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A crane now stands where a mid-20th century apartment building recently stood in Midtown Toronto. Demolition began in Fall, 2024 of a closed 7-storey co-op building at 170 Roehampton Avenue. Quickly razed over the following weeks, shoring and excavation of the site followed and they too have now been completed. Where there were previously 53 co-op suites, Capital Developments and Metropia are building a 50-storey residential rental tower with 599 suites.
Since UrbanToronto last covered the proposal in 2022, the plans for the replacement building, designed by Sweeny &Co Architects Inc., were adjusted through resubmissions in December, 2024 and April, 2025. Changes included six added vehicular parking spaces for a new total of 97, one bicycle space for 600, one more unit above the 598 originally planned, a revision that added four floors, and another one that added a single additional centimetre in height.
Seen in September, 2024, this overhead view captures the original building...
...while three months later on a foggy day in December, 2024, demolition is underway on the building's west side. A long-reach excavator outfitted with a concrete pulverizer works through the structure from the rear. Rubble and crushed material are accumulating on the west side, where soft landscaping has been fully stripped.
Viewed from across Roehampton Avenue, demolition progresses via a high-reach excavator equipped with a hydraulic pulverizer and dust suppression sprayer mounted near the attachment, meant to mitigate airborne particulate. Several floor plates have been sheared back, exposing interior units including remnants of fire damage sustained earlier in the Fall in part of the structure.
Less than two weeks later, only a narrow five-storey section of the east side is still standing. The exposed concrete floor plates and vertical circulation core are marked by dangling rebar, fractured shear walls, and remnants of interior finishes. Tracked excavators continue to process debris and clear the site.
Shoring commenced in January, 2025, and by April, 2025, excavation for two underground levels is underway. Looking west, soldier piles and lagging are visible along the south shoring wall. A crew member is seen in the middle of the site, surrounded by steel H-piles that will eventually support the ground floor slab.
This month, the crane's initial blue mast segment was being guided into position atop its concrete footing, suspended by chains from a mobile crane. Crew members, secured with protection harnesses, perform alignment and bolting tasks on the mast.
In this close-up from later that day, installation had progressed to the operator cab and machinery deck of the luffing jib crane, a type used to work within the site's constrained footprint for reduced swing radius. The central red slewing unit supports the rotating upper structure, while the operator cab is mounted to one side. The large blue winch drum at the rear houses the hoisting cable, while crew members work across the machinery platform.
In this northwest-facing view, the crane is nearing full assembly, with a mobile crane positioning the initial sections of the counterjib above the operator cab. At the bottom of the pit, we see concrete in place across some of the pit, while the ground level staging slab, already mostly covered in dirt, has been completed along the edge of the photo.
170 Roehampton will rise to a final height of 160.85m.
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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EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been republished to reflect that the original building was a co-op, not a rental.
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