Leaside Towers I

The Leaside Towers are the tallest buildings in the East York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are a twin set of Brutalist-style apartment towers, with one facing north-south, and another facing east-west. Located at 85 and 95 Thorncliffe Park Drive near Overlea, it is the tallest building in East York prior to amalgamation.

With a structural height of 129 m (423 ft) and both towers having 43 floors, it was once the tallest apartment towers in the Commonwealth and in Canada. Construction concluded in 1970. Located along the perimeter of E.T. Seton Park, they provide panoramic views of Toronto's skyline, Don Valley and Don River.

Mechanical

All suites within the two towers include seasonal central air-conditioning, and heating implemented through a hydronic based ethylene glycol heat transfer medium.

Ethylene glycol is chilled to approximately 4 Celsius through water cooled centrifugal chillers located in the basement's utility room of both towers. A mechanical pump circulates the cooled liquid through chilled water risers extending the length of the building before branching out into separate cooling circuits for the individual fan coil units located in every unit.

The chillers use municipal water to cool their condensers. Cooling water exchanges its heat from atmospheric air using three (3) evaporative cooling towers fitted on ground level, south of 95 Thorncliffe Park Drive.

In colder months, a natural gas fired boiler located in the mechanical penthouse of 95 Thorncliffe Park Drive heats the ethylene glycol before being circulated through the risers, and subsequently, fan coil units in every suite.

The hot and chilled liquid risers, along with the rest of the building are insulated with polyurethane foam insulation as part of a case study completed by the architect.

In order to minimize the unwanted consequences of the stack effect during winter and summer months, the entrance to the towers feature an air-lock created by revolving doors.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Leaside Towers" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.