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Over the last six-month period, tracking the construction of the tower that is climbing towards becoming Canada’s first ‘supertall’ building, The One, has been a story about reaching the next floor. As the workflow of the automated climbing system (ACS) has improved, Toronto has watched attentively as the Mizrahi Developments project grows one level at a time, getting comfortable in the steady rhythm. However, over the last month, that newly established rhythm was put on pause for the first time as the crew adjusted to a new workflow for the construction of the first mechanical level. The process has resulted in a new milestone, with the first mechanical equipment having been installed.
As readers who are familiar with the project know, the 94 floors outlined in the latest plans for the 338m Foster + Partners-designed tower include four mechanical sections that account for two storeys each, interrupting the curtain-wall exterior of the residential floors, and altering the dimensions of the floor plate from the square shape to an octagonal one.
The first mechanical section occurs above the 17th storey, the final floor of hotel suites, and the subsequent mechanical sections appear every 18 storeys after that. After completing the hotel floors nearly a month ago we saw the first traces of the octagonal forming and reinforced columns as preparations got underway. Now, weeks later, that work has culminated in the successful installation of the building’s mechanical equipment.
In a set of images shared with UrbanToronto by Mizrahi Developments, we are taken through the stages of the installation process that took place on Friday. Beginning with the delivery of the equipment, pictured below are the Evapco cooling towers, which arrived at the site on a long, flatbed transport truck.
Moving the machinery from the ground to its future home on the 17th floor was a task for the crane, which was pictured hoisting the cooling towers one at a time.
The crane then lowered the machines down along the northernmost quadrant of the floorplate where a crew was waiting to safely guide the cargo into place using ropes affixed to each corner.
Finally, the equipment was fixed in place, resting on a set of rails above the concrete floor plate facing out towards the project’s Bloor Street frontage. Interestingly, the equipment only accounts for about a quarter of the footprint of the mechanical level, which will also house a chiller room, a generator room, and an elevator overrun for the hotel section. Meanwhile, facilities like the electrical room, boiler room, and generator room, and lockers will be added to the development as the next mechanical levels appear.
Looking ahead, the 2-storey mechanical section will eventually be clad with grill-like metal panels that are recessed from the elevations, drawing particular attention to the floating corners made possible by the building's highly engineered design that allows for those corners to be hung from the supercolumns.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it 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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