Humphries Planning Group Inc have recently submitted Zoning By-law Amendment and Site Plan Approval applications to the City of Toronto on behalf of iKore Developments for a proposed 17-storey condominium building designed by HCA Architecture at 3350 Weston Road on the west side of Weston Road south of Lanyard Road in the Humbermede/Emery neighbourhood of North York. The unorthodox triangular 1.30 hectares (3.21 acres) site sits amongst a series of low-density and mid-rise residential dwellings to the east and abuts Emery Creek, a designated natural area associated with the Humber River ravine parks on the site's western perimeter.

Existing church building from Weston Road, image retrieved from Apple Maps

The existing low-rise Weston Road Pentecostal Church, a concrete block building on the site's northern half and its 33 associated parking spaces, are retained as part of the proposal.

The site is served by the 165 Weston Rd North bus route which serves Wilson station on University Line 1 as its southeastern terminal, and the 989 Weston Express bus which serves Keele station on Bloor Line 2 as its southern terminal. A stop at Weston Road on the Finch Avenue West LRT, now under construction and to open before a building could be built here, will be a couple minutes walk to the north. The LRT should mitigate any potential strain on the existing transit networks, supplementing the development and providing additional services that further increase the site's appeal. 

Site location at 3350 Weston Road, image from submission to the City of Toronto

The residential building proposal, referred to as Emery Park Condominium by the proponents, is sited approximately 5m from the southern facade of the existing church and 3m south of the proposed severance line, a by-product of the future condominium application that would subdivide the plot. Even though the development extends past the church's eastern principal elevation, boundaries were established facing Emery Creek during preliminary designs back in December 2019 with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. This ensures that the contiguous vegetation and biodiversity to the south and west are preserved.

The plans prepared by HCA Architecture showcase a 17-storey tower containing 160 residential units. Approximately 55m / 180ft in height, the total Gross Floor Area is around 11,460m² resulting in an overall site density of 2.09 FSI (inclusive of the church building).

Regarding layout, Emery Park Condominium is 36m wide and 40m long on a partially sunken lower ground floor. This level provides an additional 48 below-grade parking spaces for the Western Road Pentecostal Church, which is accessed via two dedicated ramps to the north leading from the Church's exclusive northern access.

Vibrant green pigmented pre-cast concrete panels that run the building's entire vertical length clad the structural colonnades and create a partial undercroft on the ground floor. This provides covered condominium entrances, a parking drop-off zone and ramp access to the resident's parking above and 50 of the scheme's 120 bicycle parking spaces. A new 7.2m wide full movement access off Weston Road will serve this level, landscaping over the church's existing southern access. A narrower five-storey perforated aluminium panel and patterned glass spandrel panel-clad podium protrudes from the principal elevation. This breaks up the rectilinear mass and provides adequate turning circles to the 168 above-grade parking spaces within. Parking continues on level 6, where the podium is capped with a green roof, and the overall footprint reduces.

Looking northwest to the proposal at 3350 Weston Road, designed by HCA Architecture for iKore Developments.

Floors 7 through 16 are residential, comprising 20 one-bedrooms (12.5%), 120 two-bedrooms (75%) and 20 three-bedrooms (12.5%), which meets the City of Toronto's requirements for percentages of family-size unit types and percentages of barrier free units. On the uppermost 17th floor, an outdoor terrace engulfs the reduced internal building footprint, which provides necessary indoor amenity space.

Excluding the podium level, all four facades are symmetrically balanced through HCA Architecture's use of partially recessed black tinted glass balconies and green pigmented concrete panels. These panels help proportionally divide up a series of aluminium framed glass panels, perforated aluminium panels and patterned glass spandrel panels.

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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