This past week we poured the first bit of concrete in the giant rat slab foundation (or mat foundation) that sits, or will sit, at the bottom of One Delisle. At its deepest point, below the building's core, it will be over 4m tall. Meaning, the area occupied by the gentlemen in the above photo will be fully covered in concrete when it's complete. Note the height of the rebar in the middle of the photo. This picture doesn't even do it justice, though. You need to be on site and down in the bottom of the hole to really feel it. There's a lot of bar, and it's going to be very deep.
In our case, this raft slab foundation will, as it sounds, serve as the building's foundation. This is what the tower will rest on. However, raft slabs can also serve the function of withstanding hydrostatic pressures from below (groundwater). That is the case with the raft slab foundation at Junction House given that we have a watertight "bathtub" design for the underground. However, that's not the case here at One Delisle, as the groundwater levels aren't as high and this will not be a "bathtubbed" underground. So the job of this giant slab is as a mat foundation.
Disclaimer: I am not a structural engineer or a hydrogeological engineer. What do I know?
Back in undergrad, I spent a summer living and working in Taipei and Hong Kong. It was my first time being in either of these cities and I absolutely loved it. I was studying architecture. I was really developing my love of big cities. And these felt like two very real and big cities.
Below is a cheesy tourist photo that I paid someone to take of me from the Kowloon Pier. I still have access to it because obviously my mom has it framed and prominently displayed in her kitchen:
Bill Gairdner of Gairloch Developments sent me this message the other morning:
He is talking about Junction House and he is, of course, right. It is a very cool feeling to create homes for people.
It's not easy building buildings. People get upset at you. They tell you that you're ruining their community. And broadly speaking, it can feel like every imaginable obstacle has been placed in front of you to make things more difficult.
But at the end of the day, once the dust settles, there will be places to live where places did not exist before. And then people will move into these places and transform them into homes.
They'll make them their own, create new memories, and, in the case of the people that Bill was referring to, they'll raise a family.
I'm not trying to make this sound more grandiose than it deserves to be. But I am being honest when I say that I know the team feels both a sense of honor and a great sense of responsibility because of the work we do.
You want people to be happy and you want the city to be a better place. So it's hard not to feel a little emotional when you see people moving into a place that you've worked tirelessly on for several years.
Yeah, it is a cool feeling, Bill.
This past week we poured the first bit of concrete in the giant rat slab foundation (or mat foundation) that sits, or will sit, at the bottom of One Delisle. At its deepest point, below the building's core, it will be over 4m tall. Meaning, the area occupied by the gentlemen in the above photo will be fully covered in concrete when it's complete. Note the height of the rebar in the middle of the photo. This picture doesn't even do it justice, though. You need to be on site and down in the bottom of the hole to really feel it. There's a lot of bar, and it's going to be very deep.
In our case, this raft slab foundation will, as it sounds, serve as the building's foundation. This is what the tower will rest on. However, raft slabs can also serve the function of withstanding hydrostatic pressures from below (groundwater). That is the case with the raft slab foundation at Junction House given that we have a watertight "bathtub" design for the underground. However, that's not the case here at One Delisle, as the groundwater levels aren't as high and this will not be a "bathtubbed" underground. So the job of this giant slab is as a mat foundation.
Disclaimer: I am not a structural engineer or a hydrogeological engineer. What do I know?
Back in undergrad, I spent a summer living and working in Taipei and Hong Kong. It was my first time being in either of these cities and I absolutely loved it. I was studying architecture. I was really developing my love of big cities. And these felt like two very real and big cities.
Below is a cheesy tourist photo that I paid someone to take of me from the Kowloon Pier. I still have access to it because obviously my mom has it framed and prominently displayed in her kitchen:
Bill Gairdner of Gairloch Developments sent me this message the other morning:
He is talking about Junction House and he is, of course, right. It is a very cool feeling to create homes for people.
It's not easy building buildings. People get upset at you. They tell you that you're ruining their community. And broadly speaking, it can feel like every imaginable obstacle has been placed in front of you to make things more difficult.
But at the end of the day, once the dust settles, there will be places to live where places did not exist before. And then people will move into these places and transform them into homes.
They'll make them their own, create new memories, and, in the case of the people that Bill was referring to, they'll raise a family.
I'm not trying to make this sound more grandiose than it deserves to be. But I am being honest when I say that I know the team feels both a sense of honor and a great sense of responsibility because of the work we do.
You want people to be happy and you want the city to be a better place. So it's hard not to feel a little emotional when you see people moving into a place that you've worked tirelessly on for several years.
Yeah, it is a cool feeling, Bill.
I'm sharing this photo because one of the things that really stood out to me about Hong Kong, in particular, was how they lit their buildings. There were neon signs (which is something that Hong Kong is, or least was, famous for); lights shining up into the sky (bad, I know); and full light shows and animations across entire building elevations.
I immediately thought to myself: "Why don't we have fun like this? Especially considering that Toronto can get kind of dark during the winter."
Well, some twenty years later, we are now starting to have more lights. We fought hard for our placemaking sign at Junction House. The CN Tower has since been illuminated. And most recently, we got 160 Front Street West. But it turns out that building lights can be a little divisive:
https://twitter.com/donnelly_b/status/1720125919753310413?s=20
My view is exactly what it was when I first landed in hot and humid Hong Kong. And so I respectfully disagree with Jocelyn Squires (though I have great admiration for her work). Architectural lighting adds color and dynamism to our cities. It can also help our cities from all looking the same.
Let's stop being so conservative and have some fun. Nice work, 160 Front.
I'm sharing this photo because one of the things that really stood out to me about Hong Kong, in particular, was how they lit their buildings. There were neon signs (which is something that Hong Kong is, or least was, famous for); lights shining up into the sky (bad, I know); and full light shows and animations across entire building elevations.
I immediately thought to myself: "Why don't we have fun like this? Especially considering that Toronto can get kind of dark during the winter."
Well, some twenty years later, we are now starting to have more lights. We fought hard for our placemaking sign at Junction House. The CN Tower has since been illuminated. And most recently, we got 160 Front Street West. But it turns out that building lights can be a little divisive:
https://twitter.com/donnelly_b/status/1720125919753310413?s=20
My view is exactly what it was when I first landed in hot and humid Hong Kong. And so I respectfully disagree with Jocelyn Squires (though I have great admiration for her work). Architectural lighting adds color and dynamism to our cities. It can also help our cities from all looking the same.
Let's stop being so conservative and have some fun. Nice work, 160 Front.
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