One of the more contentious proposals in Toronto from over the last couple of years has been completely redesigned. The plans for 64 Prince Arthur—north of Bloor and west of Avenue Road in The Annex—date back to an August, 2017 when an application from the Adi Development Group sought rezoning for a 29-storey condominium tower with a twisting, sculptural design by New York-based CetraRuddy Architecture working with Toronto-based Core Architects. While the proposal won many fans for its bold architectural approach, the proposal's outsized height for the area faced resistance from neighbourhood groups and from Toronto Planning and the local Councillor.

Looking northeast to 2017 and 2019 versions of the proposal, images via submission to City of Toronto

In a late December, 2019 resubmission, Adi's new plan, still designed by CetraRuddy and Core, drops the building from 130.4 metres high down to 74 metres, or more than 43% less height, and now calls for just 19 storeys (with each storey shorter on average), while the gross floor area (GFA) has dropped 12%, from 12,215 m² to 10,737 m². At the same time, the number of units planned in the building has increased significantly, from 60 to 178, indicating that the developers are no longer looking to build a super-luxury building with huge units, but are now aiming at more typical condo spaces for the market, now proposed in a mix of 30 studios, 60 one-bedrooms, 71 two-bedrooms, and 17 three-bedrooms.

Looking northeast to 64 Prince Arthur, image via submission to City of Toronto

With Taddle Creek Park just to the northeast, the previous proposal added significant shadowing to the park, which would have been one of the foremost objections from the planning department: the City is not accepting further shadowing on its parkland as the green spaces become more rare and precious within a densifying urban fabric. Dropping the height to preserve sunlight on the park has the developer taking a more typical approach to the development as they would no longer be able to charge the price per square foot that the original atypical curving exoskeletal design would have required. The new design does, however, retain luxurious details like bronze finishes and large expanses of floor-to-ceiling curtainwall glazing.

Aerial view looking east to 64 Prince Arthur, image via submission to City of Toronto

While the number of residential units has been greatly increased, proposed parking has been reduced significantly from the previous 73 spaces down to just 25. This is a further reflection of the repositioning of the building from ultra-luxury to a wider target market, where more residents would be expected to own vehicles and be more likely to get around by other means such as cycling or by transit (St George subway station is a short walk). As such, the development now proposes 179 bicycle parking spaces, the majority housed in stackers on the first two levels of a proposed three-level underground parking garage.

Ground realm at 64 Prince Arthur, image via submission to City of Toronto

You can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like to, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.

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