Earlier this week a new proposal was submitted to the City seeking a 48-storey mixed-use tower at the northwest corner of Duncan and Pearl Streets in Toronto's Entertainment District. Proposed on behalf of Greenwin, the 14 Duncan project calls for a 48-storey, Quadrangle-designed residential tower and a restoration of the site's heritage building facades.

South view of 14 Duncan, image retrieved from submission to City of Toronto

The 1,926.4 m² (0.476-acre) subject site contains the three-storey 14 Duncan, which was included on the Heritage Register by City Council on March 7, 2017. Built in 1902 for the Telfer Paper Box Company, the building was extended in 1906, and decades later, in 1989, was given an addition and redesign in the postmodern style. During this 1989 addition, 14 Duncan and 180 Pearl Streets were heavily modified, losing much of their original architectural character in the process. As part of the new proposal's podium structure, the buildings' facades would be restored to bring them closer to their original design.

Podium and facade retention at 14 Duncan, image retrieved from submission to City of Toronto

Above the podium, the tower would rise to a height of 157.1 metres, boasting a floor plate with a modified lozenge-shaped design, and an exterior mostly featuring an alternating offset pattern of glazing with vertical fins. A central section with a more darkly toned finish would break up the pattern on the tower's north facade, while three smaller vertical runs would be inserted into the otherwise glazed south facade.

South view of 14 Duncan, image retrieved from submission to City of Toronto

14 Duncan is being proposed with 369 residential units, coming in a mix of 246 one-bedroom units, 82 two-bedroom units, and 41 three-bedroom units. Residents of these units would be served by a total of 738 m² of interior amenity space, found on the 6th and 7th levels. These spaces would connect to an outdoor rooftop terrace on the 6th floor, also sized at 738 m².

In addition to the amenity space listed above, the building's total of 6,840 m² of non-residential space is proposed to include 615 m²of retail and 6,225 m² of office space on the podium levels. Residential and office lobbies are found on the ground floor, with retail and commercial entrances to be located on both Pearl and Duncan Streets.

14 Duncan, image retrieved from submission to City of Toronto

Below ground, the building would be served by a 4 level parking garage containing 126 spaces, divided between 102 resident spaces and 24 shared visitor and commercial spaces. 407 bicycle spaces will also be housed in the garage, in a mix of 333 residential long term spaces, 37 residential short term spaces, 13 office long term spaces, 16 office short term spaces, 2 retail long term spaces, and 6 retail short term spaces. The garage would be accessed via two parking elevators accessed from the west end of the podium.

We will return as more details of the proposal emerge. In the meantime, additional information and renderings can be found in our dataBase file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment using the field provided at the bottom of this page.