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A combined 189 storeys of mixed-use development is taking shape at Toronto's Front and Spadina intersection, with the city's largest private construction project 'The Well' in the process of realizing a 36-storey office tower along with residential rental and condominium buildings of 14, 16, 16, 22, 39, and 46 storeys. The new community has been making steady progress through 2021, its skyline impact is growing more pronounced every week while progress on cladding installation increasingly hints to the final character of complex's exterior.
The Well's collection of buildings and spaces come courtesy of a team of several developers and architects. Furthest along in its construction, The Well's 36-storey, Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed office tower is being built for developers Allied REIT and RioCan REIT at the east end of the site over the northwest corner of Spadina and Front.
At the time of our last update in April, the tower was closing in on its final height of just over 174 metres, with cladding installation then reaching the 27th floor. Forming has since advanced to the top of the tower's concrete superstructure, as exterior finish installation climbs higher. The office tower's distinctive set of decorative cross-braces, mounted to blue-green curtainwall glazing and framed by vertical corner fins, now stretch to just four levels shy of the tower's peak. To the north, the cladding of the tower's projecting sculptural staircase is nearly complete as well.
Just west of the office tower along Front Street, The Well will be home to a group of three architects—Alliance-designed residential towers. The eastern tower in the trio will be the tallest, and is currently the furthest along of these three. This 46-storey RioCan Living and Woodbourne Canada Management rental tower shares a podium with the office tower to the east, with its curtainwall glazing and bright orange fins now largely installed on podium levels.
This tallest residential tower now stands 16 storeys high and recently had its first panels of tower cladding applied. Only a few panels of the dark-toned window wall have been installed on the tower's east face, with this material to reveal its full effect as more panels are applied over the coming months.
This building saw another milestone over the weekend when its yellow-painted luffer crane was removed and replaced with a new hammerhead-style crane with a white finish.
West of the 46-storey tower, a pair of 22 and 38-storey Tridel condo towers have also begun to rise above their podiums, now standing at heights of 7 and 12 storeys. When we last checked in in April, framing was in place at the base of the 38-storey tower that signalled the start of installation of the building's arched masonry finishes.
Masonry installation has since begun and cladding now covers a full arch, giving an idea of how cladding application for the rows of arches will shape the podium's aesthetic.
North of the Front Street buildings, three Wallman Architects-designed residential buildings are under construction along Wellington Street West. Two of these are to be 16-storey rentals for RioCan Living and Woodbourne, with the third to be a 14-storey Tridel condo building. The two eastern buildings have topped out at 16 storeys, while the 14-storey west building now stands three levels above Wellington. Red brick panels and window wall cladding are fast enclosing the taller pair, while similar finishes are upcoming for the Tridel building to the west.
With forming complete of the eastern mid-rise buildings, a tower crane removal began last week for the easternmost building on Wellington Street.
Weaving all of these new buildings together, a BDP-designed multi-level retail galleria carves across the site, eventually to be lined by retail and restaurant spaces. Not easily viewed from street level, the galleria will be sheltered by a glazed steel canopy, now taking shape at the site interior.
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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