Midtown’s de-facto capital is growing exponentially. With five active construction sites and up to a dozen high-rise proposals in the immediate vicinity, Yonge and Eglinton has become a hard-to-ignore hot spot in what may someday be looked-back on as our city’s greatest building boom.

Few proposals in the area have stirred as much interest as Metropia, Riocan and Bazis International’s E Condos, a skyscraping proposal consisting of two towers, planned to rise 64 and 38 storeys above the thriving Yonge-Eglinton intersection. The project has been constantly evolving since its inception last year, with various details being refined to address concerns voiced by City Planning staff as well as the City's Architectural Design Review Panel (DRP). Recently reviewed plans for E Condos included a number of design changes, resulting in unanimous support from the DRP for the latest revisions.

Aerial Rendering of E Condos, facing northeast, image courtesy of Bazis, Metropia, Riocan

The latest work-in-progress renderings depict a revised podium with an improved pedestrian realm, sheltered by a generous overhang of podium floors, and presented in the form of offset boxes. The landscaped public plaza planned for the northeast corner of Yonge and Eglinton was well received, though DRP members thought the public furniture too “incidental” and recommended additional space for a Bixi bike station instead.

Aerial Rendering of E Condos redesigned podium, image courtesy of Bazis, Metropia, Riocan

Increased sidewalk widths will absorb the additional traffic brought on by the 889 new condominium units proposed for the development. Perhaps the most notable pedestrian-realm design change is a sloping, green-roofed, standalone TTC entrance planned to grace the sidewalk along Eglinton Avenue. While the DRP consider the entrance aesthetically appealing, it drew concern for practical concerns about the safety of its accessible green roof. Further revisions continue.

Proposed TTC entrance and public courtyard, image courtesy of Bazis, Metropia, Riocan

The Rosario Varacalli-designed complex is dominated by its towers of course. They are referred to as E8 (64 storeys) and E15 (38 storeys), and will stand at 202.05 metres and 119.70 metres in height respectively. Note that the red accents seen adorning the famous cantilevered amenity floors in previous renderings are notably absent in the images below, swapped for a frosted white glass. It seems that people enjoying the pool in that space will have a more realsitic view of the city below, and not such a rose-coloured one now.

Cantilevered pool/amenity area, image courtesy of Bazis, Metropia, Riocan

The design of E15, the 38-storey north tower fronting on to Roehampton Avenue, has been further refined to present a classic modernist gridded exterior to the world. New renderings depict the new cladding expression gracing the building, which now rises at an astonishingly slim 7-metres in width, offset above the building's 12-storey podium. The podium features a living wall bordering the driveway, and lush wraparound balcony planters at the north end of floors 2 through 8, creating a harmonious effect reminiscent of the one seen at Yorkville Group’s Museum House.

Rendering of the podium on the 38-storey E15 tower, image courtesy of Bazis, Metropia, Riocan

Though the design in principle was unanimously supported by the Design Review Panel, various suggestions for improvement to some elements were voiced by panel members. As noted above, the renderings shown in this article depict a work still in progress, with certain details set to change as the project progresses through the exacting planning process.

Rendering of E Condos' porte-cochère, image courtesy of Bazis, Metropia, Riocan

Looking for more information? A comprehensive collection of renderings (including many more new ones) and additional facts regarding E Condos can be found on the project’s associated dataBase page, linked below. To get involved in the discussion, please visit the related forum thread, here, or voice your opinion in the comments section below.