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Zoning By-Law Amendment and Site Plan Approval applications have recently been submitted to the City of Toronto for a contemporary precast brick-clad, 34-storey mixed-use condominium building at 2 through 20 Glazebrook Avenue on the street's northwest corner with Bayview Avenue in the Sherwood Park neighbourhood of North York. The proposal, submitted by WND Associates Ltd, is designed by Gabriel Fain Architects Inc on behalf of Gairloch Developments, responsible for notable schemes, including the nearby 1414 Bayview in Davisville Village.
Sited amongst a mixture of mid-rise residential, commercial and office buildings, the site, which measures 2,149m² in area, contains a series of five 3-storey semi-detached houses collectively referred to as "The Manors of Armour Heights at Bayview", (houses 22 through 28 which are part of the 'Manors' are not part of the land assembly). These buildings abut the eastern perimeter of the Yonge-Eglinton Secondary Plan Area and fall within Mixed-Use Area 'B'. This document identifies the plot "as an area suitable primarily for commercial uses within which institutional uses will be permitted and residential accommodation for a variety of household types that meets the criteria of Section 2.7 of this Secondary Plan will be encouraged."
The City Planning Division's Protected Major Transit Station Areas policy framework identifies Leaside Station as a significant transit hub. The subject site, located 250m north of this station, will be served by Eglinton Line 5, to be operational by this time in 2023. The new transit line has seen an influx of prospective high-rise developments in the neighbourhood, including a 25-storey tower at 1837-1845 Bayview Avenue and a 32-storey mixed-use building at 586 Eglinton East.
The building abuts the northern and western MTSA site perimeters, which affords the building a 2.5m setback from Glazebrook Avenue and a 3.5m setback from Bayview Avenue at ground level. This gives adequate space for pedestrianized hard and soft landscaping, prepared by Marten- Nizkad Landscape Architects Inc, along the residential and commercial street fronts.
The elegant, equidistantly spaced horizontal precast brick banding help delineate each of the tower's 34 floors. The curved ribbed cladding shares a loose similarity with Caruso St John Architect's Nottingham Contemporary, which uses this same form in a vertical application. However, the banding at 2-20 Glazebrook Avenue is infilled with an arrangement of clear glass panels, recessed balconies, and terraces that provide some visual relief to the form.
Two underground storeys maximize the site's entire footprint providing 91 parking spaces, including 14 visitor spaces and the first of the 466 bicycle spaces. A 314m² commercial unit fronting Bayview Avenue provides essential ground-floor retail space that the site craves. This is supplemented with six townhouse-style apartments, including a residential lobby for the tower above, an open-fronted double-storey vehicular access route, and a parking ramp all fronting Glazebrook Avenue. The podium level benefits from a series of offsets from levels 2 through 9 that give the development an abundance of outdoor amenity space. The footprint of levels 10 through 34 are identical and significantly smaller than the podium below giving the building a distinctive tower in the southern half of the site.
The proposed development consists of 434 residential units comprising 314 one-bedrooms (72%) and 69 two-bedrooms (16%), and 51 three-bedrooms (12%).
At 103m / 338ft, the 34-storey mixed-use tower will have a Total Gross Floor Area of 29,286m², giving the development a Floor Space Index of 13.78 across the subject lands. For reference, the neighbouring proposal at 1837-1845 Bayview Avenue has a Total Gross Floor Area of 18,164m² and a Floor Space Index of 8.7, highlighting this scheme's densification furthermore.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, 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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| Related Companies: | Aercoustics Engineering Ltd, Civica Infrastructure Inc, EQ Building Performance Inc., Gairloch Developments, WND Associates Ltd |
