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Toronto's Entertainment District is growing to become one of the country's most densely populated neighbourhoods, and the area's vertical growth spurt is showing no signs of slowing, with the next generation of towers now joining the local skyline. Among the towers promising more life for the Entertainment District, Westbank Corp and Allied Properties REIT's project at 19 Duncan Street is bringing a mix of uses including office, residential rental, and hotel space to the southeast corner of Duncan and Adelaide streets.
Designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, the tower will rise 58 storeys to a height of 186.5 metres, piercing above the area's largely uniform skyline height. At its base, the building includes the preserved south and west facades of the 1908-built Southam Press Building, with the complex's heritage elements handled by specialists ERA Architects.
Construction has been ongoing since mid-2018, and approximately three years later, activity is heating up. We last checked in on the site in early March, when podium levels were filling in the void behind the heritage facades, held in-situ with a lattice of steel bracing. Forming has since reached the seventh floor of the podium, rising above the heritage facades and revealing a step-back for the upper podium floors. The podium will continue to climb to a final height of nine storeys before the smaller tower floor-plate begins to take shape above.
With forming now clear of the heritage walls, disassembly of the bracing structure has begun. revealing the heritage walls agian for the first time since 2019. Restoration work, including the installation of heritage-sensitive replacement windows, will soon restore the former Southam Press Building's exterior to near-original conditions.
The podium floors now taking shape will host the complex's office component, set to be the new Toronto home of news media giant Thomson Reuters, leasing the space for 12 years at $100M USD. The levels above will largely house residential rental suites, with a brief gap stretching from levels 52 through 55 where a limited collection of 40 hotel suites will be located.
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: | ANTAMEX, Hariri Pontarini Architects, Jablonsky, Ast and Partners, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, Peter McCann Architectural Models Inc., Rebar Enterprises Inc |
