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In recent years, abundant development along the trendy King West strip has brought thousands of residents into the heart of the city. A record number of cranes dot the cityscapes of the Entertainment District and adjacent Fashion District. With construction along this stretch of King Street rapidly approaching critical mass, we turn to a recently completed condominium located at the meeting point of these two neighbourhoods.
Charlie Condos, a 36-storey condominium by Great Gulf Homes, has been more or less complete since late last year. In the time since, both residents and businesses have started to move in to the Diamond Schmitt Architects-designed building. Israel based café Aroma has just opened in the main corner retail unit, with local health food and supplement store Noah’s in the process of setting up shop next door.
In front of Charlie, the northwest corner of the King and Charlotte intersection is anchored (almost literally in this sense) by ‘Ballast’, a unique bronze sculpture by Toronto expat Jed Lind. For an in-depth look at the sculpture, as well as its dedication ceremony held earlier this week, we have a special related article, linked here.
Aside from the stunning public art display, the pedestrian realm surrounding the building has been equipped with by Janet Rosenberg + Studio with large planters, street trees and upgraded sidewalks.
Walking through the main residential entrance on Charlotte Street, residents are greeted by the modern lobby, adorned with irregularly shaped lamps, a unique wall made from unfinished wood, and white bookmatched Carrara marble, a recurring element throughout the Cecconi Simone-designed interior spaces at Charlie.
The luxurious finishes seen in the lobby are just a taste of the quality interior work by Cecconi Simone seen at Charlie. To get a better look at the design firm’s attention to detail, we continue along to the 7th floor, home to the building’s amenities. The party room is quite a stylish spot—complete with a white baby grand piano, black and white hardwood flooring, a bar and a billiards table with a white felt finish—all set to panoramic city views.
The party room is the first place we noticed the pattern fritted glass. These narrow glass panels travel up the length of the building, framed by a much narrower set of mullions than the main windows - a surprising detail that only revealed itself upon close inspection.
Right next to the bar and party room, the pool terrace features an indoor/outdoor lounge with wooden grate flooring and water-resistant furniture, as well as more of the raw textured wooden surfaces seen throughout Charlie’s common areas.
Stepping out onto the pool deck, we take notice of the interesting lamps and planters, as well as the striking resemblance to the space seen in pre-construction renderings. Too bad it was too early in the year for the pool to have been open, but it is located just out of frame on the bottom right hand side of the photo below.
Before departing the amenity level, we stop in at the building’s fitness centre, where residents can work out while taking in the bustling street life on King Street below. Taking the artistic nature of the surrounding community into account, the fitness centre is also equipped with a ballet practice facility.
Though the project is essentially complete, finishing touches are still being applied. As luck would have it, interior work on the south penthouse unit is still ongoing, providing us with a rare opportunity to check out the unit as well as the views from its sprawling 36th floor terrace!
Worth noting; the fritted pattern mentioned earlier in the article continues all the way up to the top of the building, creating dramatic shadowing effects in certain light.
Those windows even pierce the mechanical penthouse at the top of Charlie, a fact appreciated especially by the building's staff who have to occasionaly work in the spaces: up here they aren't trapped in a window-less space!
Stepping out onto the terrace, we instantly found ourselves at a loss for words. The city views seen in the images below speak for themselves, and provide a perfect ending point for our tour.
For additional information and renderings regarding the now-complete development, please visit the associated dataBase page, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Visit the related Forum thread, here, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided below.
