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The L Tower licing into the sky like a saber, Toronto's L Tower infuses the city's St. Lawrence neighbourhood with an element of drama. Named for the complex's streamlined "L" shape, the Studio Daniel Libeskind-designed structure is the prima donna component in the redevelopment of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. Its billowing glass and steel north facade is accentuated by expansive windows, while its flat east, west and south sides are punctuated with fritted glass panels and strips of recessed balconies. The north side, facing the 1960s-era Sony Centre, consists of a full curtain wall assembly forming a curved surface that sweeps dramatically to the top giving the building a distinctive silhouette. At 57 storeys (58 if you count the second floor of the penthouse) the L Tower is home to 600 suites and features amenities like a pool and hot tub area, a full gym, private dining rooms and guest suites. While Libeskind designed the lobby area, Munge Leung designed the public spaces, amenities, the kitchen cabinetry and other millwork. "We just tried to keep things very modern, angular, light and clean so that shape and shadow can play off the forms of the building," says Alessandro Munge. Working with a very simple palette, he says colour was injected in common areas like elevator lobbies and amenity spaces by bringing in art – mostly works from up-and-coming Canadian artists. Despite the lofty architectural achievement of building a uniquely shaped condo to complement the downtown's otherwise rectangular extrusions, one of the elements guiding the building's orientation was not its sweeping curve but a sidewalk curb. "The elevator banks and the trash chutes are located in such a way as to lead to here," says John O'Keefe, managing partner with Castlepoint (one of the project's three developers), standing at the centre of a round concrete depression, 45 feet in diameter set in a large garage off Yonge Street. An existing curb cut outside provides egress and ingress to this space that will house a massive turntable to spin a garbage truck, allowing it to tidily cart away refuse. Getting a permit to have a curb cut on a major throughway such as Yonge Street would have been impossible, S The L Tower p64-65L Tower.indd 65 explains O'Keefe, so the development had to make use of this existing one. Resolving the loading bay problem was one of the many complexities inherent in erecting a tower from the bowels of a functioning theatre at the corner of a busy intersection, explains O'Keefe. Planted into the south-west edge of the Sony Centre, the condo literally rises from the theatre's back of house. To build the project, the theatre's back of house functions were temporarily re-located to the Centre's east side. This was to allow a 10,000-square-foot area to be carved out of the south-west corner to form the L Tower's foundation. The three levels below-grade mostly accommodate the Centre's back of house functions such as dressing rooms, rehearsal space and set storage. On the lowest level are condo storage lockers and a tunnel for residents to access parking. ERA heritage architects oversaw the work on the interface between the L Tower and the Sony Center. "It was originally designed as Toronto's version of the Lincoln Centre," says Michael McClelland, a principal with the firm. The idea that this should be a cultural complex with a tower was part of the original architect's early design concepts, he says. "Peter Dickinson was creating architecture that was impressive and enthusiastic. He wanted to do interesting things," says McClelland, pointing to the Centre's distinctive canopy as a typical Dickinson flourish. "The curved north face is already drawing attention as the construction project has become one of the city's most photographed this year. To make the curve, floor plates come in and out, varying from 7,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet as the curtain wall sweeps up from its narrow waist to billow out like a spinnaker and taper back up to a top edge at 61 storeys. "The slabs coming in and out are what give the building a dramatic silhouette," says Gianni Ria, associate director with Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects. "Jablonsky, our structural engineers, was quite successful at designing a column structure that follows that curvature to give the whole structure rigidity." "From about the 42nd storey to the top on the north side those columns were formed and poured on an angle," courtesy STUDIO DANIEL LIBESKIND by Yvan Marston explains Anthony Pignetti of Dominus Construction Group Ltd. Each successive floor had columns on its north side that were slightly more angled than the floor below. Given the size of the building and the site, Dominus chose to use a luffer crane anchored onto the east side of the building rather than a boom crane erected in the middle of the project. Pignetti explains that a luffer crane provided the operator with better viewing for loading, and adds that, at over 700 feet, it is one of the tallest top climbing cranes in Canada. Using limestone pavers in black, grey and white to draw from the theatre's materials, landscape architect Claude Cormier used triangular patterning to pick up on the L Tower's use of intersecting angular planes. Three sculptural elements – polished stainless steel pieces by artist Harvey Valentine and shaped to evoke dancers – provide areas of visual interest. A shard of grass and prairie flowers rise in a knoll from Front Street to offer balance to all the angles and stone, but also to create separation, and an illuminated fog feature will give the perimeter a theatrical element at night. "We are not trying to create a public square but more a courtyard. It is open to the public but at the same time it is clear that it belongs to the Sony Centre and not event space for the block," says Courmier, adding that this ties into the historical intent of the plaza space as a sunken garden. n Location 22 The Esplanade, Toronto, Ontario Developers Fernbrook Homes/Cityzen/Castlepoint Design Architect Studio Daniel Libeskind Architects Of Record Page + Steele/IBI Group Architects Associate Architect Rafael + Bigauskas Architects General Contractor Dominus Construction Group Ltd. Structural Engineer Jablonsky, Ast and Partners International Mechanical/ Electrical Consultant Smith & Andersen Interior Design Munge/Leunge: design associates Landscape Architect Claude Cormier + Associates Heritage Consultant ERA Total Area 503,621 square feet Total Construction Cost $235 million october 2013    /65 13-09-26 2:12 PM

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