Motorists passing by the Highway 401/404/DVP interchange may have noticed a large and curious looking structure taking shape to the northeast over the past several months. Now brandishing its well known logo, they'll now know the building is a new Audi dealership. At 175 Yorkland Boulevard, the building is soon to replace the Midtown Toronto dealership's existing location on Sheppard Avenue just east of Warden. The striking new seven-storey location is currently having the finishing touches put to it in advance of its opening by Eastern Construction.
Designed by renowned Toronto-based Teeple Architects, the 8,000 square metre dealership follows the design language established by Munich-based architects Allmann Sattler Wappner for Audi's "terminal" dealership concept, which became the standard for new Audi dealerships constructed from 2009 onwards.
Like its predecessors, the Audi Midtown dealership features polygon-shaped windows with rounded corners, and utilizes a facade consisting of perforated and anodized aluminium sheets manufactured by RMIG featuring a hexagonal honeycomb pattern.
Final finishes are now being applied to the building's ground level entrance, signage for which has already been installed and illuminated. Windows directly above the main entrance can be seen screened by the metal skin, allowing views from within while preserving the aesthetic effect of the perforated skin.
The new $31,000,000 dealership will offer features including drive-through service reception, a customer lounge, new car showroom, new vehicle hand-over, car wash detail bays, service bays and vehicle storage on the upper two floors. In a bold show of form and function working in conjunction with one another, the dealership's vehicle storage area as well as the multi-storey spiral ramp used to access it are both clearly visible through the perforated exterior, in this case as photographed by UrbanToronto contributor hawc, backlit by a sunset.
A pre-construction rendering of the new car dealership reveals that Audi's iconic four-ring logo found near the roofline on multiple elevations—the rings representing the four auto manufacturers that originally merged to create the company—which will be illuminated and highly visible to motorists passing by.
You can learn more about the project and join in on the discussion by visiting the associated Forum thread. Comments can also be left using the field provided at the bottom of this page.