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UrbanToronto’s weeklong coverage of the construction of The Well continues today with a look at the last few months of progress building the community’s various residential buildings. The 7.8-acre Downtown Toronto site is composed of seven buildings in total, with six of those buildings for residential uses, delivering a total of 1,700 new dwelling units to the market in a mix of rental and condo offerings. With plenty to report on the buildings’ different stages of progress, the common theme is completed glazing, as finishing efforts continue on the interiors.
We begin with the trio of towers on the site’s southern half along Front Street West, just to the west of the complex's 36-storey office building. Tall, and easily seen across the Union Station Rail Corridor from many vantage points, these towers have made a significant impact for The Well’s presence on the Downtown Toronto Skyline, bringing the development’s silhouette remarkably close to its final form. The cluster of high-rises bear the mark of developers Tridel, RioCan Living, and Woodbourne Canada Management, Inc., and were designed by architects—Alliance with masses that ascend from 22 to 39 to 46-storeys moving west to east. They rise from commercial podiums developed by RioCan REIT and Allied Properties REIT, which we will look more at in an upcoming article.
The tallest, and easternmost of the three residential towers along Front is a RioCan Living rental apartment tower dubbed FourFifty The Well, which will be managed by Rhapsody Property Management Services. The middle and westernmost towers, meanwhile, are both Tridel condo towers, with what are dubbed their 'Classic Series' suites. The concrete frames of all three towers topped off during the summer season, and by late August, as pictured below, glazing installation had made big strides, just a few storeys short of the top levels.
Looking at the towers more recently below, the glazing is now complete on all elevations, other than where the exterior construction hoists are still in use. This effectively seals off the buildings for interior work ahead of the winter season, allowing interior work to proceed on all floors now, other than the one suite per floor where the hoists connect. Such suites in any building are always finished last, once the external hoists are no longer needed. Where three tower cranes once stood, only one remains now, (the crane on the tallest tower has already come down since the photo below was taken at the beginning of November), and the last crane is set to be disassembled soon too.
Adding visual distinction to the massing of the towers are discrete balconies protruding from the east and west elevations, bringing an angular character that is unique to each tower. On the easternmost tower, the balconies appear in an offset spacing pattern that is pronounced further by the mirroring of the the shape of the balcony’s overall floor-plate, a convex polygon. The balconies are deeper on one side, which flips from facing north to facing south on every floor.
Meanwhile, on the westernmost tower, a continuous balcony design boasts another alternating motif, a variation on the theme. Looking at the design close up, it evokes the image of a serrated blade, with the sharp edge flipping from the north end to the south end every floor.
While The Well’s high-rise volumes attract much of the project's attention from the south, the mid-rise buildings to the north have quietly made significant progress of their own. Designed by Wallman Architects, the eastern two buildings are rental buildings developed by Woodbourne Canada and managed by Rhapsody, while the westernmost is a condo from Tridel, featuring its 'Signature Series' suites. Ranging from 14 to 16 storeys, these buildings act as a transition between The Well's taller elements to the south and the more mid-to-low-rise character of Wellington Street. By the start of the fall, the two 16-storey buildings (to the east) were pictured appearing quite complete in terms of installation of the precast brick and metal cladding, while the westernmost building trailed behind in exterior finishing.
Since that time, the 14-storey Tridel mid-rise at the site’s northwest corner has seen the metal cladding installed up to its top floors while window installation is still to come. At the lowest levels, weatherproofing skin is being fixed to the concrete frame ahead of the final brick panel cladding that will complete the street-wall here.
UrbanToronto's coverage of The Well continues tomorrow, but in the meantime, you can learn more about the project from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, 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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