71-Storey Tower Among Plans for Toronto Harbourfront Skyline Site

The recent removal of the Gardiner Expressway’s Yonge-York-Bay off-ramp in Downtown Toronto in favour of the Lower Simcoe Street ramp has opened up the south side of Harbour Street east of Simcoe for redevelopment. Last year, the 1.24-acre site at 200 Queens Quay West, currently an eight-storey above-ground parking garage, was put up for sale by crown corporation Canada Lands Company. Documents submitted to the City this week show that Lifetime Developments and Diamond Corp acquired the property.

Site of the proposed development, image via submission to City of Toronto

Lifetime and Diamond Corp have now submitted a rezoning application to the City to allow a two-tower complex of 41 and 71 storeys to be built in place of the garage. Designed by Wallman Architects, the towers are proposed to rise from a 12-storey podium. The complex would have a gross floor area of 96,009 m², including 86,100 m² of market residential space consisting of 1,372 condominium units, 9,440 m² of affordable housing space across 110 units, and 485 m² of ground-floor institutional space.

Looking southeast to 200 Queens Quay, image via submission to City of Toronto

Primed to hold a prominent space on the Downtown skyline, the towers are proposed to reach heights of 144 metres and 237.5 metres, measured to the top of their mechanical penthouse levels. The latter, if approved at that height, would be 13.5 metres taller than Ten York to its immediate northeast. The tower floor plates are designed to respond to the site’s irregular footprint, a crimped rectangle following the alignment of Harbour Street. The shorter west tower has a mostly rectangular floor plate, while the taller east tower features a polygonal floor plan meeting the bend in Harbour Street, somewhat of a triangle truncated on its east end. The towers’ southern walls are located so as to keep the buildings out of Billy Bishop Airport’s exclusion zone surrounding its flight path, which passes above the 32nd storey of the buildings.

The towers’ exteriors would be differentiated with their own variations of bronze and black frames, covering the north and south elevations of the taller tower and the east and west elevations of the shorter tower. The other elevations are proposed with minimalist glazed balconies. The complex’s defining skyline feature would be an illuminated crown atop the east tower, angled to form a dialogue with the roof feature of Ten York Street to the east.

Looking southeast to 200 Queens Quay, image via submission to City of Toronto

The complex’s 1,372 market units would include 959 one-bedrooms (69.9% of the total), 280 two-bedrooms (20.4%), and 133 three-bedrooms (9.7%). The 110 affordable rental units would be broken down into 36 one-bedrooms (32.7%), 56 two-bedrooms (50.9%), and 18 three-bedrooms (16.4%). In total, the combined 1,482 units include 995 one-bedrooms, 336 two-bedrooms, and 151 three-bedrooms.

A 450 m² POPS (or Privately Owned Publicly accessible Space) designed by landscape architects DTAH is being planned at the west end of the site fronting onto Lower Simcoe Street, while the sidewalk along the south side of Harbour Street would be significantly widened to support separate paths for bicyclists and pedestrians. (Currently they must share the paved multi-use path there.)

Looking southeast to base of 200 Queens Quay, image via submission to City of Toronto

A four-level underground garage would house a mix of resident, visitor, and commercial parking. Two of the four levels would house 223 resident parking spaces, while the other two levels would accommodate 216 commercial parking spaces that are required to be replaced within the proposal from the current garage on the site. Five additional car-share spaces would be provided, part of the proposal’s transportation demand management strategy. In addition, 1,334 long-term and 149 short-term bicycle parking spaces would be housed both above grade and underground.

Additional information and images can be found in our Database file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment below.