46-50 King Street East | ? | 5 fl | Complete - Page 12

johnnyhamont · #**221** Posted **Dec 10, 2020, 1:08 AM**

I thought the progress of this one felt slow to me but maybe it's just the 2020 blues. This is the site only a year ago:

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomax

46-50 King Street East Construction | 12/11/2019 by Joe, on Flickr

Chronamut · #**222** Posted **Dec 10, 2020, 2:57 AM**

am I the only one fascinated by how expensive it's gonna be if people break those curtain wall glass panels that are angled at the top to fit those areas? I mean I am guessing those are made custom...

lachlanholmes · #**223** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 2:26 AM**

I went back this afternoon for better pictures:

ChildishGavino · #**224** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 3:58 AM**

already, I'm liking the higher density on this strip. Anything to cover up the courthouse.

davidcappi · #**225** Posted **Dec 11, 2020, 2:43 PM**

Wonder if they'll continue using a stick built curtainwall system for the upper sections or if it'll be a unitized curtainwall facade. Fingers crossed for the latter!

lachlanholmes · #**226** Posted **Dec 18, 2020, 10:51 PM**

Pictures taken about 4 pm today. You can now see the beginnings of the slanted top of the building. Still no curtain wall, though.

lachlanholmes · #**227** Posted **Dec 23, 2020, 12:25 AM**

Glazing now going in on the first floor. It looks good so far, but I can't tell if they're going for capless or whether they're going to add caps. The pieces holding in the glass at the moment look to be placed a little bit haphazardly which gives me some hope that we could end up with capless glazing... we'll have to wait and see.

Chronamut · #**228** Posted **Dec 23, 2020, 12:33 AM**

hmm interesting, the perspective of the side at the top makes it appear like its angling down too but it's just an optical illusion.. well done.

Let's repost the render for cross comparison - I know they already got rid of the sharp angle up on the bottom left but the rest should be more or less the same..

love when they don't factor in structural issues lol.. unfortunately that was more or less their big design element and thus it's much more boring now without it..

lachlanholmes · #**229** Posted **Dec 23, 2020, 12:47 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chronamut

hmm interesting, the perspective of the side at the top makes it appear like its angling down too but it's just an optical illusion.. well done.

Let's repost the render for cross comparison - I know they already got rid of the sharp angle up on the bottom left but the rest should be more or less the same..

love when they don't factor in structural issues lol.. unfortunately that was more or less their big design element and thus it's much more boring now without it..

If you're talking about the top of the Hughson Street frontage, it is angled downwards as you move south, just at a confusing angle that does allow it to be confused for being flat... I think it will become more obvious once the steel framing is finished moving south.

ScreamingViking · #**230** Posted **Dec 23, 2020, 10:53 AM**

The angled notch on the east side of King would have been a nice touch, but I'm glad it looks like they're keeping the other stuff consistent with the render.

Chronamut · #**231** Posted **Dec 23, 2020, 6:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

The angled notch on the east side of King would have been a nice touch, but I'm glad it looks like they're keeping the other stuff consistent with the render.

they did make one change - the west side at its southernmost point angles up a bit - it didn't in the original render - but that's minor.

lachlanholmes · #**232** Posted **Jan 6, 2021, 3:22 AM**

Here are pics from about 11 AM this morning:

TheHonestMaple · #**233** Posted **Jan 6, 2021, 3:43 AM**

Nice, some glass going in already!

Chronamut · #**234** Posted **Jan 6, 2021, 8:51 PM**

This shows a nice step up median between the buildings on each side of it - visually pleasing to the eye to see the height progression.

ScreamingViking · #**235** Posted **Jan 8, 2021, 10:48 PM**

If the glass turns out as great as the renders show, I think this will complement the older buildings and the bland 70s-80s office mid-rises nicely. Good scale for the corner too.

craftbeerdad · #**236** Posted **Jan 11, 2021, 6:09 PM**

Turning out nicely and better than we expected originally. However the HSBC/WSP & First Ontario CU building sticking out like a sore thumb with no architectural value.

ScreamingViking · #**237** Posted **Jan 12, 2021, 6:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by craftbeerdad

Turning out nicely and better than we expected originally. However the HSBC/WSP & First Ontario CU building sticking out like a sore thumb with no architectural value.

That bare concrete wall of FOCU/Scarfone-Hawkins is awful. Needs a mural or other piece of art. Badly. They likely expected a tall neighbour when it was designed and built, but we've all seen how that's been playing out with Blanchard and friends for the past... decades???

HSBC/WSP is relatively nondescript and inoffensive. Which is a compliment. lol

lachlanholmes · #**238** Posted **Jan 12, 2021, 9:44 PM**

I don't mind the 1 James South tower... it has good symmetry and clean lines. The brown concrete isn't ideal, but I'm careful what I wish for with regards to renovations considering the shambles of the Simpson Tower in Toronto (which went from awful brown concrete tower to awful cheap glass tower). The ground floor of 1 James South could be much improved, however.

The HSBC building has to be the worst building currently fronting on Gore Park... it really needs work in my opinion. A recladding and ground floor renovation with some proper effort and investment would be ideal.

Back on topic to this project, however. I think I might've spotted some of the first unitized curtain wall units while walking past this site last night. Of course, with the non-essential construction shutdown (which appears to not affect residential construction), I assume we won't see them up for a while unless they got some of them up today...

ScreamingViking · #**239** Posted **Jan 13, 2021, 7:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lachlanholmes

The HSBC building has to be the worst building currently fronting on Gore Park... it really needs work in my opinion. A recladding and ground floor renovation with some proper effort and investment would be ideal.

The concrete looks like it's in decent shape, but the building is probably 35-40 years old and a refresh could make it more notable.

lachlanholmes · #**240** Posted **Jan 14, 2021, 2:17 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

The concrete looks like it's in decent shape, but the building is probably 35-40 years old and a refresh could make it more notable.

You'll never be able to build anything larger on that lot, so in my opinion it's a great candidate for reinvestment and thoughtful renovation.

It would also be nice if the gap along Hughson between it and the Union Gas building was able to be filled in a bit - maybe about four storeys. You'd lose some windows on first few floors of the existing buildings but it seems both are owned by Blanchard so theoretically, it would be possible...

---

Anyways, here's a couple photos from earlier today:

Those pallets indeed continued unitized curtain wall glazing; specifically dark black curtain wall. These are very promising to my eye:

There was also a new rendering posted on site. It looks as if the glazing pattern is now primarily blue curtain wall with black curtain wall stripes rather than the previous more randomized pattern:

More curtain wall glazing that you can't really see all that well under the orange tarps. As well, the large crane is now gone so I would guess they're finished lifting steel into place: