Branching off of Queen's Quay East in front of the new George Brown College Waterfront Campus, Dockside Drive is flanked by Sherbourne Common on the east and Sugar Beach on the west. The short street offers some impressive views of the Toronto skyline to the northwest, a view that has been subject to much change in just a couple of years. Back in June 2014, this view showed the late stages of construction at the L Tower, visible just right of centre in the image below. Just left of the L Tower, the crane for Backstage on The Esplanade could be seen rising over the tops of surrounding buildings. On the left side of the image, the east tower of Ïce Condominiums could be seen topping off in the South Core area.
Northwest view from Dockside Drive, June 2014, image by Marcus Mitanis
Only two years have passed since the image above was taken, and the view from 2016 reveals further changes to the skyline. Ïce, L Tower, and Backstage are all largely complete and taking in residents, while a few major new additions have joined the view. On the far left, the Harbour Plaza Residences condominium towers are approaching their final heights, while obscuring the complex's Sun Life Financial Tower office component to the west. In the centre of the image, the first phase of Daniels Waterfront - City of the Arts has replaced the former Guvernment night club that formerly occupied the northeast corner of Queen's Quay and Lower Jarvis. On the right side of the image, the under-construction 88 Scott Street condominium tower can be seen nearing its final 58-storey height. On the far right edge, a barely-visible tower crane marks the location of the Massey Tower, which is in the process of rising towards a height of 60 storeys on Yonge Street, north of Queen.
Northwest view from Dockside Drive, October 2016, image by Marcus Mitanis
We will return next week with another look at the changing face of Toronto!