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As construction nears completion on the site of the 55-storey tower, The Rosedale on Bloor, the opening of Canada’s first ever Canopy by Hilton Hotel is just weeks away. Located on Bloor Street East just west of Sherbourne Street, the development from Gupta Group is the latest Toronto high-rise project to split floors between hotel and condo uses, offering a mix of 188 hotel suites and 508 residential units within an aluminium clad IBI Group-designed tower.
With the first hotel bookings being made available as early as mid-February, construction is wrapping up on the lower levels while the final stages of interior finishings continue on the residential floors above. Tracking how the project made it to this point is a story that played out throughout 2022, so today we have a summary of milestones from the last 12 months.
Just over a year ago, January 5th, 2022 to be exact, The Rosedale on Bloor was already delivering on its promise to add a new presence to the eastern Downtown Skyline. The building has nearly doubled the height of the neighbouring Post Media building to the west, and is pictured with cladding that reaches about two thirds of the way to the top. More forming work is still to come, and will continue while the cladding follows closely.
Around the same time, the project’s southern volume facing Selby Street — where most of the hotel rooms will be — was seeing interior work move ahead after its exterior was completed months prior.
Forming work on the final floors of the tower carried on as usual for the next few months with little visual change in the project aside from the continued skyward growth. By the early summer, the forms for the tower’s crown were beginning to emerge, and were complete by July, the project’s celebratory topping off after more than 3 years of forming work. The image below also shows us that, by that time, the building envelope was less than 10 levels away from sealing the entirety of the tower.
The next milestone to report was the removal of the tower crane, a process that took place at the end of September as the cladding process was nearing completion. The image below captures how two derricks were set up temporarily to assist in lowering various pieces of equipment down from the roof while the crane was dismantled. The construction hoist — the elevator pictured below on the right of the building — remained active for several more months to assist with the movement of materials and workers.
Jumping ahead to December of 2022, with completion on the horizon, things began to pick up at ground level, preparing the pedestrian realm for the impending opening of the hotel. The process of outfitting the Bloor Street Sidewalk with new pavers began, while a similar effort took place at the southern entrance as well. The south side image below captures the result of the landscaping process for the new entrance, which will double as a POPS (Privately Owned Publicly accessible Space).
Finally, we arrive at January 2023, for the most current update. The last few weeks have seen extensive cladding installed on the podium, finishing the base of the building with dark graphite stone panels. The building’s primary entrance on Bloor Street is seen in the image below with doors installed, framed by the Canopy Hotel sign recently installed above. Around the signage, an orange soffit brings a pop of colour to the moody exterior.
With less than a month before the arrival of the hotel’s inaugural guests, cleaning up the site and making things presentable will be the top priority while work on the residential floors above continues discreetly. Still a ways off, the completion of the entire project — which will tie the knot on a construction process that has been ongoing since site clearing began in 2017 — will result in both a distinct skyline addition for the eastern edge of Downtown Toronto, as well as a boost in sidewalk liveliness on Bloor and Selby.
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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| Related Companies: | Arcadis, Baker Real Estate Incorporated, Doka Canada Ltd./Ltee, Gupta Group, Kramer Design Associates Limited, Rebar Enterprises Inc, SKYGRiD |
