UrbanToronto offers construction buffs regular updates of projects all across the GTHA of all types… but the usual type of construction of high-rises in this area is of the reinforced concrete kind, with little of the steel beam construction that figures often in legendary skyscraper photography. Picture that shot of construction workers blithely eating lunch while perched on a steel beam 800 feet above New York City in the 1930s, and you know what I'm on about.

The construction of Bay Adelaide Centre East is a chance for those who want their fill of the that type of construction to smile. While the 44-storey office tower has a reinforced concrete core, radiating out from that core each floor will be created through a lattice of steel beams, and we are seeing the first hints of that now.

Webcam view of work on Bay Adelaide East, noon, December 11, 2013

In the webcam shot above, and the on-street shot below we can see that the concrete elevator core is now surrounded by a colonnade of steel the height of 4 regular business floors, columns which are ready to hold the first office floor above the building's grand lobby space.

Steel columns now surround the concrete core of Bay Adelaide East, image by drum118

A crane to the east of the core was assembled first; another crane is now being assembled to the west of the core.

A crane rises over the elevator core of Bay Adelaide East, image by drum118

A concrete pump below, extends its arm as it delivers the raw, fluid mixture to where it's needed for the next floor of the core.

A concrete pump delivers the raw material to the core, image by Craig White

Elsewhere on the site, work is progressing on the transposition of a heritage brick façade. Originally at the corner of Yonge and Adelaide, the outer skin of a four-floor heritage office building has been moved up to Yonge and Temperance, and has been turned 90 degrees.

A scaffold hides the transposed heritage façade, image by Craig White

When complete, the façade will hide the HVAC equipment for the Bay Adelaide Centre's garage, while meshing with the former Aikenhead's Building to the west, and the recently restored Dineen Building across Temperance Street. The three buildings with form a complimentary grouping of Toronto's early twentieth century Downtown.

Buff-coloured bricks will clad the HVAC structure on Yonge, image by Craig White

From above, the whole site can be seen. Looking north from the Scotia Plaza tower, Bay Adelaide West lines the left side of the shot. The Bay Adelaide East tower will eventually fill up the centre of the shot. A podium will extend to Yonge Street at the lower right corner, while just north of that can be seen the back of the Aikenhead's building and the HVAC building. The buff-coloured brick building with the dark brown top is the Dineen Building. To its left and partially obscured by the crane's boom is the Cloud Gardens park and greenhouse which was built in the 1980s for an earlier never-built skyscraper proposed for the site. To the left of the park is pedestrian and vehicle access to the parking garage and loading docks; this land is where Bay Adelaide North will eventually be built to finish off the complex. No final plan for Bay Adelaide East has yet been presented by developer Brookfield Properties.

Looking down at the site from the 41st floor of Scotia Plaza, image by 41stfloor

Want to know more about the KPMB and Adamson Associates-designed Bay Adelaide Centre East? Our dataBase file, linked below, includes several renderings and lots of info. Want to get in on the conversation? Choose the associated Forum thread link, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.