One Victoria | 63 m | 19 fl | Complete

[Spokes]

or the lot from whence this pic was taken?  (Who does own that btw?)

I believe UW owns a bunch of that property

I can confirm this.

[panamaniac]

I only realized yesterday that the very attractive brick cladding of One Victoria is not traditional brickwork, but rather precast panels with a "brick" façade. I don't think I have seen that used before, although perhaps I just never noticed.

[Markster]

1 Columbia did the same.

[panamaniac]

I should have taken a hint from the fact that there is no bricklayers' scaffolding surrounding the building!

[BuildingScout]

There is a lot of inertia in building practices. If we had never built a building before, nearly nothing would be constructed on site. It would all be one big quick game of lego using concrete only here and there as glue (or shall we say cement) between the precast pieces and only in critical junctions. In most places a simple overlapping mechanism works.

In houses nowadays is common to preorder the roof timbers cut and assembled, but really when you think about it walls ought to be preassembled too. I worked with an civil engineer a long time ago that was looking into this. You take the measurements in site, using lasers and those are transmitted back to the mill/fabrication facility, where they are
assembled in flat bed truck sizes and lifted into place with a small crane.

[DHLawrence]

I think a lot of developments do use prefab; just off Can-Amera Parkway there's a big airplane hangar-sized place; I remember seeing the doors open and a couple of houses within ready to roll onto site.

[BuildingScout]

I think a lot of developments do use prefab; just off Can-Amera Parkway there's a big airplane hangar-sized place; I remember seeing the doors open and a couple of houses within ready to roll onto site.

Indeed, but prefab houses go too far on the other side of the pre-assembled spectrum and thus are also the wrong solution. The problem is that they force a lot of compromises because of road and height restrictions. You really want the middle ground: assemble as much as possible off-site but never to the point that architectural choices are affected. This is why shipping wall frames, precut flooring, siderock walls, staircases and roof timbers is the way to go. The rest to be done on site.
 

[JCnb]

Slightly off topic with a different site but the condo building under construction at Victoria Common is doing just that, the wood framed walls have actually be shipped in pre-built sections and lifted into place, no stick framing on site. The floors are then pre-cast concrete slabs. The first project of this type that I have seen done this way. It's been making for quick progress!

[rangersfan]

May 23, 2015 - One more floor to go

[Spokes]

I've paid close attention to this building as it's gone up, so I've been watching floor by floor. My wife however has not and commented yesterday that this has "came out of nowhere". I'm typically critical of construction speeds in Waterloo Region (as some of you know), but is she right on this one, has it come out of nowhere?

[greybird]

This thread starts in late September, and they were already a couple floors up then.

[rangersfan]

I really like the massing of this project, it's been awesome seeing it go up.

[tomh009]

A view from Charles Street ...

[Spokes]

Is this topped out in terms of floors? Looks to be. I'd guess maybe some sort of mechanical room/structure might be built on top still.

[tomh009]

Yes, it is. They are building something at the top, but it's definitely not another floor of condos.