Second Phase of 4-Tower Parking Lot Redevelopment Rising Above Queen East

Over the past five years, a transformative urban development project has been activated on the east side of downtown Toronto, converting the area’s largest remaining parking lot, covering nearly 1 hectare (approximately 100,000 ft²), into a high-density multi-tower community.

Located at 88 Queen Street East, the project is a community development between St. Offices and new public areas. St. Thomas’s 88 North was completed in mid-2020 as a first phase, a condominium with retail at the base and new hardwood floors at the side. Since then, three years of construction on three more towers has brought the project into the late stages of concrete work, with two of the towers nearing structural completion.

Looking northeast across the lawn outside Metropolitan United to three towers under construction at 88 Queen Street East, image by ADRM, contributor to UrbanToronto Forum

In the center of the rectangular site bounded by Queen, Mutual, Dalhousie and Shuter streets are Fitzrovia’s two luxury rental towers, branded as The Elm and The Ledbury. Designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects with Turner Fleischer Architects as renowned architects, the towers have made significant progress towards their final count of 27 and 28 floors. Referring to the image below, we can see that the mechanical facilities on the roof of the west tower are in the process of being formed, while flight molds are still being used on the sibling tower on the east, as that is where the final living floors will be formed.

Looking east at The Elm & The Ledbury Towers nearing completion, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Johnny Au

While formwork work has continued over the past few months, the construction crew has also been able to begin installing the cladding of the Fitzrovia Towers, beginning with the windows on the podium levels in early fall. Since then, the exterior has come a long way, with paneling and windows installed halfway up both towers. The image below captures the mix of materials, which features brick cladding for the landing levels and metal cladding for the towers, with the west tower (right) being dark and the east tower (left) a lighter grey.

Looking up at the progress of the cladding of the west (right) and east (left) towers, image by ADRM, contributor to the UrbanToronto Forum

At the southern end, the second tower of St. Thomas, 88 Queen, enjoys a prominent facade along Queen Street East. The tower, also designed by Harriri Pontarini, is steadily growing towards its final height of 51 stories and will soon claim the title of tallest tower in development. In the image below a few weeks ago, we can see that the tower is formed by the mid 20’s and is just short of halfway in its vertical ascent. The image also shows how the details of the podium levels come together on the south elevation, with a curved recess dividing the view down the middle.

Looking northeast at 88 Queen, formed about halfway through its 51 story total, image by UrbanToronto Forum staff insidensertnamehere

The most recent development on this tower is the appearance of the first glazing and cladding panels which are now being installed on the second level of the podium. Shown below on the west side of the tower, the modular curtain wall panels can be quickly installed using a simple assembly system at the edge of the floor panel. The panels offer a first glimpse of the textured motif that will define the building’s podium, as well as the bronze color scheme that deviates from the more usual gray tones of the surrounding context.

The first cladding panels have appeared on the podium levels of the west facade, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Tuscani01

With formwork at The Elm & The Ledbury almost complete, the towers will see extensive exterior progress over the coming months while work at 88 Queen will be more focused on continuing vertical ascent.

UrbanToronto will continue to monitor the progress of this development, but in the meantime you can learn more from our database file linked below. If you wish, you can join the discussion in the dedicated project forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.

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