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In the heart of Toronto’s St Lawrence neighbourhood, months of preparation have readied a site at the northeast corner of Sherbourne Street and Front Street East for the construction of The Whitfield, a high-rise residential project from Menkes Developments and Core Development Group. Featuring a design by Giannone Petricone Associates, The Whitfield will reach 39 storeys while featuring an restored heritage component that repurposes two existing facades at grade. Over the summer, extensive heritage work took place to successfully retain the facades, allowing shoring to begin by the early fall.
When we last looked at the progress of The Whitfield in the late spring, a gas station that represented the bulk of the land here had been fully removed, and demolition was beginning at 33 Sherbourne Street, referred to on Toronto's Heritage Register as the Whitfield Building, one of the two heritage properties on the site. Meanwhile, 178 Front Street, documented on the Heritage Register as the Pearlman and Goldberg Building, was vacant and awaiting demolition.
Following the heritage impact assessment, it was concluded that the street-facing elevations of both buildings would be retained as part of the City’s efforts to maintain the character of the St Lawrence Heritage District. The conservation strategy also detailed the retention of the majority of the Whitfield Building’s north wall, as well as the rehabilitation of the masonry of both properties, and the installation of new windows that were true to the original design as documented in historical photographs.
By mid-summer, the heritage work was in full swing, with significant demolition to both buildings removing the majority of their structures from the north and west borders of the assembled site. In the image below, from UT Forum contributor evandyk, we can see how the north wall of the Whitfield Building was removed piece by piece to be restored offsite, while the facade work was carried out in-situ. As this was happening, the facade of the Pearlman and Goldberg Building was supported by a steel structure, and the rest was reduced to rubble.
By August, the demolition was completed, the rubble was removed, and the process shifted gears into preparations for shoring. Before the machines could begin drilling piles, the concrete slab covering the entire site had to be broken up and removed. After that, a significant excavation was carried out to dig out the buried gas tank, the last piece of the gas station that formerly occupied the site. With the tank removed and the site backfilled, shoring commenced shortly after.
The latest images of the site show that shoring has progressed well. In another image from evandyk, captured on November 4th, we can see that soldier piles (steel I-beams dropped into deep shafts and anchored in concrete) have been installed extensively across the northern and western edges of the site. Meanwhile, two shoring rigs can be seen near the southwest corner, one actively drilling, the other on standby, completing the perimeter of soldier piles that will frame the building’s excavation pit.
Upon completion of construction in a few year's time, the Pearlman and Goldberg Building’s facade will act as the main residential entrance, while a new-build retail space will fill in the corner space, adding a lively element to the public realm. The tower will offer a total of 484 dwelling units within a rounded-corner massing that features a grid-based exterior cladding of red-brick.
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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