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It’s perfectly reasonable to think that following the construction of a building would eventually leave the observer bored, if not by the speed of the process then by the repetitive nature of much of the work. The One is the special kind of project that disproves that assertion, finding ways to sustain the attention of its followers largely through its complex and atypical construction processes.

While the Mizrahi Developments tower and its exterior envelope continue to make exciting progress on a weekly basis, the last month has also seen the crew begin to deploy a new system that will enable them to continue safely finishing the exterior, even after the grand opening of the grade-level retail unit.

Before we get into the details of that system, however, we are taking a quick look at the latest progress made on the exterior finishes. Since our last report in early April, the crew was able to complete the installation of The One’s signature champagne-tinted cladding across the extent of the glazed portion of the tower’s north elevation. Catching the late afternoon light in the image below, the buffed gleam of metal cladding looks exceptional in contrast with the glazing, whether it reflects the sky or darker buildings nearby.

In the last few weeks of April, cladding work picked up on the building’s Yonge Street elevation, beginning with the installation of metal panelling across the pair of super-columns, and moving onto the diagonal sections a week later. Below, the panelling is stiff covered by a protective film..

By the first week of May, both street fronting elevations were fully clad up to the tower’s sixth floor, and with the protective film removed from the panelling, it delivered a striking preview of the final expression that Toronto can expect to see from its most popular current project.

Moving on, the most exciting development on the site of The One in recent weeks has been the installation of the tower’s Rail Climbing System (RCS), a sophisticated — only one of its kind — construction system that will allow the crew to continue working on the tower’s exterior finishes once the grade-level retail unit is opened to the public. The installation of the RCS is captured in the following images, beginning with the one below, which pictures the uppermost truss being hoisted up above Bloor Street to its mounting point on the tower’s north elevation.

With the truss in place, fixed upon the brackets mounted directly to the super-columns, the second component, a semi-enclosed working platform that drapes down from the truss, is lifted into place directly below.

Getting a closer look at this working platform in the image below, we can see a number of areas at different levels where workers can stand while they instal both glazing and cladding. Additionally, the exterior wall creates a layer of protection from the elements, a feature that will become more and more vital to create safe working conditions as the building grows taller.

Equally important though is the RCS’s role in keeping the pedestrian realm around the building clear; rather than requiring materials and workers to be hoisted up from ground level, as they are currently, the RCS removes any clutter and danger from the streetscape while allowing work to continue at a standard rate.

The RCS is being installed across the tower’s north, east, and west elevations, while a different system will be installed on the south elevation to work around the crane. So far, the crew has been able to get things started on the north and east sides, with the west to come next, each face of the building to require nine of the draping platform pieces.

Up at the top of the tower, forming work has continued to advance at an improving pace, settling into a rhythm of one new floor roughly every seven working days. With work underway to form the 28th level, The One is knocking on the door of the hundred metre mark.