This week's Throwback Thursday looks back just over five years to Toronto's Bay and Wellesley intersection. For 45 years, the intersection's northeast corner was home to the Sutton Place Hotel, a 33-storey hotel and apartment building originally opened in 1967 with a modernist design by WZMH Architects. At the time the 2014 photo below was captured, the hotel had been closed for a couple years, and a section of its ground floor had been converted into the presentation centre for The Britt, a gutting, refinishing, and expansion of the original tower to form a new condominium development.

Sutton Place Hotel, 2014, image by Forum contributor urbandreamer

The same view seen in 2019 reveals a nearly-completed development, which now rises 41 storeys with a design by IBI Group. The original International style exterior was removed during the partial demolition. The newly expanded floor plates to create a podium now bear a mix of stone finishes and window wall cladding. The tower above features a similar window wall system wrapped in new added glazed balconies, with a mix of vision glass and back-painted glass spandrel panel wall.

The Britt Condos, 2019, image by Forum contributor ProjectEnd

We will return next week with another look at the changing face of Toronto.

* * *

UrbanToronto has a new way you can track projects through the planning process on a daily basis. Sign up for a free trial of our New Development Insider here.