Toronto Ace Hotel Toronto | 44.8m | 13s | Carbon Hospitality | Shim-Sutcliffe

FYI the planning documents (including the architectural plans) are up on the city development application website. No new renderings.

AoD
 
The ground level programme for the hotel was very tight on the initial plans, there are concerns that the lane between this building and Brant Park would be too narrow, and all the locals would like the hotel to be a little shorter. By buying the lot to the east, it's possible that they'll be able to shift space around to accomplish all the goals for the hotel while addressing the various concerns.

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It's all a matter of how narrow: I cannot imagine that a redesign will come back with anything that looks '905'. I don't understand this either/or black/white approach to discussion that happens on UT so often. The world works so much more in degrees, and not so much in binary.

Right now, immediately to the south of this site you have Lamb's Brant Park condos, currently completing. It's 36 metres high and is set back 5 metres from the property line with a lane, and it's virtually all windows as you can see below. The 51 Camden proposal comes within 1.09 metres of the lot line on the other side of it, and the building is proposed to rise 50 metres. The hotel's original lot consisted of the cleared space you can see below plus halfway through the next building to the left. With the recent purchase, it will now include all of the two-storey building you can see on the left.

brantIMG_9471.jpg

image by someMidTowner

The initial 51 Camden proposal is 14 metres taller than Brant Park, and was proposed with only 6 metres separation. The north windows of The Brant Park would face (in the initial plan) a mostly red brick wall with four vertical-slot windows. (See the south elevation image below: they are the white spaces.)

51CamdenElevS.jpg


In the image below, created before the arched opening was introduced, you can see that the hotel was proposed with 6 bays, north to south.

51CamdenSWSketch.jpg


Each bay is just over 4 metres wide.

If the redesign kept the bays at the same or approximately the same width, they could drop one of the bays and transfer 4 metres to the laneway, meaning both this building and The Brant Park would be 5 metres from the lot line, leaving a 10 metre laneway. With the height of Brant park being 36 metres, that's still a narrow laneway with a height to width ratio of 3.6 to 1, and while it probably still won't be wide enough to make some of the Brant Park residents happy, the developers would have a good chance of arguing that their building should be allowed to be built the same distance to the lot line as The Brant Park was. (I'm also willing to bet that one floor will come off the top, maybe even two, bringing the hotel more in line with the height of The Brant Park.)

Anyway, barring a complete redesign, I think what I am describing has a reasonable chance of resembling what will be proposed next. Looking forward to seeing it. I love the design concept here, and hope they can sort this all out over the next few months.

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Approved by city staff.

The applicant proposes to amend the Zoning By-law to permit the construction of a 13-storey (49.8 metres, including mechanical penthouse) hotel development at 49 to 51 Camden Street. The proposal includes 130 hotel suites, a lower-level restaurant, a hotel lobby, a gymnasium, hotel-related meeting rooms, and a penthouse lounge. The total gross floor area proposed is 7,918 square metres. No vehicular parking spaces and 39 bicycle parking spaces are proposed.

City Planning Staff have reviewed the application against applicable policies and guidelines and do not believe that in its current form the application conforms to the Official Plan policies. City Planning Staff require modifications to the proposed built form, and the applicant is in agreement with these modifications.

The report reviews and recommends approval of the Zoning By-Law Amendment application with revisions to the proposed built form as outlined in this report and reflected in the attached draft zoning by-laws. This approval is also subject to a number of conditions as detailed in the recommendations.
 
Just looked at the application and thought to myself "This is a future heritage building". Can't wait to see it go up. More like this, please!
 
So utterly joyed this has been recommended for approval. One of my favourite developments in the city; exactly the type of development and architecture we sorely need more of.

Has it been confirmed that it is indeed Ace that will occupy/manage (sure hope so)? I've frequented their properties in NYC, London, and Chicago and they're completely fantastic. This is a perfect location for the Ace vibe.
 

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