A mid-March submission to the City of Toronto seeks rezoning to permit an eight-storey residential rental building at 1375 Queen Street West, a long-vacant site on Queen's southeast corner with Close Avenue, just east of Jameson Avenue in Parkdale. The proposal from Skale Developments features a design by Giannone Petricone Associates that places a modern massing atop and to the rear of a brick-clad base that responds to the surrounding area's heritage character without attempting to imitate it.

Site of the proposal, image via submission to City of Toronto

The building would meet Queen Street West with a ground-floor containing a mix of commercial retail and residential lobby space, while the rear of the ground floor would contain an electric vehicle car-share space and 50 long-term bicycle parking spaces backing onto a laneway at the south end of the site. A total of 448 m² of retail space is proposed, housed primarily on the ground floor along Queen, as well as additional basement retail area.

Looking east to 1375 Queen West, image via submission to City of Toronto

Above, a total of 46 rental apartments are proposed on levels two through eight, planned in a mix of 34 one-bedroom, seven two-bedroom, and five three-bedroom units. The plan currently contemplates providing 20% of the rental units as 'affordable' ones, though this is subject to change as costs are worked out through the planning and approvals process. No underground parking is proposed, with a single below-grade level to house a mix of amenity, mechanical, and additional commercial space for the ground-level retail above. 

Looking north to 1375 Queen West, image via submission to City of Toronto

Architectural plans provide detail on the proposed exterior finishes. The first floor features a mix of pre-finished metal panels with hidden fasteners in a bronze finish, glazing, and stack bond glazed red brick. The next four levels above feature a primary cladding of stack bond glazed red brick and sections of vertical stack bond brick in a different hue. These finishes combine with black anodized aluminum slab edge covers to frame a mix of punched windows and juliette balconies, the latter including powder coated black metal spindles and guardrails. The surrounding modern volume built above and to the rear of the bricked sections features a mix of curtainwall spandrel glass, pre-finished metal panels, and vertical piers of the same red brick seen on the main street-fronting volume.

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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