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Downtown Toronto's dreams of getting the promised Rail Deck Park may now be dashed, but that has not stopped the City from dreaming big when it comes to covering over its rail trenches. Further north, the City is exploring options of redeveloping its TTC lands at Yonge and Davisville, and along with a significant amount of residential and commercial uses, the proposal also includes nearly one hectare of parkland, all of which would be decked over the existing subway tracks, station, and rail yard. Details of the feasibility study were revealed at the Design Review Panel in January, 2023.
The TTC property at the southwest corner of Yonge and Davisville includes the TTC's headquarters, located within the 1958-built William McBrian Building at 1900 Yonge, along with the subway station and the Davisville Yard, a storage and maintenance facility used to service trains on Yonge Line 1. Also included in the development is a portion of the rail trench north of Chaplin Crescent, stretching the full length of the block to Imperial Street.
In 2019, the City adopted the ModernTO program, an initiative to modernize and optimize its office portfolio across the city, which included unlocking surplus properties in prime locations for redevelopment, the majority of which are in or near the downtown core. The William McBrien Building and Davisville Yard was one such surplus property included in the ModernTO initiative.
Since then, the City, through CreateTO, has embarked on an extensive feasibility study to determine the best way forward on how to redevelop the property. Enlisting Zeidler Architecture, they explored several options and engaged extensively with the public through consultations, and have now landed on a preferred option to advance. The first phase of the feasibility study focused on establishing a vision for the site, and they are now moving into phase two which will be looking at the financial viability of the proposal, and will go a little more in-depth on the complex engineering involved.
The redevelopment of the TTC lands is divided into phases. The first phase, referred to as 1900 Yonge, involves the redevelopment of the William McBrien Building. The City plans to retain the existing building in its entirety, while building a new tower in the 40-storey height range to the south and over top of it.
The existing building would be renovated and maintained as office space, with a total of 9,800m² of commercial and non-residential space proposed. The Davisville Station bus loop, which currently occupies the majority of the ground floor, would be relocated to the west over the subway station, freeing up a significant amount of space for grade-level retail. In the tower above, roughly 27,750m² of residential space would be added, including an affordable housing component. Significant improvements to the public realm are also proposed along Yonge and Chaplin Crescent.
The second phase, referred to as Davisville Yard, involves decking over the entirety of the existing train yards and maintenance facility. All of the TTC's operations would be maintained at this location, but would now continue to function underneath the development, rather than in the open air. There would, of course, be a reconfiguration of the TTC's maintenance and storage facility - the car house, for one, would need to be rebuilt - but the logistics of this have yet to be fully ironed out.
The Davisville Yard phase involves the construction of two more buildings along Yonge Street, to the south of 1900 Yonge, which would together contain roughly 33,000m² of residential space, including affordable housing, and around 30,870m² of commercial and non-residential space. The buildings would step down in height from 1900 Yonge to better fit within the existing context, with the north building rising somewhere in the 25-storey range, and the south building stepping down from around 15 storeys to a lower mid-rise portion.
The remainder of the Davisville Yard portion — nearly one hectare (10,000m²) in area — would become a new signature park for the neighbourhood. The park, built on the new deck over the TTC tracks and facilities below, would expand and increase access to both Oriole Park immediately to the west of the property, and to the popular Beltline Trail that runs along the southern border of the site. A significant pedestrian connection between the park and Yonge Street is proposed at the intersection of Balliol Street, and the green space would also connect to Chaplin Crescent. A service road would run along the west side of the buildings, but would be designed as a woonerf.
There are two other intriguing components of the Davisville Yard phase. First, a significant community space is planned to be built over top of the new bus loop, which would be relocated to the west as part of the 1900 Yonge phase. The City has not yet defined what this community space would be, but they plan to consult with local residents to brainstorm ideas and assess what uses would best serve the neighbourhood. Secondly, a new park would be built north of Chaplin Crescent, noted as being part of a future phase, that would deck over the rail trench there and would expand the existing Fiona Nelson Parkette.
The proposal does come with some significant constraints, the most obvious one being the challenge of maintaining TTC operations below grade, and what impact this would have on the design of the park above. There is also a significant slope to the site, resulting in the subway tracks being at grade level at the southern end of the property. This grade change poses a challenge for designing the streetscape along Yonge, and for connecting the new park to the street, which would be one storey above grade at its south end.
The Design Review Panel responded very positively to the proposal, complimenting the City on their ambitions and the overall positive effect the development would have not just on the local neighbourhood, but on the city as a whole, with its precedent-setting implications.
One missed opportunity the Panel highlighted was the treatment of Merton Street, saying that the street and intersection, and their relationship to the new development, had been neglected. There is significant density along Merton with more coming down the development pipeline, and the Panel identified it as a potential major access point into the new park. They also offered suggestions on how to deal with the grade change along Yonge that may result in an unfortunate wall along the street, suggesting there was an opportunity for public art, a green wall, or even a public glimpse into the subway tracks and operations beyond through large openings.
The biggest question asked by the Panel, however, was a bit of a doozy: is all this even feasible? They loved the ambitions of the development, but were apprehensive about the lack of a business plan or in-depth financial analysis. Panel members pointed out the various expensive components of the development: decking over a rail yard while maintaining operations below; retaining a heritage structure and building over top of it; and constructing a community space over top of a bus loop, to name a few. In a moment of self-reflection, they acknowledged the irony in their statements: often, they stated, they are presented with overly pragmatic proposals and are pushing the designers to be more aspirational, but in this case, they are cautioning an "intensely aspirational" proposal to perhaps consider a bit of pragmatism.
The City has their work cut out for them to bring this project to fruition, but it is clear that they have very big ambitions for this development, and seem determined to realize the full potential of this prime piece of real estate. It is still very early on in the design process, and once the City completes the second phase of the feasibility study we will have a clearer picture of what the future of this site will hold. For now, we can only wait and hope and dream that Toronto will finally get its first public Rail Deck Park.
We will keep you updated as the redevelopment of the TTC Headquarters and Davisville Yard evolves through the design and planning process, but in the meantime, you can tell us what you think by checking out the associated Forum thread or by leaving a comment in the space provided on this page.
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