Eastern Construction News

Continuing our 63-year tradition of constructing retail facilities, Eastern is pleased to announce we recently secured the contract to renovate and expand the Hudson’s Bay Fashion Store at Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill.  Working directly with the construction group at Hudson’s Bay Company, our work will include the rejuvenation of 79,500 sq. ft. of existing retail space to current HBC design standards, reflecting the new brand initiative rolling-out to all Hudson’s Bay stores.  Further, the team at Eastern Construction will expand the store beyond its current footprint at Hillcrest Mall to provide HBC with an additional 48,000 sq. ft. of space.

Eastern Construction is pleased to announce our latest project in the education sector – expansion of the Humber College North Campus.  Working with Montgomery Sisam Architects, the team at Eastern Construction will renovate and expand Building ‘F’, an existing structure at the North Campus originally built in the 1960’s.  Once finished, the vertical expansion of Building ‘F’ will provide Humber College with an additional 38,000 sq. ft. of space for classrooms and laboratories servicing the Health Sciences and Funeral Sciences programs. 

Earlier this month, Governing Council for the University of Toronto Mississauga approved the name Deerfield Hall for Phase 1 of the North Building project currently underway with Eastern Construction.  The name was selected from a list of nearly 200 entries submitted by students and staff as part of a contest to name the modern four-storey academic space.  The name Deerfield Hall was selected to reflect UTM’s ‘natural setting and its reputation for growing sustainably.’  Interior finishes are underway with the project scheduled for completion August 2014.

Deerfield Hall will be home to the departments of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Psychology, English, and Drama.  Once complete, the facility will offer students expanded food services, study spaces, classrooms, research labs, and rehearsal facilities for the Drama program.

This week, construction at Queen Richmond Centre reached a significant milestone with the first of three delta-frames set in place.  Interest in this exciting project has been intensifying with the hoisting of the delta-frame components, the nodes being the largest piece of cast structural steel ever used on a North American construction site.  Architectural firm &Co utilized delta-frames with Stephenson Engineering to create a voluminous atrium that will measure an incredible 70-feet in height.  As reported this week by Matthew Lavoie of Urban Toronto, the three delta-frame structures provide lateral stiffness and carry the gravity load of the columns associated with the 11-storey office sitting atop the existing heritage structure.  Each delta-frame has been designed to support 80-meganewtons of axial compression exerted by the building above (a force of roughly 18 million pounds).

Photos and details, courtesy of &Co, can be found at http://eepurl.com/HySFD.

The article by Urban Toronto can be found at http://bit.ly/1ahJkt6.

Earlier this year, three projects built by Eastern Construction were nominated for the 2013 People’s Choice Awards for Best Commercial/Institutional Building.  The votes are in and all three projects built by Eastern Construction swept the podium, taking the top three spots.  Rotman School of Management, designed by KPMB, received an Honorable Mention.  14 Division, Toronto Police Service, designed by Stantec, was Runner-Up.  11 Division, Toronto Police Service, design by Stantec in conjunction with E.R.A. Architects, not only received the PUG award, the project was further recognized with the 2013 Paul Oberman Award for Adaptive Reuse and Heritage Restoration.  Further details on the awards night can be found on Urban Toronto at http://bit.ly/12r5p4V.

The 9th Annual People’s Choice Awards for Architecture selected Toronto Police Service, 11 Division, for two prestigious awards:  2013 Best Commercial/Institutional Building, and 2013 Paul Oberman Award for Adaptive Reuse and Heritage Restoration.  11 Division was built by Eastern Construction and designed by Stantec with heritage consultants E.R.A.  The project included significant restoration of the existing 1913 heritage building, formerly a school, adapted for the use of Toronto Police Service.  We are thrilled to see a project built by Eastern Construction recognized with two PUG Awards and congratulate Stantec, ERA, TPS, and our on-site project team.  Details can be found here: http://www.pugawards.com/pug/.

Built by Eastern Construction, the Evergreen Brick Works project received the 2013 Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) Charter Award honouring the efforts of the design team.  According to the news release, Evergreen Brick Works was one of only nine international projects given a 2013 Charter Award. Winning projects are recognized for their excellence in fulfilling and advancing the principles of the Charter of the New Urbanism, which defines the essential qualities of walkable, sustainable places from the regional scale down to the block and building.  The full article can be accessed here - http://bit.ly/1787veH.

The Theatre Centre project involves the adaptation of a former Carnegie Library, which opened in 1909, located on Queen Street West in Toronto.  The facility will serve as a modern live arts hub and incubator, the permanent home of The Theatre Centre.  Services provided by Eastern Construction include the restoration and protection of the existing heritage structure, as well as a small addition to the building.  Noted heritage architect Philip Goldsmith of GBCA has provided the vision for the future of The Theatre Centre.  Eastern Construction recently worked with Mr. Goldsmith during the construction of the National Ballet (a joint-venture with KPMB Architects).

Allied Properties is redeveloping the existing four-storey office building on the lands now called Queen Richmond Centre West. The project will see the construction of a new 17-floor, 250,000 square-foot, LEED Gold, office tower. The exciting design by Sweeny Sterling Finlayson &Co Architects involves suspending the new office tower two floors above the existing 50,000 square-foot heritage building. Working closely with &Co, Eastern Construction and Stephenson Engineering will utilize three structural steel “Delta Frames” and the concrete elevator cores to support a 7th floor structural steel podium which will serve as the base for the new office tower.

The University of Toronto selected Eastern Construction Company Limited as Construction Manager for the new Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design building.  The project site, located at 1 Spadina Crescent, will see the existing 1874 Heritage Building undergo extensive restoration and upgrades to provide student areas, faculty offices, and learning space.  Once restoration is underway, the site will continue to be developed with the addition of a new structure to service the needs of the Faculty.  University of Toronto has commissioned NADAAA, Adamson Architects, and ERA  (heritage) to design this exciting new project.