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In June of 2016, Sixty Colborne Condos was just beginning to peek above grade following a year and a half of site preparation and laborious below-grade construction. By contrast, the months since have seen the architectsAlliance-designed project quickly become a conspicuous presence at the southwest corner of King and Church, with a concrete shell now rising well above its immediate King Street neighbours as cladding installation gets underway at the lower levels.
The Freed Developments and Carttera Private Equities project will eventually rise to a height of 25 storeys, capped by a tower volume at the south end of the L-shaped site. Effectively wrapping around the older properties on King, the project's elongated Church Street frontage is defined a six-storey podium, with an additional five residential levels—characterized by angular balconies—above. Taking on a rather narrow sliver of Church and King streets, the site widens at Colborne, where the bulkier tower volume replaces part of a surface parking lot.
Recent photos show the building's concrete skeleton reaching a height of 10 storeys, with the tower levels soon to rise further at the corner of Church and Colborne. Along the podium levels, meanwhile, cladding is being installed, and window wall now covers much of the second and third storeys.
Once the glazing is in place throughout the lower levels, copper-coloured glass window framing will meet the scale of neighbouring built form, providing a contextual link to the area's older brick architecture while retaining a distinctly contemporary design language.
At street level, the glassy retail frontages will be broken up by extruding steel window frames and filigree panels. These detailed elements will bring articulation to the street-level by replicating the fine-grained rhythm of urban storefronts. As the project fronts onto three streets, including a full block of Church, texture and visual interest along the ground plane will be particularly important to create an engaging street-level experience.
Led by FirstCon, construction is set to continue throughout 2017, with the upper tower levels expected to take shape in the coming months. Filling out the east side of the block, the project will feature 284 condominium units, with interiors by Johnson Chou Inc.
On the west side of the block, a similarly scaled commercial project was proposed to the City of Toronto in late 2015. Taking on a similarly L-shaped site, the 19-storey office building at 65-75 King Street East would replace the western half of the Colborne Street parking lot, with frontages onto Leader Lane—surrounding the Tom Jones restaurant—and King Street. If built, Carterra's Page + Steele / IBI Group-designed project would meet Sixty Colborne's blank southwest frontage, effectively encompassing the block's existing King Street buildings with new development.
We will keep you updated as construction continues, and the architectsAlliance-designed project rises higher. In the meantime, more information about the development—and the neighbouring project—is available via the dataBase links below. Want to share your thoughts? Leave a comment on this page, or join the conversation in our Forum.
