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St. Thomas Commercial Developments is planning a development at the corner of St. Thomas and Sultan streets near Bay and Bloor in Toronto's uptown core. A report from Monday on UrbanToronto with incomplete imagery and a quite bit of conjecture caused an awful lot of alarm about the project. We have more information now, and hope this will clear up some of confusion regarding this project.
The owner of the project is St. Thomas Commercial Developments. The architects are Hariri Pontarini, with E.R.A. handling the heritage aspects. GH3 is providing the landscape plan which looks to create a piazza-like environment along Sultan street. The motif in the brick frieze is continued onto the street and houses a series of benches for people to gather along. There will be retail at grade.
The heritage buildings will remain in part: 1,3,5,7,and 9 sultan will be preserved from the street to the ridge of the roof peak, and all 3 visible sides of 11 St. Thomas will remain. 1722 sq m of existing building will remain and 7708 sq m will be added in the form of a rear 9 storey addition. The 4th floor and 9th provide green roofs as a visual amenity for surrounding buildings. Some of the 9th floor offices share a series of outdoor courtyards at each of the 4 corners. Upper floors will be sold as office condominiums of approx 5-600 sq ft, with 13 offices per floor throughout the building, which can be purchased in multiples – ie: own an entire floor if desired.
The new building is wrapped in a white fritted curtainwall and serves as a backdrop for the newly restored heritage buildings. The skin undulates in plan to allow for multiple views within the offices while allowing the architects to carve into the south west end of the building in order to pull the addition away from 1 St Thomas.
We are told that the City has been extremely supportive of the project. The area is inundated with high rise residential developments, so a small office building which prominently features the existing houses has come as a welcome relief. It has been described as wholly appropriate for the area. The project has been submitted for re-zoning. A meeting with the community and the planning staff will take place on February 17, 2011 on the University of Toronto campus, room to be determined, from 7:00pm until 9:00pm. You may now continue the debate more fully informed! Please comment below, or join in the discussion at the project's thread by clicking on the link below.
