Huge Toronto parking garage is now being reduced to rubble after four decades

An enormous Toronto parking garage known for sweeping views of the surrounding cityscape is in the process of being torn to shreds after roughly 40 years.

Demolition crews began to tear down the hulking concrete structure at 200 Queens Quay West in January, and are making quick work of the former Impark lot 153, a seven-storey above-ground lot that housed over 1,200 spaces before its closure.

The site will eventually become a new 59-storey mixed-use condo building dubbed Q Tower.

Constructed in the mid-1980s in support of the broader development of the Harbourfront area, the garage spent much of its early existence disconnected from the city to the north by vast rail lands and a Gardiner Expressway offramp.

Four decades later, the Harbourfront area has filled in with condo and office developments, the rail lands to the north have been fully redeveloped and even the offramp that descended next to the garage has been shortened, opening up Harbour Street below.

A multi-level parking garage made perfect sense in what was once a wasteland-turned-burgeoning neighbourhood, but much less sense in the 2020s amid soaring property values and a neverending need for new housing in Toronto.

News of the parking garage's demise first came in 2019 when then-owner Canada Lands Company began shopping the 1.24-acre site at the corner of Harbour Street and Lower Simcoe around to developers.

The property was ultimately picked up by DiamondCorp and Lifetime Developments, leading to a development application being filed with City planners in 2020. 

Since that acquisition, the site — which has long been a favourite for photographers — has seen an increase in security measures and, eventually, the blocking-off of the garage's entire upper floor.

The final bell tolled for the garage in mid-December 2024, when the City issued demolition permits allowing the owners to commence the teardown.

Crews from Priestly Demolition began to mobilize on site in January, and demolition finally kicked off last week.

A mobile hydraulic crane that was parked at the west end of the garage to assist in the job caused minor road disruption during earlier stages of the demolition, requiring a partial closure of Lower Simcoe Street to accommodate the large machinery.

Smaller excavators and trucks are now being used to remove large sections of steel and concrete from this section of the structure as heavier work commences elsewhere on the vast site.

The demolition is furthest along at the west end of the site, where the colourful doors of the garage's southwest elevator core have been exposed to daylight for the first time since they were constructed in the mid-1980s.

Similar colourful details are also visible on the garage's remaining concrete supports.

While some will undoubtedly miss this hulking monolith on the waterfront, prime photography and videography spot as it was, the project that will replace the structure is sure to inject even more life into the city's already-thriving waterfront.

Lifetime/DiamondCorp

Rising over 197 metres into the skyline, this Wallman Architects-designed tower will have a significant impact on skyline views from the lake in the years to come.