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Along with Toronto's non-stop development, several urban centres around the Greater Golden Horseshoe are evolving at an impressive pace. Looking west to Hamilton’s ongoing urban intensification, a new proposal at 96 John Street North would see the demolition of four older buildings for a modern design. Emblem Developments has submitted a Site Plan Approval application for the mixed-use site.
The site is municipally known as 92-100 John Street North and 61-81 Wilson Street, in Hamilton’s Beasley neighbourhood. Located at the northeast corner of those streets, the site is about 350m north of Main Street. It is currently home to low-rise structures. Although included in Hamilton's Municipal Heritage Register, an evaluation concluded that they do not meet the criteria for cultural heritage value.
Studio JCI has designed a 31-storey building standing 104.5m tall. It would bring 330 new residential units to the neighbourhood. With three elevators included in the architectural drawings, that would mean 110 units per elevator. This is slightly above the threshold of 1 elevator per 100 units.
The design of the redevelopment here has evolved from an initial massing, increasing from a 4-storey podium to 5 storeys, and a tower footprint from 825m² to 850m². In its submission, Emblem Developments notes the opportunity for the building to act as a gateway into Hamilton’s downtown core.
The site would include 5,244m² of amenity space, including outdoor amenities on the sixth and eighth floors. There would also be retail at grade. The building would have a total gross floor area of 24,106m².
The design is meant to give the impression of paired towers rising from podiums of two different heights, the varying exteriors providing enough articulation for the building to not appear monolithic. On the east side, a 14-storey mid-rise volume would be set back 8.1m from the eastern property line. It would also include a 3-storey massing at the north, with levels 4 to 7 having a 3.7m setback from the east property line. The north massing would provide sufficient space for the parking ramp. Parking would be located above ground on floors 2 to 7 on the northern portion of the site with 143 vehicular parking spaces. In addition, the building would offer 332 bicycle parking spots.
Along with the unique massing and visual impression of multiple towers, the design calls for streetscape design and landscaping with trees, paving patterns, and sculptural seating. It also includes a 100m dog run on the northeast corner. The proposal aims to be part of the evolving landscape of downtown Hamilton.
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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