earlier this week.
Preparations for the crane were first spotted early in the month, with the pouring of a concrete footing and the subsequent installation of a steel crane base. Things heated up this week, when crane components arrived on site along with a mobile crane rig used for the main crane's assembly. Installation progressed throughout the day on Wednesday, and UT Forum contributor lego.technic captured the process from the adjacent Simcoe Place building to the west. By late afternoon, the crane’s mast had been connected to the apex and counterweight jib, leaving just the main jib arm to install. The main jib arm, seen in the image below waiting on flatbed trucks, was installed in sections into the evening hours.
Views of the site captured the morning of January 23 reveal a completed crane, which will soon begin the forming phase of the project with the first pours for foundations and the P4 underground level.
The 1.2 million square foot office tower will rise 240 metres into the Toronto skyline. 100% leased, the tower’s lead tenant will be financial titan TD Bank, who are set to take up 840,000 square feet of new office space across 33 floors of the building. As anchor tenant, TD’s branding will have a prominent presence on the tower’s roofline, with illuminated logos to project from a mechanical penthouse level on all four elevations.
You can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like to, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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