26 Nov 21 | Urban Toronto

160 Front West Starts to Show Its Curves

By Teana Graziani

Big moves are being made on one of Downtown Toronto's busiest streets. Located just west of York Street, Cadillac Fairview's new office tower, 160 Front Street West, is quickly rising into the sky and recently has started to show the first of its noted curves. As the tower's structural steel skeleton continues to rise, the canted exterior of the sail-shaped building is becoming more obvious, with its western-and-easternmost steel posts leaning out on lower floors, and now leaning back inwards.

Designed by AS+GG Architecture of Chicago working with Toronto-based B+H Architects, the complex has been under construction for approximately two years. Our last update at the end of August shared that work had begun on the lower floors of the steel-framed building, with the installation of steel decking, and the pouring of concrete on top of the decking. At that point the building had only reached its sixth level above grade. Just three months later, 160 Front W now stands 22 storeys above grade, heading towards its final count of 46 storeys plus peaked, glass-crowned, mechanical penthouse levels.

We can see the progress that has taken place over the last few months in the graphic below created by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Contra. We can see how much height is still to be added to the tower, as well as another, more dramatic curve that will start to show itself as the structural steel approaches its uppermost levels. The tower is currently standing over Front Street at approximately one third of its final height.

Our last update also noted that steel had been attached to the framework in place at the southeast corner of the site, where a heritage facade will be restored and reconstituted. Now, the steel scaffold has been covered with green fabric, to shield work from the weather. It awaits sections of the heritage facade that are currently being stored off-site, the bricks being cleaned before being reassembled above lower section which have been kept in situ during construction.

Above the area where the heritage facade walls will rise again, levels have been shielded behind plastic sheeting, in an effort to keep cold wind out of the structure while concrete is poured and cured on the steel deck floors. Also visible on the sides of the building are three-level-high sections of wood hoarding, presumably where branding for the development or developer will likely be placed sometime in the future. The hoarding will likely rise occasionally as the building does.

The latest materials to arrive onsite are the first panels of curtain wall. The building's unique fenestration has the windows angling down on each level, while above, opaque slab edge cover panels angle the units back into the steel framework. The effect will only truly be seen once a few floors of the units have been installed, but the rendering below gives an idea of the effect from a distance.

Upon completion, 160 Front West will use a total of 9,500 tons of structural steel and 1.07 million ft² of metal decking that will surround its concrete core, while the building will reach a height of 240 metres, and will provide those working in it with views of the Financial Core from the west. It will be home to 134,766m² (1.2 million ft²) of brand new office and retail space, with TD to occupy 33 floors of the tower while owning a 30% stake in the building.

You can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like to, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.