Toronto 540 King West | 50.66m | 15s | Allied | Hariri Pontarini

Handsome project. Nice to see warmer tones and forms diverging your typical rectangle. I like the office use there too which will act as a buffer between then condos and the street. The render makes it seem as if one commercial tenant will occupy the king street frontage, I wonder how accurate that is?
 
From Allied Reit's 2019 Second Quarter Conference Call - Hugh Clark indicated that Allied believes they have reached agreement with the City on the King and Brant Streets project (544 King Street West), with the proposal to go to City Council in the fourth quarter, and with pre-leasing to commence with the approvals in hand.

The conference call may be accessed at: https://streaming.webcasts.com/viewer/event.jsp?ei=1252155&tp_key=5486c88f4e with Hugh Clark's (Vice President - Development) comments on the Adelaide and Spadina and the King and Brant Street projects at the 11:30 point.
 
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.53.55 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.54.15 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.54.25 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.54.58 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.55.33 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.55.39 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.55.45 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.55.51 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.56.04 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.56.19 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-08-16 at 12.56.32 PM.png


 
Obnoxious connection through the middle of the block.

There's a huge amount of space wasted in this plan that's been stretched into long hallways to get to the elevators, which are what are behind that massive blank wall. The residential tower elevators could be contained in that tower, with more space to sell or rent, and then the towers could be separated and the office elevators are service rooms could be retracted into the southern office massage somewhat. Fix this hulking thing.

42
 
Last edited:
Putting the circulation in each of the respective buildings would subtract from the salable / leasable area. By putting the circulation in an otherwise unbuildable area, the overall site is made that much more efficient.

It's been clumsily handled, but the thought process is definitely there.
 
Moving the residential elevators north into the residential tower will eliminate ridiculously long hallways which take up more space than the elevators do, leaving more saleable space, and saving the residents from long walks every time they depart or arrive home. Moving the commercial elevators south will impact the commercial space, but not by much, and it will save that neighbourhood from those egregious blank walls. Any lost space could be made up by one more floor, which would have negligible visual impact. This is a lazy plan.

42
 
This is definitely the worst proposal i've seen Allied put forward, and it's not even close. They could do much better than this and i'm not really sure what their thinking with this one is.

However even though this is a weak proposal, it would probably turn out better than at least 80% of the trash we see being put up in this city.
 
They should propose a mural on that big wall and make it a feature. Would stand out against the usual window wall/spandrel/balconies messiness and turn a drawback into a positive for the neighbourhood.
 
Last edited:
They should propose a mural on that big wall and make it a feature. Would stand out against the usual window wall/spandrel/balconies messiness and turn a drawback into a positive for the neighbourhood.
Looks like they're planning to put a green wall on the first two storeys below the condo units facing the school. Why not extend that green wall all the way up behind Jacobs & Co?
Screen Shot 2019-08-17 at 11.36.18 AM.png
 
The 544 King West redevelopment proposal - Allied and First Gulf - is scheduled to go to the Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) at its meeting this morning at 10 AM. While Allied has a longstanding approval for redevelopment of its portion of the site (the west side of the combined property), and the current plans have City Planning support, the proposal has has generated a lot of community opposition. The community consultation meeting held earlier this year was quite contentious.

Hope that Hugh is wearing his teflon suit today....
 
The 544 King West redevelopment proposal - Allied and First Gulf - is scheduled to go to the Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) at its meeting this morning at 10 AM. While Allied has a longstanding approval for redevelopment of its portion of the site (the west side of the combined property), and the current plans have City Planning support, the proposal has has generated a lot of community opposition. The community consultation meeting held earlier this year was quite contentious.

Hope that Hugh is wearing his teflon suit today....

The 544 King West proposal was deferred at the TEYCC meeting this morning. A large portion of the audience in the committee room left the room when the announcement was made. There is obviously still a lot of community concern over the proposal as it now stands. No date was announced for the proposal to return to the TEYCC.

When the chair announced that deputations would be received, however once an individual's deputation had been made, they cannot make another deputation on the same subject (i.e. speak again at the meeting to which the item had been deferred), unless there had been a material change in the item. Some of the individuals who had registered chose to to defer their presentations, while some others did proceed to speak against the proposal.

It looks like this proposal may be headed for some revision, possibly material change, if it is to receive community support.
 
Wonder if Allied has any interest in cooperating with the TDSB for a land consolidation and construction of a new expanded school to serve the downtown with the school housed in the podium and yard on the western sun-receiving side.? Office+residential+retail+school would be an enormous feat of constrained and dense mixed-use planning to be celebrated.
 

Back
Top