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The Greater Toronto Area high-rise boom has brought players from across the world looking to join the drive to meet the demand for housing here, including companies with roots elsewhere in Canada. Pomerleau, who have an established half-century presence in Quebec construction that includes several important cultural buildings, skyscrapers, and infrastructure projects, is one such firm. With an expansion into the Maritimes under their belt, Pomerleau recently entered the GTA high-rise residential sector, and are currently building their first two tower project in the city at the Concord Park Place community in North York.
Pomerleau began taking contracts in Toronto about a decade ago. While still a relative newcomer to the GTA scene, Pomerleau has worked on the Leslie Barns Streetcar Maintenance and Storage Facility for the TTC and the Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility for GO Transit, and is now working on high-rise residential at Block 11 of Concord Park Place, known in marketing speak as Saisons.
Designed by DIALOG, the towers of 18 and 29 storeys will eventually reach heights of 64 and 94 metres above McMahon Drive. The project is currently in its below-grade forming stage, with a pair of cranes assisting in the construction of the underground garage.
"We've been in Toronto for longer than most people realize," Patrick Stiles, regional VP at Pomerleau for the GTA, told us. "Only the last few years have we really been active in the residential high-rise market. About three years ago, we made a business decision to enter that market and to try to be competitive in it and grow our business there, so it's part of our five-year strategic plan to do a certain percentage of our business in the high-rise residential and mixed-use market. So we're here to stay and we're growing fast!"
In contrast to a constrained urban site, the from-scratch aspects of the Park Place community create some unique site-specific challenges. With several buildings being simultaneously built by different contractors in the growing community, we asked Pomerleau's Eric Desgagné, Project Director at Block 11, what makes this site different from the potential Downtown Toronto sites that Pomerleau has placed squarely in their crosshairs.
"There is definitely a logistical challenge because McMahon Drive—which connects Blocks 11, 12, 15, 17, and the community centre—is an unassumed road. Eastern Construction is building the community centre, Reliance is building Block 12, and we're building Block 11. Everybody has different concrete suppliers, different materials, so access is certainly a challenge," said Desgagné, who expects things to get even more complex as the winter approaches due to snow clearing.
Besides navigating the logistics of different crews and suppliers working on different blocks, the Block 11 site's position within the partially-built community presents even more serious issues that must be taken into consideration.
"The other challenge is the safety aspect," Desgagné told us. "You have to be very careful because there are completed buildings around the site. Block 13 has two towers, 800 suites, and is probably 90% full. There's a new park right across the street, so lots of people are out walking around with family and dogs. Our site is fenced-in and well-protected, and we're very conscious of our surroundings, but this is a challenge that we are very conscious of, as safety is our number one priority".
A trend in construction is the move towards sustainability, propelled by factors including both market demands and regulations. Pomerleau is among the contractors using software and automation to maximize construction output, creating efficiencies that minimize environmental impact.
"I can tell you that the innovation we've implemented is mainly on the management side of things," said Desgagné. "The drawings are done [by the time we are hired], so our main input on sustainability is our consulting with teams with new technologies, and our company's connections across Canada, to help bring a reduced carbon footprint through our construction and sustainability methods.'"
As construction progresses at Block 11 and other sites around the country, Pomerleau's teams track progress in realtime using an online reality capturing and documentation platform called HoloBuilder. This allows for live 360-degree construction walkthroughs conducted remotely, along with the ability to compare the built product with plans in virtual design and construction software, helping teams reduce inefficiencies, scheduling issues, and deficiencies.
Other management-side innovations from Pomerleau's BIM (Building information modelling) department, along with post-design consultation, can improve operations elsewhere in the Park Place community. Pomerleau's teams have been implementing these management-side innovations since early on in Block 11's construction process, with program tracking and reporting on progress through an application via Autodesk. According to Desgagné, "this program enables the members onsite to access the model and provide instant status updates to model elements. By doing so we are able to collect important data regarding productivity and weekly progress. Dashboards are also being created to support the visualization and understanding of data. Concrete progress updates support the billing and approval process by easily validating progress as a percentage of total concrete complete. The dashboards also support progress reporting and cost validation to owners by providing visual, quantitative progress updates. The reports are also supported by drone imagery that are collected on a monthly basis.”
This data is then translated to formulate an action plan that may differ from what was originally envisioned when plans were drafted. This was the case for Block 11, where Desgagné tells us that "early concrete foundation modelling was used to support coordination and planning of early concrete works. The foundations for this project are fairly complex and some discrepancies were found in the design. The 3D model was used with the client and engineers to make changes and add detail to support construction.”
Another significant challenge, not just at Block 11 but construction sites and communities around the world in 2020, is the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought about new health and safety regulations that have had far-reaching effects on most industries. Pomerleau has been involved in several aspects of the coordinated recovery efforts seen from various leaders in the construction industry, including working on modular-constructed temporary facilities for increasing capacity on the front lines or for screening at workplace entrances, and involvement in the "Lunch Box Challenge" and "Love is an essential service" initiatives to support small businesses and vulnerable populations.
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