The final chapter is unfolding in the story of the Bay Adelaide Centre, a three-tower office complex in Toronto's Financial District. Stalled in the recession years after the 80s-90s building boom, the original project was eventually restarted with a new plan, resulting in the complex's 2009-completed, 51-storey West Tower and the 2016-completed, 44-storey East Tower. Brookfield Property Partners are now constructing the complex's third and final tower, a 32-storey building rising to the north of Temperance Street, and recently rebranded the Scotiabank North Tower at Bay Adelaide Centre to reflect the signing of anchor tenant Scotiabank.
The 810,344 ft² tower, designed by KPMB Architects and Adamson Associates Architects, got its start in 2018 with site clearance. Construction activity followed in 2019 with the reworking of a section of the 2009-completed underground garage to accommodate changes to the structural plans for the new tower. The first tower crane was installed last summer, and the tower's central concrete core has been gradually rising above grade since late last year, on its way to an eventual height of 140 metres.
With the elevator core now stretching roughly seven levels above ground, climbing formwork has revealed structurally completed sections with visible access points for the elevators and stairwells. The raising of the forms has also allowed the start of steel beam installation to form the main structure and floors of the tower.
More progress to report since our last story on the project is the recent installation of a second tower crane. Due to the constrained site, one of the two tower cranes has been uniquely mounted on a steel platform projecting from the south end of the concrete core (above). These bulky tower cranes have higher lifting capacity than the standard cranes used in condominium construction, with similar cranes employed for a handful other high profile projects in the city, including the project 'The One' at Yonge and Bloor.
The building is seeking LEED Platinum Core & Shell certification, and will serve Scotiabank with 420,000 ft² of new office space, accounting for just over half of the tower's total gross floor area.
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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