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Living Shangri-La, the first Toronto project by leading West Coast developer Westbank Corporation, may be just under 10 months from opening, but last week it was ready for the media to step inside and get an early look around. UrbanToronto joined the crowd for the hard-hat construction tour.
The tour was led by Ian Gillespie, the owner and enthusiastic head of Westbank.
An early stop on the tour had us considering the reconstruction of one of Toronto's oldest buildings, the Bishop's Block. Built in 1829 by John Bishop, an early immigrant to Toronto from London, England, the building was last in use as a tavern. The building was carefully disassembled and stored while an eight-storey underground garage was excavated and then built under the entire site. The Bishop Block's bricks, since cleaned, have been relaid around a new concrete substructure. Restoration of the interior continues in accordance to Parks Canada Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places. Final decisions regarding what retail or restuarant facilities will eventually be located within the premises have not yet been made.
On the Simcoe Street side of the complex, marble now clads the north wall of the vehicular drop off and pick up area, and the entrance to the underground garage.
On the highly visible University Avenue side of the building, we have been watching the erection of an angled crystal-like cube for months now.
The tour gave us a chance to peek inside the cube for a closer look. This is the approach to the cube on the roof of the building's first floor podium.
The cube will be home to Momofuku by hot-shot Korean-American chef David Chang. Chang has made waves in the New York restaurant scene, and foodies are eagerly awaiting the opening of innovative Momofuku here. The restaurant will feature on both the ground floor and here on the second level, while the top floor of the cube will be home to the complex's pool, set amidst lush foliage which will take advantage of the wide-open skylight ceiling.
On the sixth floor we were led into a couple of prototype hotel suites, finished early as test cases for the remaining 200 hotel rooms. Suites start on the sixth floor and continue to the seventeenth.
The rooms are decorated in relaxing tones, are outfitted in the highest quality finishes, and have gorgeous bathrooms, clad in marble from a Westbank quarry in Italy.
While the tour rides the construction hoist skywards, we'll back away from the building for a moment and consider the top of it. For the last few weeks UrbanToronto members have been looking skywards and wondering what the two-floor sections are which have begun appearing at the 54th storey.
Here's a closer view of those spaces.
While the tour group looked around on what is currently the upper-most glazed floor, the 52nd, UrbanToronto was granted exclusive access to the 54th and 55th floors for a look around. There are four of the double-floor units in question on the west side of the building. The 4,431 square foot suites are considered Signature Suites, part of the Private Estates collection on the upper floors, and the floor plan is not included on the Shangri-La website. One of the four remains for sale, on the 60th and 61st floors, at $7,540,000. Below, a view of the double-height, 33-foot wide living room.
The three-bedroom suite features a library on the upper floor which overlooks the living room, and the city beyond.
Here are the plans for both floors. Like all images in UrbanToronto stories, you can click on them to view them larger.
Returning to the 52nd floor, we took a look at various views from the tower. This is an east-facing balcony on the University Avenue side, looking to the north.
Here's a view from that balcony to Toronto's City Hall and the local competition below.
This is the view up University Avnue that those with north-facing balconies and windows will have.
The west-facing balconies are quite large.
This south view is through glass which has not been cleaned yet.
And finally, a composite panorama of three images combined to give you an idea of the spectacular Downtown core views from the east side of Shangri-La. We can't wait to return for another tour to see what this view is like on a blue-sky day or in the evening with city lights twinkling. We expect it is nothing less than spectacular. For the time being, enjoy the last of Shangri-La's pink weather wall reflected in the KPMG tower at the Bay Adelaide Centre on the left. The weather wall is coming down as the penthouse floors are constructed at the top of the building.
Like what you are seeing? Just under 20% of the building's suites remain available, including 3 of the 4 two-storey penthouses. UrbanToronto's dataBase listing for Living Shangri-La, linked below, has many renderings to pore over and further information to consider. It includes the links you need to contact the sales office too! Interested in the discussion about Living Shangri-La on UrbanToronto? Click one of the associated links below to join in!
| Related Companies: | Hariri Pontarini Architects |
