BIRD.
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BIRD CONSTRUCTION – 60 RICHMOND STREET EAST
Unique Redevelopment
Bird Construction recently completed 60 Richmond Street, an 11-story mixed-use project in downtown Toronto.
A LEED silver project, it was built with highly insulated rain-screen cladding and recycled materials.
T oronto, Ontario, Canada is further exploring the
ideas of urbanism with its most recent addition of 60
Richmond Street East. The 11-story mixed-use devel-
opment houses 85 units on the upper floors and approxi-
mately 3,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground
floor. Local contractor Bird Construction spearheaded the
project, which was completed at the end of 2008.
“As one of the first new housing cooperatives to be built
in many years, 60 Richmond is an example of urban infill
and sustainability in the city of Toronto,” the company
says. The building consists of one-, two-, three- and four-
bedroom units; 59 of them are designated as replacement
housing and the remainder as affordable
Bird Construction – 60 housing.
Richmond Street East The project was successfully complet-
www.bird.ca ed with only some minor space issues,
Location: Toronto, Ontario,
Canada according to the company. “Challenges
Scope: Mixed-use construction during formwork operations included lay
Bird Construction: “60 down and staging areas in public road-
Richmond is an example of
urban infill and sustainability in ways and multistory forming scaffolds to
the city of Toronto.” accommodate the opening into the exteri-
178 ■ WWW.CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM ■ FEBRUARY 2009
Bird Construction says it continues to be successful
because it lives up to its mission statement of turning
“ideas into reality.”
or walls,” Bird Construction recalls. “The building envelope
required a combination of swing stages, scaffolding and
double-mast climbing scaffold systems due to public way
space restrictions.”
60 Richmond’s unique terraces and light wells helped it
garner the Canadian Architecture Award of Excellence. Also
designed as a LEED silver project, “the green theme is promi-
nent throughout with planted terraces, engineered green
roofs and grow-wall features,” Bird Construction says. “An
opening from the roof through the middle of the structure
will deliver natural light throughout the building.”
Staying Green
Teeple Architects Inc., the architect for 60 Richmond
Street, says there is more to developing a green building
than saving money. “We believe that our culture has a fun-
damentally different view of our planet than in the past
century,” Teeple says. “We do not imagine the world as a
vast resource to be tapped at our will, but as limited, finite,
and in the midst of a process of inevitable destruction. 60
Richmond seeks to imagine the city as an extension of the