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Throughout February UrbanToronto is featuring a special State of Construction editorial series to explore all the critical issues of construction across our region.
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Architect Frank Gehry’s Forma is one of the most highly anticipated buildings to be built in Toronto in decades. The 73-storey East Tower is currently rising in the heart of the Entertainment District on King Street West, and not only is it perhaps the most visually arresting high-rise condominium ever built in the city, but it represents the maestro’s legacy to his hometown as his final Canadian project, since we sadly lost the legend last December. With its crinkled aluminum cladding beginning to give us a peek of what is yet to come, it is destined to be a statement building on the Toronto skyline.
Forma is also perfectly representative of the many steps required in the construction process. Construction of any large-scale commercial or condominium project in Toronto is one of the most intricate and disciplined endeavours of today’s modern world. It is a delicate, choreographed, jigsaw puzzle with a myriad of pieces all fitting together with exact timing and precision to achieve the end result.
Long before a project breaks ground, developers typically engage construction companies to participate in preconstruction services while working collaboratively with critical path subcontractors, in preparation for the work ahead. Steps in the construction process typically involve a preconstruction, construction, and post-construction proponent, with the construction phase of the job typically focusing on the critical path to substantial completion. Substructure, above-grade structural, envelope, and commissioning/close-out are critical components of the construction phase of a project.
“A robust preconstruction and planning phase involves a procurement strategy,” says Andrew Anderson, Senior Vice President and Area Manager, Toronto for EllisDon, one of the country’s largest construction companies, noting that procurement is an important benchmark and step in the entire process. “Procurement of the critical work packages with trades whose scopes make up the critical path for the project will give the best confidence towards achieving budget and/or schedule targets and goals. We rely on our experience and monitor various established metrics to ensure proper project flow and adherence towards achieving scheduled milestones.”
Anderson says timing of the various steps of the construction process varies depending upon the project. “We find success in utilizing past experiences and data to support ‘common’ components,” he says. “While for other project-specific complexities and challenges, we leverage our depth of in-house research and development and construction science groups to support the project teams in finding the right solutions, technologies and tools to execute in the field.”
EllisDon is the Construction Manager for Forma, which has provided the company with some unique challenges in building high on such a tight site.
“Forma has a unique and complicated exterior cladding design, and considerable planning and efforts such as logistics and quality control measures have been invested into the planning and execution to ensure success,” says Anderson. “The project uses an automatic climbing framework system (ACS) due to the building’s height and also the benefits it provides from an efficiency and safety standpoint.”
While planning and coordination are key elements of the steps in the construction process to address any possible eventuality, there is one variable no one can control, most notably Mother Nature. As Torontonians know only too well from this Winter of 2026, weather can have a significant impact on the construction process.
“Wind particularly affects taller buildings as cranes can only work safely when the wind is below a certain speed, as it becomes difficult, or unsafe, to work in very high winds,” says Jim Ferris, Senior Manager, Estimating Services, PCL Constructors Canada Inc., another major player in the industry. “Snow and rain can impact deliveries and manpower on a site, as well as making working conditions more difficult, impacting productivity, in the same way extreme heat or cold can affect workers’ productivity. We know that we have some challenging weather here in Toronto, so we plan for it and include ways to minimize its potential impact on our projects.”
A few blocks southeast of Forma stands 160 Front Street West, the landmark office tower at Front and Simcoe Street, where PCL was Construction Manager on the 46-storey, 236-metre high, 1.2 million square foot tower for two anchor tenants. Its exterior nighttime lighting package now draws every eyeball as a highlight on Toronto’s skyline, and may spur more creativity from developers going forward.
“PCL’s in-house building envelope experts optimized design and constructability of the curved cladding that wraps all four exterior walls that integrate the heritage masonry of the 70-year-old, six-story building previously located on the site,” says Ferris. “Structural steel was used in conjunction with a concrete core to help evenly distribute the weight throughout the building, maximizing floor space and allowing the tower to be built efficiently within the confines of a busy urban environment.”
The construction of the notable tower also included PCL’s work on the Simcoe Street PATH Tunnel, connecting the building to Toronto’s PATH network. All of this takes an extraordinary amount of planning as part of the steps in the construction process, and the companies who undertake these tasks are much more multi-disciplinary than the average person may realize. When you see construction hoarding erected on a site, there is much more going on behind the scenes, and for much longer, just to get to that stage.
“What’s often overlooked by the outside observer is the complexity and sophistication of construction,” says Ferris. “We probably have more in-house knowledge and expertise in design and engineering disciplines than people may realize, and spend a lot more time planning than most people would expect.”
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UrbanToronto's research and data service, UTPro, provides comprehensive data on construction projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe—from proposal through to completion. Other services include Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
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Thank you to the companies joining UrbanToronto to celebrate State of Construction Month.
