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It was roughly one year ago when a development proposal was submitted by Graywood Developments for a mixed-use development at 350 Adelaide Street West in Toronto's Entertainment District. The initial plan from BBB Architects called for 40 and 48-storey towers northwest of the corner at Adelaide and Peter Streets, joined by a sculptural elevator core serving both tower volumes. Originally proposed at 163-metres tall, the project has been undergoing some major revisions over the past year, and a resubmission was made earlier this month with a new design and a reduction in size.
The resubmission responds to a number of concerns from planning staff. The most obvious changes since the original June 2016 submission have been the reduction to a single 47-storey tower with a height of 152.3 metres, and a thoroughly new design starting from the street level, where the project's now interact more closely with the existing 1858-built, 3-storey heritage listed house occupied by New York Furs right at the corner, and the modern Templar Hotel to its west. The podium will consist of two distinct volumes featuring a grid of masonry cladding that creates context with nearby heritage warehouses, supported by an arcade over the Peter Street sidewalk by a set of angled structural supports.
Above the podium, the former position of the previous proposal's taller west tower has been replaced by a vertical extrusion of the west podium volume, connecting with the expanded floorplates of en enlarged east tower. The tower section's exterior expression has been fully reimagined, now consisting of limestone-hued precast concrete panels and pre-finished aluminum panels to form the exterior frame around windows and inset balconies.
These changes come with a drop in the project’s proposed overall gross floor area (GFA) from 61,464 m² to 50,834 m². Breaking these numbers down further, the proposed residential GFA has been reduced from 57,061 m² down to 46,270 m², while the retail GFA increases slightly from 4,403 m² to 4,564 m².
350 Adelaide West’s unit count has been significantly reduced in the resubmission, down to 696 units from the previous 899. These units will come in a mix of 55 studio units (8%), 315 one-bedroom units (45%), 257 two-bedroom units (37%), and 69 three-bedroom units (10%). Mirroring the reduction in GFA and unit count, the proposed amenity offerings have been scaled back as well, with 1,404 m2 of indoor amenities in place of the previously proposed 1,798 m2, and 1,053 m2 of outdoor amenities in place of the last submission’s 1,377 m2. The project’s vehicular and bicycle parking components have also been reduced, but less drastically than other building elements. 188 vehicle parking spaces are now proposed in place of the previous 226, divided between 139 resident and 49 non-resident spaces. 724 bicycle spaces are now being proposed instead of the 926 proposed in the June 2016 application.
Aside from height, massing, and building components, a concern from the Parks, Forestry & Recreation department listed the development site as a parkland priority area. While it was determined in discussions with City staff that there is no on-site requirement for parkland, a Privately Owned Public Space (POPS) has since been included in the resubmission. Some of the other concerns and issues that have since been resolved include the mandatory minimum parking space requirements, and the requirement for an archaeological assessment, which has now been carried out.
Additional information and renderings of the earlier design iteration can be found in our Database file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment using the field provided at the bottom of this page.
| Related Companies: | Doka Canada Ltd./Ltee, LiveRoof Ontario Inc, McIntosh Perry, Peter McCann Architectural Models Inc., U31, UCEL Inc. |
