Once home to Toronto's Inn on the Park, a revised plan has emerged for the Leslie Street site of the On The Park development. Early last year, a Tridel project to redevelop the site came online, with a rezoning application to bring four Graziani + Corazza-designed residential towers to the 2.07 hectare site submitted to the City of Toronto last February. In the year since, the project has evolved, with a revised architectural expression and site plan recently coming to light.

The new design, viewed from Leslie Street (looking north), image via submission to the City of Toronto

Following the rezoning plan's approval, a new site plan application for the community's first tower now introduces an altered design language for the project. At 39, 34, 29 and 28 storeys, the four towers maintain the previous design's height and density, though the new aesthetic rather dramatically transforms the face of the community.

The 2015 design, image via submission to the City of Toronto

Now characterized by a series of articulated volumes, the design forgoes the glassy interplay of polygonal forms previously presented, favouring a somewhat busier collage of stacked box typologies. Throughout the tower levels, a series of greenscaped roofs accent high-rise forms, adding another visual element to the mix.

At ground level, the site plan has also evolved, with an on-site public park added, replacing the rows of freestanding townhouses previously planned. (For a better comparison, our 2015 editorial provides a more complete look at the preliminary plans). 

The revised site plan (click for a closer view), image via submission to the City of Toronto

Street access to the community has also changed, with the new public road re-configured to terminate slightly further north. Connected to the street grid via a new signalized intersection at Leslie, the short public street will terminate in a cul de sac, which will provide access to a private road running north through the community.  

Aerial view of the community (looking northeast), showing the park space west of Tower D, image via submission to the City of Toronto

Three of the four towers have also been slightly slimmed down, with 750 m² floorplates—which meet the City's Tall Buildings Guidelines criterion—planned in lieu of the 800 m² forms initially proposed. At the southeast end of the site, however, the 39-storey 'Tower C' (below, right) maintains a bulkier 800 m² form. In minimizing the bulk of the towers, the community's total number of units has been reduced from 1,380 to 1,240. (In terms of height and placement, the towers configurations generally correspond with the previous proposal, with Towers B and C still linked by a shared podium structure). 

Looking northwest, with the 39-storey Tower C in the foreground (right), image via submission to the City of Toronto

At the north end of the site—immediately past the new cul de sac—the 29-storey 'Tower B' (below) will likely be the project's first phase. Targeting the relatively stringent Tier 2 of the Toronto Green Standard, the tower includes 280 residential units, 28 of which (10%) will be three-bedroom suites. 

Tower B, image via submission to the City of Toronto

We will keep you updated as the project continues to develop, and more information about Tridel's plans for the community becomes available. For further details, make sure to check out our dataBase file, linked below. Want to share your thoughts about the project? Leave a comment in the space below this page, or join in the conversation in our associated Forum thread.