Thursday, March 27 marked the official groundbreaking for Concert Properties' 88 Scott, a 58-storey Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed development now underway at the northwest corner of Wellington and Scott Streets in Downtown Toronto. When we last checked in on the project a couple weeks ago, demolition of the previous mid-rise commercial property had progressed down to the building's below grade floors. In the time since, demolition has been completed and the site has been filled back to grade to allow for shoring and excavation. With the previous structures now gone and a limestone façade carefully dismantled (to be cleaned and re-applied to the finished development), we were invited to the 88 Scott site for the official start of excavation, where a massive drilling rig ceremonially punctured the earth and commenced the drilling process for the project's below-ground caisson walls.

Drilling rig stirs up dust as 88 Scott gets underway, image by Craig White

Several important faces were on hand to celebrate the groundbreaking, including Brian McCauley, President and COO of Concert and representatives from Bird Construction, Page + Steele and various other contractors involved in the project. The event was also attended by some of the City staff that have worked closely alongside the developers of 88 Scott, including Toronto Ward 28 Councillor Pam McConnell and Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat.

Crowd gathered to celebrate 88 Scott's groundbreaking, image by Jack Landau

The drilling rig will dig down 70 feet, six storeys below grade to the bottom of the future foundations, after which the ceremonial Concert-green I-beam will be lowered into a concrete-filled tube as the first step in caisson construction.

Caisson drilling at 88 Scott construction site, image by Jack Landau

Ceremonial i beam, image by Jack Landau

Photos only do partial justice to the groundbreaking ceremony, so we have included a video below of the drilling rig in action at 88 Scott Street!

Right after the groundbreaking a reception was held at the nearby St. Lawrence Centre for the Performing Arts, where we caught up with David R. Podmore Chairman & CEO of Concert Properties Ltd. and Concert Real Estate Corporation, who spoke to us one on one about the significance of this project. "We have done large projects before in the sense of multiple buildings, but this will be the largest single project that we have ever built" said Mr. Podmore, "it is also significant in this is happening during our 25th year of business in this industry".

David R. Podmore Chairman & CEO of Concert, image by Jack Landau

We look forward to watching construction progress on 88 Scott, which will add 523 condominium units to the St. Lawrence neighbourhood once completed in 2018. In the meanwhile, a comprehensive collection of renderings and building facts can be found in our dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided at the bottom of this page.