Over two years ago now we first heard about a new proposal by Empire Communities for the northeast corner of Avenue Road and Yorkville Avenue which would replace the existing low-rise buildings on the site with a 38-storey condominium tower. Amongst the buildings which would come down for the proposal was York Square, seven Victorian homes which in 1968 had been integrated into Yorkville's first commercial redevelopment by renowned architects Jack Diamond and Barton Myers.

York Square, image courtesy of ERA Architects

Following the Empire announcement, First Capital Realty announced that they had bought 136-138 Yorkville Avenue to the immediate east of the Empire site, and that they would be seeking to redevelop that property as a new entrance to the under-performing Hazelton Lanes shopping complex, another recent purchase of theirs: a new entrance to Hazelton Lanes on popular Yorkville Avenue would provide much more visibility for the high-end but somewhat hidden mall.

Neither Toronto's city planning department nor local residents and business associations were entirely happy with the first Empire proposal, identifying a number of issues with the plan where they wanted improvements. Heritage advocates in particular were dismayed that York Square would be lost, and pressed the City to give it heritage designation. Meanwhile, Empire and First Capital began to explore the possibilities that consolidating their redevelopments would provide.

Much has since happened over the last two years, and especially in the few months, and First Capital and Empire have now resubmitted a proposal for the combined site which attempts to address the issues identified with the first plan. The new submission is still a work in progress, subject to further community consultations and a full review by the City's planning department. Included with the newly submitted materials is a heritage impact study of York Square by ERA Architects. The materials, with copious information on the latest plans, are now linked on the City's Yorkville Planning Portal webpage, and we can give you an overview of where things now stand.

A 40-storey condo with retail podium is proposed for Avenue Road at Yorkville Avenue, image by Richmond Architects

Now proposed is a modernist 40-storey condominium tower sculpted into a wave form. It rises beside a U-shaped 3-storey retail podium which provides a new Privately Owned Publicly accessible Space (POPS) fronting on Yorkville Avenue, partly sheltered by a fourth-storey glass and steel canopy. Access to Hazelton Lanes would be provided through a new entrance from the square, and over 62,000 square feet of new stores and restaurants would also be built surrounding the open space. The fourth storey would feature both indoor and outdoor amenity space for building residents. The design is by Zeidler Partnership Architects and Richmond Architects who also designed the first Empire Communities proposal for the site.

The area where York Square is now is the focus of the ERA heritage impact study, and it includes three options that the renowned firm proposes as responses to be considered. Included below is an early concept image of one possible response. The full study is worth a read.

Three-storey glass cube retail podium shows one option for recognizing York Square, image by Richmond Architects

The new design cuts down on the number of new condominium units, from 342 to 325, while increasing the number of storeys from 38 to 40, as the tower's floor plate has less bulk. The tower is now farther from the corner, increasing the separation distance between it and the 33-storey Yorkville Plaza tower to the south. The tower will not impact the Queens Park view corridor which has been the focus of much attention to proposals to the south of this one. All vehicular access to the new development's garage would be through the existing Avenue Road entrance to Hazelton Lanes to which it would be connected at each underground level.

Looking north across Yorkville Avenue into the new York Square, image by Richmond Architects

Want more information? We have added a full set of detailed images from the new submission to our dataBase file "140 Yorkville Avenue Condos", linked below. Images from the first Hazelton Lanes redevelopment plan are included in its dataBase file. Want to talk about the plans? Get in on the discussion in one of the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.

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