Ontario Construction News staff writer
A new tower designed by world-leading architects Herzog & de Meuron could reshape the downtown Toronto skyline.
A partnership with two Dutch real estate companies is proposing the 87-storey office-and-residential tower at the northwest corner of Bloor and Bay Streets. At 324 metres, the structure would become one of the tallest and thinnest building in Canada.
Herzog & de Meuron and Canadian architects Quadrangle have been appointed by Kroonenberg Groep and ProWinko to design a mixed-use tower in Yorkville.
“This is an iconic block in the neighbourhood and Toronto at large. We have an opportunity to deliver a project that sets a new benchmark for design and strives to give something back to the city,” Lesley Bamberger, owner of Kroonenberg Groep, said in a statement.
The tower would include two floors of retail, 13 floors of office space, 64 floors of residential condominium units ranging from one-bedrooms to multi-level penthouses. The upper floors have an area of just 7,300 square feet.
Cyndi Rottenberg-Walker, of Toronto-based planning consultancy Urban Strategies Inc., who is consulting on the project, said the development has been in active preparation for several months.
“They have put serious investment into hiring some of the best architects anywhere,” she is quoted saying in the Globe and Mail. “It’s not being taken lightly.”
The project needs planning approval from the City of Toronto. If approved, it would be the first building in Canada by HdM, the architects who designed the Bird’s Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics and the Tate Modern gallery in London. They are the design architects for the proposed new home of the Vancouver Art Gallery, announced in 2015.
The first 16 floors would replace existing retail, office and technical spaces. A private amenities level will separate these areas from condominium levels, which are characterized by generous daylight through the floor-to-ceiling operable windows.
A large restaurant, sky lounge and rentable spaces occupy the highest three floors of the building with spectacular panoramic views over the city of Toronto.
According to a statement, the proposal “is a layered expression of the vertical structural elements, interior glazing (thermal envelope), exterior timber roller shades and an outer layer of transparent, open-jointed glass.”
“The effect is a building which at times appears transparent and expressive – revealing the scale and activity within the building; and at other times, the reflective outer layer of glass gives the building an abstract quality, emphasizing its dramatic proportion.”
The tower is Herzog & de Meuron’s first design in Toronto, with Quadrangle serving as project architect and Urban Strategies completing the design team.