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Immediately north of the iconic St. Lawrence Market at the northwest corner of Front and Jarvis streets in Downtown Toronto, crews are working away on the new St. Lawrence Market North Building. The project will bring a landmark Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Adamson Associates Architects-designed building to the site of the former North Market. That building was constructed in 1968 and then demolished in 2015, followed by a lengthy archaeological assessment and then re-budgetting and re-tendering before construction could proceed. In addition to housing replacement space for the antique and farmers markets that were held in the old building, the project is set to provide a modern facility for Toronto Court Services on its upper floors, relocating and consolidating courts from across the city.
Following the 2015 completion of demolition, the archaeological dig explored the remains of and remnants from previous market buildings built in 1831, 1851, and 1904. An initial dig turned up such things as cellars and foundations from the former buildings, before a subsequent exploration found buried artifacts and a bricked 'porcupine' sewer. Discussions of how to incorporate these finds into the new building, and the collapse of previous general contractor Bondfield caused further delays to the project. The re-tendered contract was awarded to a joint venture between Buttcon Limited and The Atlas Corporation, and site preparation activity resumed last year.
After overgrowth was cleared from the site early last Summer, shoring activity finally commenced in August, 2019. This task was completed by last September, when excavation began for the site's four-level, 250-space underground garage. Excavation recently bottomed out four levels deep, and the project surpassed an important milestone earlier this month, with the installation of a tower crane at the base of the pit. After the pouring of footings, the crane was installed on May 24th with the help of a mobile hydraulic crane. The mobile crane was operating from the site's Jarvis Street frontage, requiring a temporary closure of Jarvis between King and Front streets.
Following the crane's installation, the first rebar and concrete have been put in place for the foundation and P4 level. Forming of the underground garage is expected to last several months before the building begins to rise above grade. Included in the ground floor will be a representative section of the 1800s 'porcupine sewer' recovered during the archaeological dig, which would be visible to the public. The ground level of the new facility will have space old north market's vendors, while a municipal courtroom complex will be found on the upper floors.
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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| Related Companies: | Adamson Associates Architects, Buttcon Limited, Engineering Link Inc, entro, Entuitive, Norris Fire Consulting Inc |
