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After a 5-year construction journey, 19 Duncan Street has topped off in Toronto's Entertainment District. With its construction nearing completion, the project, developed by Westbank Corp and Allied Properties REIT with a design by Hariri Pontarini Architects, showcases an integration of heritage elements with contemporary design at the southeast corner of Duncan and Adelaide streets.
Our previous update in February saw the tower approaching topping off. Since then, the mechanical penthouse level has been completed and the tower crane has come down.
Back in May of this year, a northward glance reveals the nearly completed envelope of the south elevation, viewed from King Street below. The tower’s facade, adorned with vertical stripes, now extend to the mechanical penthouse. The tower corners feature curved glass, mirroring the podium levels’ design, while the balconies, situated at the southwest and northeast corners, echo the fritted glass aesthetic observed on the lower storeys.
A step back offers a close-up perspective of the building mid-Spring, with the iconic CN Tower framing the view. As May concludes, with a derrick place to assist in its removal, 19 Duncan bids farewell to the crane, signifying the tower’s topping off and the near-completion of its mechanical penthouse level. Amidst this significant milestone, the north elevation awaits the final installation of the envelope behind the hoist, still temporarily affixed to the exterior.
Back at ground level, a southeastwards glance shows the tower rising above the restored facade of the 1908-built Southam Press Building. This preservation work, overseen by ERA Architects, provides a contextual foundation for the modern structure above. The podium levels, housing the Toronto operations of media titan Thomson Reuters, fill the new space behind the facade, their logo marking the west elevation. Restoration work included the installation of replacement windows sensitive to the building's heritage status, seen below, aiming to restore the exterior to near-original conditions.
A distant aerial view looking west presents a panoramic spectacle of 19 Duncan Street, visible to the right-of-centre in this expansive view. The tower's protruding white mullions installed between each window bay serve as partial brise soleils, enhancing the structure’s thermal performance while offering a visual distinction in this busy skyline. To its left at ground level, we see the orange tarp around the excavation for phase one at Forma, the 73-storey tower of whichwill soon rise far above 19 Duncan.
A northwest perspective from Pearl Street shows off the podium, its glazing rising beside an adjacent brick building. With the curtain wall almost entirely covering the building’s base, the white mullions create a visual rhythm, leading eyes upwards where they meet the sections of flat, reflective glass that contrasts sharply with the more fine-grained detail of the rest of the building.
As the project approaches its completion, its mix of retail, office, and residential spaces will bring 422 market rate rental suites plus 40 hotel units to the Entertainment District.
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: | ANTAMEX, Hariri Pontarini Architects, Jablonsky, Ast and Partners, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, Peter McCann Architectural Models Inc., Rebar Enterprises Inc |
