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Stafford Walmer Inc. seeks to redevelop an existing 6-storey building occupied by Cedarvale Terrace Long Term Care (LTC) Home in Toronto's Forest Hill South with a futuristic lattice-clad structure designed by architecture firm IBI Group. Zoning By‐law Amendment (ZBA) and Site Plan Approval (SPA) applications submitted to the City of Toronto by Bousfields Inc. would see a proposed 19-storey mixed-use condominium building replace the current building at 429 Walmer Road, located mid-block between Heath Street West to the north and St Clair Avenue West to the south.
The rectangular site measures approximately 2,364m² is to the northwest of the Spadina Road and St Clair West intersection and is within 350 metres walk of St Clair West subway station on University Line 1, identified by the City Planning Division as a Protected Major Transit Station Area in OPA 570.
Cedarvale Terrace Long Term Care Home provides 217 beds with 24-hours nursing care in its 6-storey red brick building. Planning documentation has clearly stated that: "The applicant has a lease in place with the LTC operator and no changes will occur for the residents of the facility until such a time that the province elects to transition the existing facility at which point the site will be vacant and underutilized."
Rising to 75.9m, Stafford Walmer's proposal consists of an 8-storey base building, a contextually appropriate height that vertically staggers as it rises to 19-storeys. At grade, the podium occupies a sizeable portion of the site. A considerable setback of 7.5m to the eastern plot line allows for the integration of landscaped outdoor amenity space and a vehicular ramp serving three levels of underground parking providing 139 vehicular and 98 bicycle parking spaces. A 3m and 2.5m setback to the western and southern plot lines provide further relief, allowing the building to assimilate into its surroundings. By skewing the podium and tower's orientation towards the site's western limit, the architects have respected the locality of the neighbouring building to the east, striving to minimize the impact their proposal has on it.
At grade level, the principal elevation fronting Walmer Road is relatively orthogonal in its design approach. Vertical stone cladding delineates the double-height undercroft, allowing access for vehicular drop-offs, loading/unloading and a ramp, a spacious residential lobby, indoor amenity space and 200m² of commercial space. As the building rises, a futuristic precast concrete lattice creates a metaphorical exoskeleton that wraps the entirety of IBI Group's scheme and disrupts the condominium status quo aesthetic. Levels 2 through 19 offer 18,250m² of exclusively residential floor area, externally defined by the aforementioned lattice structure.
The proposed development consists of 87 residential units comprising 28 one-bedroom units (32%), 37 two-bedroom units (42.5%), and 22 three-bedroom units (22.5%), which meets the City of Toronto's requirements for percentages of family-size unit types. A proposed Gross Floor Area of 18,450m² would give the site a density of 7.8 FSI.
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: | Arcadis, Bousfields, EQ Building Performance Inc., Gradient Wind Engineers & Scientists, HGC Engineering Inc, MEP Design Inc., Stafford Developments |
