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Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) has filed plans to replace their condemned 1970s-built Swansea Mews complex in Toronto’s High Park–Swansea neighbourhood. Following a ceiling collapse in 2022, a quick study of the townhomes resulted in a quick evacuation of 154 rent-geared-to-income (RGI) homes, Now, plans for a two-tower community rising 20 and 35 storeys, designed by KPMB Architects, would include full one-for-one replacement of the displaced homes plus many additional residential suites.
Occupying roughly 2.1 hectares at the northeast corner of The Queensway and Windermere Avenue, and addressed to 21 Windermere Avenue and 1–154 Swansea Mews, the site has remained vacant since its 2022 emergency evacuation. The property contains nine four-storey stacked townhouse blocks dating to the early 1970s. The irregularly shaped parcel is framed by mid-century apartment towers to the west, low-rise homes to the east and north, and recent high-rise growth across The Queensway to the south.
Swansea Mews long served as one of the city’s larger rent-geared-to-income townhouse communities. Structural deterioration came to light in May, 2022 when a ceiling collapse injured a resident, prompting engineers to more fully investigate and declare the entire complex unsafe. Within weeks, TCHC relocated all 154 households to temporary accommodations across the city, with each tenant guaranteed the right to return to an equivalent RGI home once a redevelopment is complete. Bousfields has now submitted Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment applications to the City of Toronto on behalf of TCHC.
The plan envisions a 35-storey (118.52m) tower in the southwest corner of the site, and a 20-storey (70.95m) tower in the centre, with 5 and 8-storey wings to the north arranged in an inverted U-shaped configuration. Together, the buildings would deliver a Gross Floor Area of 71,268m², translating to a Floor Space Index of 3.36 coverage of the lot, with 70,063m² devoted to housing, 654m² to retail, and 550m² to community-use space.
Across both buildings, a total of 649 rental homes are planned, all under TCHC ownership and operation. This would include 154 rent-geared-to-income replacement units. The overall mix would feature 233 one-bedroom, 188 two-bedroom, 163 three-bedroom, 52 four-bedroom, and 13 five-bedroom suites, a rarely-seen share of large family units for a high-rise project in Toronto. The south building would house 325 units with a podium containing the retail and community uses, while the north one would contain 324 units arranged around a raised courtyard atop a concealed parking level.
The south building would include 1,300m² of amenities split evenly between interior and exterior space on the third floor. The north building would provide a larger total of 5,153m², made up of 747m² indoors and 4,406m² outdoors, with a large elevated courtyard above its parking structure. At street level, a POPS (Privately-Owned Publicly-accessible Space) is planned for the southeast corner.
The development is designed without underground garage levels, with all vehicular parking contained at grade in the enclosed ground level of the north building. A total of 121 spaces are proposed, with 87 for residents and 34 for visitors and non-residential uses. For cyclists, there would be 586 long-term and 130 short-term spaces. Three elevators are planned per tower, equating to roughly one cab for every 108 units, requiring high speed motors for acceptable service levels.
Stops for the 501 Queen and occasional 508 Lake Shore streetcars lie just south of the site on The Queensway. The 77 Swansea bus connects the area north to Runnymede station on Bloor Line 2, while the Queensway 80 buses head for either Sherway Gardnes or Keele station. Future upgrades include the planned Waterfront West LRT, which would extend higher-order transit from Exhibition to Long Branch GO and the new Park Lawn GO station, located about 1.8km west and targeted for completion by 2031. Dedicated bike lanes on The Queensway provide continuous cycling access toward the Humber Trail to the west, High Park trails to the east, and the Martin Goodman Trail along the waterfront to the south.
Along with low-rise development, there is some high-rise development activity in the area. To the west, 34 Southport is planned, bringing residential towers of 26 and 29 storeys to the area. Farther south, a proposal at 2002 Lake Shore Boulevard West would introduce two mixed-use towers of 20 and 36 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: | Bousfields, Gradient Wind Engineers & Scientists |
