[URBAN NOTE] "How a luxurious Toronto hotel gets turned into a condo"

[rfmcdonald]

In a gorgeous photo essay, blogTO's Derek Flack notes just how the Sutton Place Hotel is being transformed into a condo.

A remarkable transformation is taking place at Bay and Wellesley streets. As the former Sutton Place Hotel is being converted to a condo that will be known as the Britt, the original building has been stripped to its bones leaving only a concrete and steel shell.

It's actually rather hard to believe that a Brutalist building could be stripped in such a way. When the process is complete, the new condo will retain virtually no aesthetic similarities with its predecessor. If you didn't know that its skeleton was preserved, you'd never think this wasn't a brand new construction project based on the renderings.

This is an intriguing moment in the conversion process. The old hotel has almost completely been extinguished, and the bright yellow steel support beams exposed as the core of the building's structural integrity. Despite its former concrete appearance, this is a building with a future glass facade on its upper floors.