Co-developers Westbank Corp and Allied Properties REIT have submitted their reworked proposal for a residential and retail development for properties on the south side of King Street West between Spadina Avenue and Portland Streets in one of Toronto's mostly quickly transforming areas. Designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, the development is arranged as if it were a mountain range with four peaks, with a courtyard acting as a central valley.

Looking southwest towards the Initial plan from February 2016, image courtesy of Westbank/Allied/BIG

First proposed in February 2016, the proposal received feedback from the public, Toronto's Planning Department, and the city's Design Review Panel over the course of 15 months. In May of this year, the developers revealed revised "2.0" concept plans to the public and planning staff at a public meeting. Now 5 months later, the 2.0 concept has been refined, and the new plans have been submitted to the City's Planning Department for review.

Looking southwest towards the 2.0 concept from May 2017, image courtesy of Westbank/Allied/BIG

The refined design retains four of the original five peaks, three of which reach 16 storeys and 57.5 metres high, while pulling back more from the heritage structures on King Street. The gap between the east and west arms of the building introduced in the 2.0 concept has been retained facing King Street, but the gap which divided the development into two pieces in the 2.0 concept along the south side of the site has become an arch at the base of one of the peaks as the development's massing has been reworked.

Looking southeast across the King St West 2.0 from October 2017, image courtesy of Westbank/Allied/BIG

With greater distance between suites facing into the courtyard (now 20.365 metres separation) as well, the smaller development now proposes 514 units compared to the 624 initially planned. Retail units still dominate the lower levels, including on the first three floors of the retained heritage buildings and new build facing King Street. The first level below ground also has over 46,000 square feet or retail space, large enough for a grocery store.

Looking northwest from the courtyard towards King Street, image courtesy of Westbank/Allied/BIG

With the changes made from a gap to an arch on the south side of the complex, the view north through a new park stretching north from Wellington Street changes considerably. Allied REIT purchased 456 Wellington Street to provide a landscaped link between this development and The Well development south of Wellington, and now under construction. Landscape Architect Claude Cormier + Associés has been hired to design the Wellington Street park, while Public Work are creating the landscape design for King St. West. 

Looking north towards the 2.0 concept from May 2017, image courtesy of Westbank/Allied/BIG

Looking north towards the 2.0 plan from October 2017, image courtesy of Westbank/Allied/BIG

More detailed information concerning the current planning for the development can be found in this article from May, but we will return for more details of the changes in the near future. In the meantime, our database file, linked below, includes more new renderings, and all of the renderings of the earlier versions. If you would like to get in on the discussion, choose the link to our associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.