Toronto's next major landmark is one step closer to fruition thanks to today's vote at City Council supporting Toronto Planning staff's recommendations to approve the current application plan for the Mirvish + Gehry Toronto development on King Street West. With the major planning hurdles out of the way, the team expects to continue to work with Council, staff and local stakeholders through the remainder of the development process, before launching the project's sales phase.

Revised plan for Mirvish + Gehry Toronto, image courtesy of Projectcore

"Today's decision by Council was obviously a necessary step in this lengthy process," says Mirvish Enterprises' David Mirvish. "While we believe today's vote was first and foremost an endorsement of our vision for the site, lead by our architect Frank Gehry, we also believe that it is a clear endorsement of the city's development process and staff's demand for consultation and collaboration among the stakeholders.  Through an iterative process, a myriad of ideas were considered leading to a better project, and we are pleased that today, City Council agreed."

The team behind the project, lead by Peter Kofman of Projectcore Inc., has spent nearly two years refining the development's design and urban planning with city staff and local politicians. This process resulted in a revised application that saw the three-towered project scaled back to two towers with a greater focus on the public realm. The revised design retained elements like a new art gallery for the Mirvish Collection and new campus for OCAD University, while managing to preserve the Princess of Wales Theatre.

"The process we so fully engaged in has led to a more evolved scheme and a more refined approach to the development site," says Peter Kofman, adding that he believes the planning process ultimately created the conditions for a positive staff report and approval from Council.  "Today's vote was a critical step in the development process.  We look forward to working with the city through the rest of the process, before moving ahead with our sales and marketing program in the near future." 

We look forward to the next steps in the major development, and will return with updates as additional information becomes available. In the meantime, additional information and renderings can be found in the Mirvish+Gehry dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page,