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UrbanToronto was lucky enough to recently tour through 77 Charles West, Aspen Ridge Homes' high-end condominium now under construction and rising over the University of Toronto's northeast flank.
The 16-storey tower is designed by Yann Weymouth of HOK, one of the world's largest architectural practices.
The podium will house Kintore Collede, a private Catholic School, with housing for some of its students. The school and condominium will be physically separated inside.
The building has garnered much attention on UrbanToronto for its high quality curtain wall glazing. "Green glass," usually a result of high iron oxide content, is not normally appreciated around here, but the deliberate colouration of the glass and related spandrel strips here has received nothing but rave reviews: this is green done right.
This is the space just inside the front doors, with the podium's limestone façade continuing along the front wall and around the pillars.
Into a unit a few floors up now we see two unusual sights here. The first is the cinder block demising wall between one unit and the next: everything is being done here to sonically isloate the units. The second is the gap in the wall to the right: that area is the mechanicals closet for the unit. Services to the unit will pass through the opening, while the HVAC units will sit in spaces that will be only accessible from the corridors of the building. Any servicing they require will be able to be accomplished without technicians entering the units.
The unit below is a little more advanced, with strapping now applied to the demising walls and the metal framing for interior walls starting to be installed. This unit will become a model suite.
Curtain wall units await installation.
These units have been installed along the north façade. Integrated slots for air intake and exhaust are part of each curtain wall unit, although not all will be functional. By including the slots in each unit however, a unified design is maintained across the whole exterior.
Workers lower smaller curtain wall sections to others receiving it a floor below. The units are very heavy.
How would you like to lean over the side of a tower for your job? This guy needs nerves of steel!
Glazing has been installed along this unit's south face.
Here's the same unit from inside. Note that windows are not floor-to-ceiling, but they allow for kickplates and low ledges. Window panes are wide.
Here we look down upon one of the huge future terraces, now being lined with insulation.
Up at the roof now, we get a look at the mechanical top's steel structure.
HVAC units sit on the roof.
Sonic isolation is serious business here too: vibrations from the units should be disspiated by these springs and not passed into the penthouse below.
The penthouse unit — or units, if it is sold as two — features 14-foot ceilings and great views.
This is the southwards view, which passes by provincial ministry offices, to Burano's crane, and on to the city's core.
The southwest view takes in Queen's Park, here in autumn splendour, and continues through the U of T grounds.
Back at ground level UrbanToronto's Edward Skira and Aspen Ridge Homes' Darius Rybak pose at the base of the hoist.
Looking up along the back side we see the podium's brick façade, coloured to match the limestone on the north side. The tower's condominium balconies rise over the college's lower portion of the building.
77 Charles West as viewed from further south…
…and further south again.
For a look at the renderings of 77 Charles West, and for more information, click on the link to UrbanToronto's dataBase entry for the building below. To join in on the discussion, choose one of the associated Forum thread links.
