For those who have been absent from Toronto for the past few years, a walk though downtown’s Entertainment District would be quite an eye opening experience. The area, once dominated by night clubs, bars and parking lots, is witnessing a rapid transformation into a thriving high-density urban community. With the next wave of Entertainment District projects—including Theatre Park and the Pinnacle on Adelaide—now rising from the ground, we decided to revisit another nearby project now in its later stages of construction.
The Cinema Tower, a 43-storey condominium by The Daniels Corporation, has come quite a long way since our previous visit in November of last year. When we last toured the building, the structure had just topped off and interior spaces were still in a very raw state. Since then, lots of progress has been made on both interiors and exteriors as the Kirkor Architects-designed development makes the push towards completion.
Glazing is now visible along the Widmer Street podium frontage, which will be home to both the condominium lobby entrance and the 6,000 square-foot Artscape performance space. The naturally lit lobby with its high ceilings and massive support columns will serve as a common front entrance for residents of the 444 condominium units above.
Only a few days before our visit, the first of the building's four internal elevators went operational, with the remaining three to follow one at a time over two-week intervals. As a result, the external construction hoists are expected to be disassembled in the coming weeks.
Riding the elevator up to the 6th floor, we arrive at the amenity level where residents will have access to a private TIFF screening room, fitness room, full basketball court, a sauna, hot-tub and change rooms.
In addition, the amenity level will feature an intimate lounge atop the podium roof, marked by the recently poured swooping canopy roof above. Metal brackets can now be seen along the edges of the canopy, in preparation for the installation of aluminum cladding panels.
Last year we checked out the dramatic views from the future penthouses on the 43rd floor. Views from the top are always a fun stop on any tour, but the fact of the matter is we aren’t all millionaires, so the exclusive penthouse views aren’t always the best representation of what most residents will move in to. To provide both readers and future Cinema Tower residents with a more realistic preview of their view, we headed up to the 26th floor – positioned just above the halfway point of the tower.
While on 26, we took advantage of the opportunity to check out one of the condominium units with its recently installed drywall, as well as the differing types of balcony glazing seen on the north and south façades.
The north face of the building features a clear balcony glass on the lower half of the building, before switching to a fritted pattern for the floors above. Check out how fine the frit is in the second photo below.
The curved southern balconies are clad with the same clear glazing found on the lower half of the north side.
We look forward to our next visit to the Cinema Tower in the coming months as the finishing touches to the building are applied. In the meantime, please visit the associated dataBase page, linked below, for additional information and renderings. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the related Forum thread, linked here, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided below.