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The latest iteration of a development plan for one of the last remaining unredeveloped blocks in Toronto’s West Don Lands was presented at a Waterfront Design Review Panel (WDRP) meeting last month. Located at the east of Cherry Street on either side of Front Street East, redevelopment of the city's first industrial area was initially undertaken in time for the 2015 Pan Am Games. Over a decade since the first new buildings in the area were under construction, a concept for Block 13 within the area has been advancing over the last couple of years. Designed by Henriquez Partners Architects for Dream Unlimited and Kilmer Group, this planned mixed-use condo and townhome project now calls for 16- and 43-storey towers rising from a mixed-height, mixed-use podium.
In 2011, when Infrastructure Ontario issued an RFP to develop this area, Dream and Kilmer emerged as the winning bidders for three of the blocks. Their first Canary District buildings accommodated officials as well as athletes during the 2015 Pan Am Games, then were reconfigured into a mix of condominiums, a college dorm, and apartments afterwards. Block 13, located at 495 Front Street East directly across Bayview Avenue from the celebrated Corktown Common park, is the final piece to be developed under that agreement. (Other blocks remain to be redeveloped in the area, but under different ownership.) Most recently, this block was used as a construction staging area for other nearby projects.
Initially, Block 13 was earmarked for a mid-rise luxury residential development designed by the Mexico-based firm TEN Arquitectos. However, over the subsequent years as Toronto's housing crisis has intensified, priorities have shifted to building increasingly more dwelling units on the site. With Dream and Kilmer having hired Henriquez Partners Architects as the new designers, the 2022 proposal from that team envisioned a 31-storey tower with a stepped, 13-storey, mid-rise base with residential and commercial footprints of 55,946m² and 762m² respectively.
Since then, the proposal has increased in size, and, and been to the WDRP more than once, and its evolution has been in response to comments from City Staff, public consultations, and an earlier WDRP review. The latest design — presented to the WDRP on June 25, 2024 — now proposes 16 and 43-storey towers reaching heights of 56.13m and 139.31m, with 1,084 units in total and a residential Gross Floor Area (GFA) of 64,065m², along with a commercial component of 990m².
The massing of the taller southern tower has been adjusted to enhance natural light to a courtyard within the block and to modify the ground-level interactions along Front Street, while the northeast tower and its tiered podiums were increased to 16 storeys to correspond to the heights of Canary Park Condominiums to the north. The design now also includes a more simplified approach to the building’s materiality and colour scheme. Architectural changes have been made to better reflect the site’s pre-colonial Indigenous heritage, including the inclusion of thematic elements like water and native fauna in the building's aesthetic motifs.
Three levels of above-grade garage accommodating 169 vehicle parking spots (a decrease from the previously proposed 214) are hidden within the complex, along with 1,084 bicycle parking spaces, an increase from the previous total of 885. The plan also includes seven elevators, or approximately one for every 155 units, indicating significantly longer than preferable wait times for residents.
The site is within walking distance of streetcar routes along King and Queen streets, as well as two bus routes, all of which connect with Line 1 and 2 subways. Now under construction and targeted for operation about 2030, East Harbour station on Ontario Line 3 and the Lakeshore East GO corridor will be accessible via a pedestrian bridge over the Don River.
Other nearby developments to the west include the 12-storey Canary Commons which was completed in 2022, followed by Maple House at Canary Landing in 2023, with three towers from 16 to 26 storeys, while Cherry House at Canary Landing is under construction with a 12-storey and two 13-storey towers. Looking ahead, the proposed Oak House at Canary Landing calls for 32 and 46-storey towers. Just to the north, Blocks 17 and 26 call for towers ranging 18 to 43 storeys. Across the Don River to the east, East Harbour is set to have 15 buildings, both commercial and residential, ranging from 23 to 65 storeys.
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, Dream Unlimited, EllisDon, HGC Engineering Inc, Mulvey & Banani, NAK Design Strategies, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering |
