Over four decades after opening, significant renovations to the Yonge Sheppard Centre are under way in the heart of Toronto's North York City Centre. New construction plus recladding is altering the Brutalist architecture, density, and the complex's relationship with the streets for which it was named. The revitalization of the RioCan REIT and KingSett Capital-owned complex is designed by Quadrangle, who have made sweeping changes to the design and layout of the complex's mall and street frontages. Their work is also modernizing the 9 and 19-storey office towers.

Along Yonge Street, the new mall addition is clad in reflective dark glass and chamfered white frames, replacing the Postmodern look of the previous mall exterior, itself from a renovation. The 106,000 ft² addition houses new 50,000 ft² spaces for both a Longo’s supermarket and an LA Fitness, bringing the site's total retail area to 474,000 ft² from the previous 368,000 ft².

Yonge Sheppard Centre viewed from the east on Yonge, image by Forum contributor ProjectEnd

The raw concrete exteriors of the 1976-built office towers are also changing, with a recladding underway to modernize the towers’ exteriors and improve their thermal performance. This process starts with the application of a black weatherproofing primer on the tower facades.

Primer on the complex's taller office tower, image by Forum contributor ProjectEnd

The weatherproofed sections can then be sheathed in gunmetal grey composite aluminum panels.

New cladding on the complex's shorter office tower, image by Forum contributor constructo

Activity is also heating up on the new tower being built at the complex's north end along Greenfield Avenue. Here, Pivot—as the new residential rental tower will be marketed—will be flanked by low-rise expansions that replace loading docks and landscaped areas, extending the complex's frontage to meet the street. The 36-storey tower will add 361 more residential units to the site upon completion, projected for Spring 2020.

Forming for new residential tower on Greenfield Ave., image by Forum contributor constructo

The latest images of the rental tower site show forming activity for the third level of the building. To the immediate east, structural steel is in place for the podium expansion and new loading docks area, replacing the previous loading bay that was taken down to make way for Pivot.

New one-storey loading component taking shape on Greenfield Ave., image by Forum contributor constructo

Additional information and new images for the project can be found in our database file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the field provided at the bottom of this page.