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Lanterra Developments’s three-tower mixed use project in Downtown Toronto, Artists’ Alley, is rising rapidly as construction continues, adding another significant vertical presence to the existing high-rise strip flanking both sides of Simcoe and St Patrick streets. Located midway between Dundas and Queen streets, the mixed-use development is growing into its highly articulated design from Hariri Pontarini Architects, with the concrete frames of each of three towers now progressed enough to highlight the formal variety in each of their respective masses.
Beginning on the west side, we have the shortest of the three towers, on its way towards a final height of 17 storeys. Viewing the building’s progress in the image below from late January, we can see that, structurally, the frame is nearly complete, with concrete forms in place for the 17th floor slab. Progress is also picking up on the cladding process as the building approaches its topping off, with the west elevation seeing exterior finishes applied.
With the majority of the structure created, there are enough hints to visualize the building’s massing, which is defined by stacked boxes, voids, and modular volumes in a modern style. Where the upper portion separates from the podium, the towers break into three separate volumes: two smaller cubes, and a larger rectangular prism laid across the tops of both cubes. The thick concrete transfer slabs, which redirect loads when columns and walls below move, represent the limits of each volume, and are critical to the structural integrity of the building overall, while allowing for design features like the cantilever or the stacking motif to become reality.
Moving to the southeast corner of the site, the middle child of the group is the furthest from completion in its forming process, en route to a final count of 35 storeys. This tower leaves the orthogonal approach to its neighbours, and instead takes on a curved massing that replaces the sharp corners with rounded edges. With only a handful of levels formed at this point, the overall impression is not as clear, and that is likely to remain the case even as the tower grows. Unlike the others, the defining qualities for this tower are in the finishes, with the combination of continuous balconies and a mesh-like woven facade expression slated to tie it all together.
Its lag in height thus far is largely due to its ambitious podium design, which features a mix of angles, curves, and setbacks, as well as residential, office, and retail programming. With the final podium levels completed, the tower’s growth has since been progressing at a much quicker pace.
Finally, the tallest of the group has been growing in the northeast corner of the site, making strong progress on its way to 39 storeys, or 121 metres. Having surpassed the height of the neighbouring building to the north, the third tower is now making its presence known among the surrounding network of towers. The progress on exterior finishes along the north elevation is also providing a glimpse at the contrast between the podium and tower materiality.
The third tower is the most conventional in its form, but still has its fair share of embellishments for visual interest. Not seen in the image above, for example, is the tower’s zig-zag truss system, a purely decorative element on the building's south and east elevations to distinguish the tower floor-plates from the podium.
With so much still be done before the rendered image is represented by reality, the final result will depend on the quality of the finishing materials and the activation of the public realm, which is designed with extensive retail as a vibrant pedestrian connection between Simcoe and St Patrick streets.
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: | Hariri Pontarini Architects, Isotherm Engineering Ltd., LiveRoof Ontario Inc, NAK Design Strategies, Rebar Enterprises Inc, UCEL Inc., Unilux HVAC Industries Inc. |
