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Cadillac Fairview has submitted a Site Plan Approval application to the City of Toronto for a 44-storey/217.95 metre office tower fitted with retail at its base. The development is the first phase of the developer's master-planned community 'East Harbour' beside the Don Valley Parkway south of Eastern Avenue.
The closed 'Soap Factory' building is located on part of the 1B Office Tower development site where this building would rise, west of a southerly extension to Broadview Avenue, and adjacent to the planned East Harbour GO and Ontario Line station. Designed by New York's KPF Architects, with Toronto's Adamson Associates Architects as architect of record, the design for the proposed office tower features a brass-coloured exoskeleton that would encapsulate a blue-glass tower, and rise up above to resemble a crown.
The 114,586m² office tower would include a six-storey podium clad with frosted glass, and would present a series of step-backs to frame the planned East Harbour Plaza to the south of the building. The podium is proposed to include approximately 2,297m² of retail space, located within the ground floor and mezzanine levels.
The previously submitted master plan for East Harbour presents a mixed-use vision for the redevelopment of the 15-hectare former industrial lands situated east of the Don River and north of Lake Shore Boulevard. Cadillac Fairview proposes that the lands would be turned into an office, retail, recreational, and residential transit-oriented community that would become an urban destination. The public realm is proposed to made up of parks and open spaces, and fitted with a pedestrian-oriented street network that would flow from the new transit hub.
The overall proposed development includes nine commercial office towers and eight residential towers, which are distributed throughout the four development quadrants and supported by retail and other animated uses at grade.
The 1B proposal also includes several open spaces including the majority of the planned East Harbour Plaza, and the West Transit Plaza. The East Harbour Plaza is planned as a spacious, multi-functional plaza that celebrates the site’s industrial history, although the Soap Factory would be torn down for it. The preliminary design for the plaza would achieve the minimum 1,000m² outdoor open space area required by the site-specific zoning and Section 37 Agreement with the CIty.
The proposed west half of the Transit Plaza (the east portion is planned for the other side of Broadview Avenue) would take the form of a privately-owned publicly accessible open space (POPS), in accordance with the East Harbour Zoning By-law, Section 37 Agreement and Minister's Zoning Order (MZO), and would achieve the minimum required POPS area of 1,000m². The plaza would act as an entrance to the transit hub, and according to planning documents, has been developed to accommodate passenger flows to and from the station while integrating with the at-grade interface of the proposed Building 1B development.
Parking and loading facilities required for the building are proposed to be built below-grade and would offer a total of 344 parking spaces. One ramp is proposed to be constructed off of the future East Harbour Boulevard.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow updates for this development, but in the meantime, 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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