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A little over four months after One Bloor West became the first Toronto (and Canadian) building to cross the 300m threshold, and a month after UrbanToronto was onsite for a tour as part of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat/Council on Vertical Urbanism Coonference, SkyTower at Pinnacle One Yonge has now joined the club as the country’s second ‘supertall’ currently under construction. Designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects for Pinnacle International, the 106-storey SkyTower forms the second phase of the Pinnacle One Yonge community at the foot of Yonge Street, following the 65-storey first phase 'The Prestige.' As work at One Bloor West currently focuses on creating the enclosure at its peak for its tuned mass damper, SkyTower continues its climb, set to soon surpass One Bloor West as Toronto’s tallest active construction site.
Looking south on November 6, SkyTower has climbed from its 96th to 97th level, during which it crossed the 300m threshold. The structure’s twelve-sided form rises to the west of The Prestige, with the curvature of its facade featuring vertical fins and recessed balcony lines. Glazing has reached approximately the 78th floor along the northwest and northeast sides — the building tapering above where the glazing is currently installed — while balcony glass installation is visible up to about the 74th floor on the north face.
A closer look further down highlights the installation of balcony guards, sporting a distinctive diagonal etch or frit pattern. The top four balcony levels visible show completed railings while several levels below display only partial installation. The tower’s white fins are receiving more of their finishing trim, obviously complicated in the areas where they frame the balconies just above the podium levels.
A drone view captures SkyTower from above its uppermost levels, where concrete work is advancing and the core has reached approximately the 98th floor. The RCS-G Rail Climbing System wraps around the top three and a half floors, shielding crews. Within the core, the Automatic Climbing System continues to hydraulically lift the formwork for the elevator shafts, operating independently of the crane. The tower’s post-tensioned shear walls and link beams are designed to resist lateral wind loads generated by the tower’s extreme height and slender profile. Below ont he east face, the construction hoist has recently been raised to reach the 84th floor.
Looking southeast from street level, the crane's mast sections race up the side of the tower, forming the tallest element of the construction site, while curtainwall glazing now encloses the tower well into its upper reaches.
Viewed most recently from a distance to the north, SkyTower rises well above other buildings in the skyline, with the concrete boom pump extending even further skyward. The RCS-G platform and crane remain active at the summit, supporting the last stages of formwork for the final residential floors before the structure transitions into its mechanical and tuned mass damper levels.
When complete, SkyTower will reach 351.85m across 106 storeys, delivering more than 950 condominium units and a 220-room Meridien hotel, making it the tallest building ever constructed in Canada. It will later be joined by a third tower planned to rise 320.35m as another ‘supertall,' while plans for Pinnacle’s South Block were recently revised from an office complex to a mixed-use development.
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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UrbanToronto's research and data service, UTPro, provides comprehensive data on construction projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe—from proposal through to completion. Other services include Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
