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Developer Collecdev and owners Dufferin-401 Properties Limited have recently submitted Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment, Site Plan Approval, and Draft Plan of Subdivision applications for 3400 Dufferin Street and 8 Jane Osler Boulevard, just west of Yorkdale Shopping Centre in North Work. Designed by architects gh3*, the applications would facilitate two 29-storey high-rise buildings and one 10-storey mid-rise building.
Forming a distinctive L-shape, the 16,680m² subject site lies on the west side of Dufferin Street, south of Highway 401 and north of Jane Osler Boulevard. It is currently occupied by a Honda Car Dealership 1-2 storeys in height with associated surface parking at 3400 Dufferin Street and a two-storey single detached dwelling at 8 Jane Osler Boulevard.
Bound by a major arterial road and provincial highway to the east and north respectively, the site is served by an array of existing transit services, notably the TTC bus routes that ply Dufferin Street and serve close-by Wilson Station on University Line 1. Another Line 1 station, Yorkdale, is 1.2km to the east. Dufferin Street could soon become an enhanced priority corridor with the TTC's Service Plan proposing exclusive bus lanes on Toronto's busiest bus corridors, which would improve the existing transportation networks further.
Architects gh3* proposal comprises a 29-storey residential tower, a 29-storey mixed-use residential tower, and a 9-storey mixed-use building. The taller structures are considered "traditional podium-point towers" per the planning rationale. Sited in the upper portion of the site where the former Honda Car Dealership and surface parking lay, these are orientated around a new public road network that hugs the southern and western site perimeters, connecting Dufferin Street with Fitzrovia's under construction development at 3450 Dufferin Street to the north. Blocks A and B, as they have been referred to in planning literature, utilize a 'U-shaped' podium that creates two internalized courtyards. Leading directly off the new municipal road, which extends west from Dufferin Street and connects to Bridgeland Avenue in the north, the courtyards provide access to designated block loading bays and vehicular ramps serving two levels of below-grade parking. The underground parking for Blocks A, B and C are not connected, with each requiring its own ramped access. In total, they provide the scheme with 377 vehicle parking spaces and a percentage of the development's 670 bicycle parking spaces.
Ranging from 6 to 8 storeys, the 'U-shaped' podiums help provide a mid-rise precedent for the proposed smaller mid-rise building, positioned in the southeastern site peninsula, which staggers in height as it transitions to the low-rise residential dwellings to the west, and effectively transitions from the 91.5m tower to the neighbouring low-rise dwellings and public park. A distinctive checkerboard pattern comprised of light pre-cast wall panels and inset balconies helps create depth to the façade, giving the scheme a somewhat monolithic appearance. This effectively ties all three blocks together, making them read as visually coherent.
Other than a 1,149m² retail unit fronting Dufferin Street and a newly formed shared private drive to the north in Block A, plus a 288m² retail again fronting Dufferin Street in Block C, both at ground level, the remainder of the development contains 834 residential units and 3,276m² of combined indoor and outdoor amenity space. The residential units are comprised of 490 one-bedrooms (59%), 258 two-bedrooms (31%), and 86 three-bedrooms (10%), which meets the City of Toronto's requirements for percentages of family-sized unit types. A proposed Gross Floor Area of 60,549m² would give the site a gross density of 3.65 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, Collecdev-Markee Developments, EQ Building Performance Inc., gh3 |
