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On October 5, Lamb Development Corp submitted a Zoning By-law Amendment application to the City of Toronto to permit a 20-storey, mixed-use building at 102 Berkeley Street on the east side of Downtown. The site has a total lot area of 1,076m². Named Berkeley House in the architectural plans, the proposed gross floor area of both residential and retail at 102 Berkeley would total 13,010m², resulting in a density of 12.1 FSI.
The tower would sit atop a four-storey podium, and reach 70.05 metres in height including a wrapped mechanical penthouse. It is located on the west side of Berkeley between Richmond Street East and Adelaide Street East in the King-Parliament area, and is currently home to a single-storey warehouse building.
The building, designed by A&Architects, would feature 357m² of ground-floor retail space and 181 residential units, comprised of 117 studios (65%), 17 one-bedrooms (9%), 28 two-bedrooms (15%), and 19 units of three bedrooms or more (11%), equalling a total of 12,653m² of residential space. 66 of the studios, however, are located so that pairs of two can be purchased together and then knockout panels between them removed so that they can be converted into up to 33 two-bedroom units. The four east-facing units on the 19th floor all have a loft space on the 20th floor above, otherwise shared with the mechanical penthouse.
The 4-storey podium would be 17.7 metres in height, and be setback at ground level 2.2 metres from the Berkeley Street property line to create an 8.3 metre sidewalk and landscaping zone. The balconies of levels 2, 3, and 4 above would extend to the property line, overhanging the sheltered 2.2 metre-wide setback. The tower—levels 5 through 19—would be stepped back 10 metres from the face of the base building along Berkeley Street, other than for balconies which would extend 2 metres into the stepped back area. Levels 5 through 19 would have a floor plate size of 705m². The east side of the 20th floor is stepped back a further 4 metres behind a parapet wall, providing wide terraces for penthouse units.
The development would include 183 bike parking spaces and 41 motor vehicle parking spaces for residential use on three underground levels. Access to the garage levels would be via two car elevators, not the more typical ramp seen in most buildings. Access from the street to the garage and to servicing would be via the neighbouring East FiftyFive's driveway (recently completed by the same developer) which connects to Ontario Street: no vehicles would cross the Berkeley Street sidewalk to access this development.
The rear of the building is built to the lot line at the ground floor, but steps back 5.5 metres at the second floor, while the southwest corner is notched as of the third floor, stepping back a further 4.5 metres to provide a total 10 metre stepback in this corner to increase separation distance to the East FiftyFive tower levels to 20 metres. With the stepbacks above the first floor, the servicing and garage access areas are enclosed below, while amenities located on a mezzanine level are provided with a terrace above.
Besides the 20 metre separation distance between Berkeley House and East 55, (just 16.3 metres at podium levels), Berkeley House is also about 20 metres at closest corners to another Lamb Development Corp proposal, 38-storeys high, to the northwest at 75 Ontario Street on the southeast corner with Richmond. (The 75 Ontario proposal is not shown on any of the images above or below.) Meanwhile, to the immediate south is a proposed development by Dream Unlimited with three towers, the closest being a 10-storey mid-rise building at 94 Berkeley Street which would abut Berkley House's south wall. To the southwest of the 10-storey building, Dream is proposing towers rising to 34 and 39 storeys from a 5-storey podium along Adelaide Street East, and addressed to 49 Ontario Street; these towers are a greater distance away than Toronto guideline of 25 metres minimum separation. The three proposed buildings of 49 Ontario are not shown on the renderings above, but do appear in the area context image below.
The Berkeley House site is close to a planned future station on the proposed Ontario Line subway, to be located at King Street East and Berkeley Street and tentatively called Corktown station. Existing east-west TTC streetcars that ply Queen and King streets are short walks away, while north-south TTC bus services on Sherbourne and Parliament streets are also within a short walk.
You can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like, 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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