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Alumni review the construction site at Reunion 2014

Thursday, October 30, 2014
Alumni review the ground floor library area

Associate Director of Alumni Affairs Sandra Janzen (in the pink construction hat) leads a group on the main floor of the library area which will house meeting rooms, adjacent to Tory Hall.

 

Alumni are welcome to tour the construction site (contact sean.ingram@utoronto.ca), and many of them did just that during Reunion 2014. Several groups went through in the hour preceding the cocktail reception on October 24th, and during the weekend events.

Group of alumni reviewing future stack area of the new library

The corridor just past the stacks area of the future library, heading toward where the book store will be situated.

 

wide shot of the future stacks area of the new library

The stacks area of the new library.

 

A meeting room with a view

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Library extension frame looking south to Harbord street

Fast-forward to completion and move-in and imagine a meeting here, in the new expanded south end of the Library Pavilion featuring a 20-seat space. While the fall colours are in motion, the views will be spectacular throughout the seasons, overlooking the Crescent Wing of the Jackman Law Building, the courtyard and the new south entrance facing Harbord. To the west lies Philosopher’s Walk and Trinity College.

 

close up of the construction pit, facing north

Looking northeast out of the pit, you can see the forms for the Crescent Wing walls on the right, curving along Queen's Park. On the left is the foundation for the other outside wall of the wing that will form one side of the courtyard between the Library Pavilion and the Crescent.

 

Below are close ups of the massive foundation walls.

close ups of the foundation walls for the Crescent wing

Building up the walls

Thursday, August 28, 2014
steel frames for walls going up at project site

Exterior and interior work is continuing during these final days of summer. The mechanical and electrical rough-ins are progressing in the former Laskin Library and the construction crew are pouring footings and foundation walls for the Jackman Law Building.

 

base of the construction pit with digger at work

 

Renaissance Rising

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The new Spring/Summer 2014 issue of the Faculty of Law's Nexus magazine includes a photo spread of the new building construction, with photography by Gordon Hawkins.

Touring the pit: Part 3

Monday, August 4, 2014
Sean Ingram indicating where stairway to second floor will be in construction site

Senior Development Officer Sean Ingram indicates where the stairway to the second floor will be constructed. University of Toronto videographer, James Poremba, records this stage of construction for archival purposes.

 

One way to manage such a large renewal project is to keep various sections progressing without waiting for other stages to be completed. Here a temporary wall is going up to separate the construction developments between the Bora Laskin Law Library and the Crescent Wing of the new Jackman Law Building. The library will be able to close off sections to continue exterior work and commence interior mechanics.

Workers putting up temporary wall

 

close up of temporary wall going up

Below are second-floor views looking southwest along Queen's Park Crescent.

Second-floor view looking south west on Queen's Park

 Second-floor close up view looking south west on Queen's Park

 

Touring the pit: Part 2

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Six caissons are now in the ground, and the driller needs to excavate four more holes. Ten in total are required to support the cantilevered sections of the Jackman Law Building along the curve of Queen's Park and particularly on the south end of the design.

 

Close up of caisson driller bit

 

With crew members visible in the following shots, you can see how large the caisson driller really is.

Close up of caisson driller bit

 

 Looking down onto the caisson driller bit from second storey

 

The crane uses this piece of equipment to push down the caisson sleeve into this ground hole, which contributes to the vibrations felt across the site, not just in Flavelle House, but also in Falconer Hall.

Caisson sleeve being pushed down into ground hole

 

Touring the pit: Part 1

Monday, July 28, 2014
looking eastward to construction site pit

Looking eastward to Queen's Park from the construction pit of the Jackman Law Building.

 

If you've never had a chance to visit a contruction site in full activity, now might be a good time to request a tour of the Jackman Law Building renewal project. Webcams and photos simply can't do justice to the sheer enormity of machine sizes, the sense of efficient activity occurring in each section of the site, nor the range of skill sets on display. 

View the Nexus photo spread of a recent tour as well.

looking at two foundation walls, one from originall library, second from 1980s addition

Here's a close up of the historial foundations found during demoltion, one being the original foundation of the law library (on the left) butting up next to a foundational wall of the first renovation library project in the 1980s. Below is the framing for the new Tory Hall.

looking up to steel framing of what will be Tory Hall

 

looking up to steel framing of what will be Tory Hall

 

Now that's big: caisson sleeves on site

Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Large caisson driller and crane on site with caisson sleeves to be inserted

Take a look at these enormous caisson sleeves on the ground at the construction site. They will be dropped in the holes created by the (blue) caisson driller and filled to make the supports for the cantilevered Jackman Law Building. For context, you can see several members of the construction crew close to the caisson driller, just to its left--and just how small they appear in comparison to the sleeves.

Supports for the cantilevered section

Friday, July 18, 2014
Cranes at the construction site prepare supports for new building

This week's activity on the contruction site included the arrival of another crane (on the right) to help the caisson driller ready the supports for the south end of the building. The caisson driller will drop sleeves into the drilled holes as part of the support system for the cantilevered section of the Jackman Law Building. In the foreground, you can see the rebar and the sections of sleeve that will be dropped into the hole.

This will be Torys Hall

Friday, July 4, 2014
steel frame of library extension going up

It's exciting to see the new shape of the law library going up. Here the crew has extended the steel frame on the west face to finish defining the perimeter of what will be Tory Hall, and are working at finishing the southwest corner of the framing for the library extension.

 

steel framing of library extension

 

 

Photos: Sean Ingram

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