In an active summer of construction, one of Minto Communities GTA’s downtown projects, 123 Portland, reached completion and progress continued into the fall when the first layer of siding was installed on the lower half of the building. Located on the northeast corner of Adelaide Street West and Portland Street in Toronto’s hip Fashion District, only a few suites remain available with less than a year of construction before the 14-story, 116-unit boutique condominium is expected to be ready for occupancy.
123 Portland (left) in the Toronto skyline looking east, image courtesy of Minto Communities GTA
With the structure of all 14 floors complete, we now have a better sense of the impact the building designed by Sweeny & Co Architects will have on the surrounding area. A step back on the ninth floor reduces the size of the street wall on both Adelaide and Portland streets, an important consideration as both avenues carry significant foot traffic.
View of 123 Portland impacting the street wall looking east from Adelaide Street West, image by UT Forums contributor Red Mars
As detailed in the project’s renderings, the facades are defined by vertical columns of prefabricated corrugated sheets, divided horizontally by concrete strips. An image taken Aug. 22 by UrbanToronto Forum contributor smably offers a close-up look at the trim panels as they were installed over the summer.
View of corrugated sheets on the west side looking east from Portland Street, image by UT Forum staff smably
A month and a half later, a picture taken Oct. 3 by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Red Mars shows the progress that has since been made on installing siding. Looking at the building from ground level, we can see that the prefabricated panels are attached below the setback on the majority of the west and south elevations of the building’s bottom eight floors.
View of cladding on south and west facades looking northeast from Adelaide Street West, image by UT Forum contributor Red Mars
Next, the recessed windows will be installed between the corrugated profiles and finally framed with a dark copper-colored metal cladding, which will form the central visual contrast on the facades. However, the installation of the windows awaits their delivery, with supply chain issues affecting the entire development industry.
Another image taken by Red Mars yesterday, moving to the west front along Portland Street, offers a look at the north elevation of the building, which is being completed with a mostly blank wall. Large parts of the precast concrete elements were delivered to the site by truck and hoisted up by crane to be installed on the 10th floor.
View of the blank wall on the north side of Portland Street looking southeast, image by UT Forums contributor Red Mars
With an expected time frame of 9 months until the start of occupancy, the final work to complete this building will progress steadily. While much of the focus has been on the fairing lately, the interior work to bring U31’s sleek designs to life is eagerly awaited by buyers.
UrbanToronto will continue to track updates for this development, but in the meantime you can learn more from our database file for the project, linked below. If you’d like, you can join the conversation in the associated project forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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