Last week, Urban Toronto returned to the architectsAlliance-designed Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences by Menkes Developments and Lifetime Developments to track its progress since our last visit. We were guided through the busy construction site by Goran Skara, Project Superintendent, who helped fill in the blanks on this fast-advancing but still very raw building complex.

Over the next few days, Urban Toronto will be leading you into the amenities and hotel suites and up to the private residences on the highest level currently under construction. We’ll also be bringing you a full span of spectacular views over the unfolding city, which continues to develop at a dizzying pace. To begin, however, let’s focus on the Four Seasons’ exterior elevations. A view of the east façade of the south tower past the historic Yorkville Fire Hall.

A general view of the Four Seasons site from the south. At the south tower, construction has moved up through twenty levels of amenities and hotel suites, and an intermediate floor for mechanicals, to the first floor of private residences, which structurally is on the twenty-second level. Meanwhile, the north tower has reached the fourth floor. Construction is on schedule with top-out expected in July 2011.

A shot of the south and east façades of the south tower.

A close-up view of the Four Seasons' top-of-the-line curtain-wall glazing.

A view of workers installing the steel framework for the non-vision glazing panels to be hung on the concrete façades of the amenities podium.

A view inside the porte-cochère, the focal point of which will be a dramatic, (+/-) thirty-foot fountain to be placed approximately in the same location as the white storage tank seen on the right.

These brackets eventually will extend fifteen feet out into the porte-cochère to support a protective glass canopy.

Looking northeast across the porte-cochère to the north tower.

A view along Scollard St toward the north elevation of the north tower and the northeast corner of the amenities podium.

A closer view of the amenities podium. Granite panels will be installed up-to the concrete ledge, about one third up from grade. This then will change to slivers-and-slots glazing panels – some with varying patterns and shades of frit, some without – to be hung on the steel framework. Installation of the granite and glass should begin in about a month.

A close-up shot of the steel framework, which will support the slivers-and-slots glazing panels.

Closer still.

A shot of the canopied entry to the Four Seasons’ singular retail space at the northwest corner of the amenities podium.

A general view of the amenities podium and south tower from the northwest.

That concludes our tour around the exterior of the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences. Next up, Urban Toronto takes you inside to the amenities and hotel suites. Stay tuned.

Related Companies:  architects—Alliance, CCxA, L.A. Inc., Menkes Developments, NAK Design Group