On July 19, 2017, Concert hosted a construction tour for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Canada (CTBUH) at 88 Scott, a 58-storey condominium tower with ground level retail and four levels of office space. This new development is situated in Toronto’s financial district and bordering on the historic St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood.
The construction tour included several different areas of the building and along with expert overviews and details about the building. The structural design of 88 Scott is complex, due to the 40 different floor plans spread across 58 storeys. The construction tour group viewed early sketches of the building showing form and positioning. They heard about how changes and additional sculpting at the upper levels were made later in the design process to avoid shadow effects on the open space in front of St. James Cathedral. The tower has several shadow box features that add visual interest to one of Toronto’s tallest towers.
Kelly Wilson, Vice President of Development for Concert, opened the tour in the public atrium of the building where an impressive dynamic public art installation called “Spectrum,” created by award-winning Balmond Studio, is suspended from the ceiling. Spectrum is part of the ongoing efforts to integrate new developments into a community by engaging residents and visitors with public art. On Wellington Street, the base of the building is a fusion of modern glass curtain walls and the reconstructed limestone façade of the original 1951 modern classical building.
In the upper floors, the tour included a viewing of the two-level “Sky Lounge” party room amenity in its pre-drywall state. Gianluca Caligiuri, Assistant Superintendent with Bird Construction, explained the benefits and the substantial acoustic isolation of this amenity from adjacent spaces in the building.