Toronto The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza | 92.05m | 31s | Camrost-Felcorp | WZMH COMPLETE

Should the Queens Park view corridor be preserved?

  • Yes

    Votes: 168 43.3%
  • No

    Votes: 145 37.4%
  • Don't Know

    Votes: 15 3.9%
  • Don't Care

    Votes: 60 15.5%

  • Total voters
    388
I assume that the new tower will be built at the southeast corner of the site, over the entrance to the porte cochere, as the existing tower is in the northwest corner.

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Huge Improvement Revealed For Yorkville Plaza Redevelopment
December 13, 2011 2:45 pm | by Craig White | 2 Comments

Here's a little behind-the-scenes for you today as a way of introduction to this article. You may have noticed that yesterday we picked The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, the redevelopment of the current Four Seasons Hotel after it decamps down the block to Bay Street in 2012, as our dataBase project of the day. It's still the project of the day now in fact, until our next one is revealed later this afternoon. Today though, we find we need to be playing up the project again, as developer Camrost-Felcorp just got in touch with us to tell us 'we've got a new plan for the retail at the base of the building, here's a new rendering to update you'. The new plan, we have to say, is a huge improvement on the original, and it turns what was an awkward, tacked-on updating of a 1971 brutalist local landmark… into a bold and energized - yet respectful - reimagining of the building's existing expression. We are getting something good here!

New retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, TorontoNew retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, by WZMH Architects for Camrost-Felcorp

WZMH Architects has taken the vertical concrete ribs which run up between the bay window rises of the building and made them a feature of the base, allowing the building to appear to sprout from the ground. The new embellished ribs celebrate the building's verticality while allowing wide bands of horizontal street-embracing windows to open the base of the building up to the surroundings. It's not just a better rendering above than the one below: it's a better building. This is architecture in the service of public engagement, and in service of history. This plan does not try to hide a tower designed in a style which so many are so slow to embrace: it celebrates it and integrates it into a contemporary and more vibrant Toronto.

Old retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, TorontoOriginal retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, by WZMH Architects for Camrost-Felcorp

The original plan, above, updated just the building's podium by covering the building's original bones behind new fields of reflective glass: the new plan makes the tower integral to the update by highlighting its old bones and playing them up even more while intermingling a transparent skin. As plastic surgery goes, this is good stuff! Notice as well that the cladding treatment of the new corner units replacing the balconies up the tower is much more sympathetic now too.

So let's look a little closer at the details, contrasting the new plan with the old. First, how the building will meet Yorkville Avenue:

New retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, TorontoNew retail podium plan, north end, for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, by WZMH Architects for Camrost-Felcorp

Old retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, TorontoOriginal retail podium plan, north end, for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, by WZMH Architects for Camrost-Felcorp

The base of the tower along Avenue Road:

New retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, TorontoNew retail podium plan, centre, for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, by WZMH Architects for Camrost-Felcorp

Old retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, TorontoOriginal retail podium plan, centre, for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, by WZMH Architects for Camrost-Felcorp

And the south portion along Avenue Road, where the podium is:

New retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, TorontoNew retail podium plan, south end, for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, by WZMH Architects for Camrost-Felcorp

Old retail podium plan for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, TorontoOriginal retail podium plan, south end, for The New Residences of Yorkville Plaza, by WZMH Architects for Camrost-Felcorp

You will notice in the above rendering of the new plan that the podium ends rather abruptly up top. That is because Camrost-Felcorp and WZMH Architects have another surprise for the future still: it is here where the second phase of the project will be. The size of the second tower and podium are still to be worked out through the City's planning process, but it is above here where it they will rise. Here's looking forward to more on this suddenly much more exciting project.

Many more renderings can be found in UrbanToronto's dataBase page for this project, linked below. You may also join in the discussion of this project through the associated Projects & Construction or Real Estate Forum links below as well.

from UT front page: http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2011/12/huge-improvement-revealed-yorkville-plaza-redevelopment
 
21 AVENUE RD
Site Plan Approval 11 332287 STE 27 SA Ward 27
- Tor & E.York Dec 30, 2011 --- --- --- ---
Site Plan approval application to convert existing hotel into mixed use building and construct 2 new towers (10 and 39 stories)- retail on ground and second floor and 883 residential units - 278 parking spaces in total in multi level below grade parking. - 200 Bicycle parking spaces. - See 11 332281 STE 27 OZ for
Rezoning Application
 
Community consultation meeting tonight:


Planning application for: 21 AVENUE RD

The City is holding a Community Consultation meeting where you can learn more about
this application, ask questions and share your comments. Details are as follows:

Date: Monday, January 23, 2012
Time: Open House, 6:30pm -7pm
Presentations and Discussion, 7pm – 9pm
Place: Church of the Redeemer, 162 Bloor St. W.

Proposal
This application proposes to convert the existing 31-storey hotel building
to mixed-use, and to construct a new 39-storey (120 metres plus a 5
metre mechanical penthouse) mixed-use building at the northeast corner
of Avenue Road and Cumberland Street and a new 10-storey mixed-use
building on Yorkville Avenue. A total of 273 vehicular parking spaces are
proposed in 4 levels of underground parking, accessible from Cumberland
Street and Yorkville Avenue.
 
Those towers are going to be so close to each other. And how are they going to market them as luxury when any southern views of the old tower (or northern of the new) will be looking directly into someone else's bedroom. But then again most of the condo buying in this city doesn't make sense to me either. lol
 
^^^^ Agreed! I would have wished that they would have gone for one 49 storey tower instead of two towers at 10 and 39 storeys. That way they get the same sq. footage but the building would have more room (views) around itself. (I'm assuming there is a height restriction that resulted in it only going up to 39 storeys?)
 
Urban Toronto has a great article with many pictures of the next phases:

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2012/01/camrost-felcorps-yorkville-plaza-prepares-next-two-phases

urbantoronto474714384.jpg
 
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If I had bought a south facing unit in the current tower, I would be furious about this plan… but then I would only have myself to blame, because the builder already had the right to build a south tower, and it makes no sense to buy without first checking what could go up around you. That said, this still seems like a slap in the face to their buyers. Something smaller - a sliver I suppose - should replace the south tower plan. It should be half the size they are proposing (and frankly better integrated into the project's architectural scheme.)
 
I'll be honest, that's pretty darn ugly. Looks like a busy mess. Needs to be sent back to the drawing board for some alterations and refining.

The low-rise addition (along Yorkville Ave) actually looks nice. Too bad they didn't have that design scheme for the 39 storey tower.

urbantoronto474714382.jpg
 

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