Awards Season has once again looked favourably upon Collecdev’s Cielo Condos development. The 29-storey mixed-use project added to its extensive list of accolades early this month by taking home the High Rise Project of the Year honours at the 2023 BILD Awards, a victory that is certainly the highlight of the year for the project and its team.
A close second though, is the progress the development is seeing on site, recently making the transition from demolition into active construction. With the remaining structure of the late 19th-century Bloor United Church now fully protected to safely withstand the construction of the 29-storey tower, shoring work has begun to move forward, establishing the perimeter of what will soon become a site-wide excavation.
After getting its start in mid-April, shoring of the site’s northern border is now well underway. According to the latest update from Collecdev, the last month of work has resulted in the completion of the northern caisson wall, a robust structural shoring system employed for specific site conditions.
Unlike a lagging wall, which uses horizontal pieces of wood to create a retaining wall between the vertical steel piles, a caisson wall retains the earth while also providing structural support to the neighbouring structures. In Cielo’s case, this support is critical, considering the list of neighbours, which includes subway tunnels as well as buildings to the north and west. The caisson wall’s ability to bear structural load is made possible by its composition; not only are the boring holes filled with concrete as well as a steel pile, they are also drilled in an overlapping configuration, creating a continuous wall.
With the northern caisson wall completed, the site’s three remaining borders will require the same treatment before the project can advance into excavation. While no timeline is officially set, Collecdev expects to be starting bulk excavation by mid-August.
Meanwhile, work to prepare the historic Bloor United Church building to withstand full-scale construction has been completed, after just over a year of steady work. According to Collecdev, the structural demolition phase is now officially over, with all components slated to remain on-site being safely retained, and all components slated to be reinstated being removed for restoration offsite. Now, in order to prepare the footprint of the church for the impending shoring process, the existing basement of the church is currently being backfilled. Reaching a depth of four metres, the backfilling process will see the basement filled with loose soil, creating a flat, grade-level surface across the extent of the site.
Additionally, the interior faces of the retained east and south elevations of the Church are receiving a weather-proofing treatment designed to protect the old stone from the elements while preventing any build-ups of mold. The image below pictures a worker in the process of applying the Tyvek wrap to the lower east wall.
With the last few months bringing some big breakthroughs to the site of Cielo Condos, anticipation continues to grow for the 29-storey mixed-use development and its standout design from KPMB Architects.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you’d like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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