Canada Life Building 344 University Avenue (?, ?s, GWL)

[bilked]

Isn’t there a plan to move Michael Sweet Ave south to allow a building to go up at the property line with 210 Simcoe?

Diamond and Sorbara's No. 210 Simcoe Soon to Top Off | UrbanToronto

No. 210 Simcoe is close to topping out at 25 storeys, soon to bring 298 condo units to an area of the city populated primarily by office buildings

urbantoronto.ca

Apart from the parkade, nothing in this complex should be touched.

 

[Northern Light]

Isn’t there a plan to move Michael Sweet Ave south to allow a building to go up at the property line with 210 Simcoe?

Diamond and Sorbara's No. 210 Simcoe Soon to Top Off | UrbanToronto

No. 210 Simcoe is close to topping out at 25 storeys, soon to bring 298 condo units to an area of the city populated primarily by office buildings

urbantoronto.ca

I'm not certain what was intended/done there, but the north side is redeveloped now; shift the road to the south would impair development of the parkade, not help.

The parkade site is ~26,000ft2 which would easily support a tower on its face, but if you're not demo'ing the immediately adjacent office tower, you do run into some separation issues potentially, depending on what shape you build. There are windows on the north face of the existing office.

20M separation would take you 1/2 way through the parkade, that would challenging. Hmmm, If you got a bit creative w/window angles, I think you could get 2 towers into the parkade site, with floor plates of 650-750m2

Apart from the parkade, nothing in this complex should be touched.

I basically agree, though the northernmost office building isn't in the same league of importance as the University-fronting heritage.

 

[bilked]

I'm not certain what was intended/done there, but the north side is redeveloped now; shift the road to the south would impair development of the parkade, not help.

My only source was the UT thread/article. I still hope that’s the plan - I’ve been waiting almost a decade for something to cover up that silly baby blue pixilated spandrel wall on No. 210 Residences!

 

[christiesplits]

My heart stopped when I saw this thread appear.

 

[Northern Light]

My only source was the UT thread/article. I still hope that’s the plan - I’ve been waiting almost a decade for something to cover up that silly baby blue pixilated spandrel wall on No. 210 Residences!

Ahhh, I hadn't thought of doing it that way, if you move the road all the way south to whether the north wall of the office tower is, that builds separation distance.

I didn't immediately realize that wall was entirely spandrel.

2 towers are very viable in that context.

 

[Riseth]

I actually wouldn't mind 190 Simcoe or 17 St Patrick Street being redeveloped (with something aesthetically appealing of course). The Canada Life Building itself, yeah that should be off limits to development, period.

My as well tear down the financial district towers while they're at it and replace them with cheap condos

 

[maestro]

it's telling of the state of heritage in Toronto when there are concerns over alterations happening to the tower itself.

I expect a taller version of Artist Alley fitted on the site of the data centre and parking garage. I also count on Ford coming up with something on the Campbell House site.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

I can count on Ford to raise everyone's worst fears though... /sigh

 

[C-mac]

It’s so bad. All I can see when I look at it is the Chick-fil-A logo.


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I think of this one:

 

[1Ć0]

You can tell that the 2017 plans deferred to the height of the Canada Life Tower as remaining the prominent height element.
I think you'd have a hard time building something that would overshadow it.

Perhaps but 2017 was a lifetime ago! In today’s climate I can see a radical reworking of any previous plans.

The urban design guideline for the area is actually from 2004 as shown in the footer of the PDF. Which makes it even more out of date and probably redundant today given the changes the area has experienced as of late, including TOcore (despite concordance requirements by the city)

2017 is the date that the guidelines were likely uploaded online and continued to be in effect as of that date.

The guideline from 2004 still applies, but can be argued to be outdated and antiquated at this point - it can be informative, but not in any way determinative (not to mention that it is also a guideline)

 

[Northern Light]

Well, BlogTO did manage to get a denial of any application here..............sort of..........

Owner insists no plans to redevelop a pair of iconic Toronto landmarks

A property owner claims there are no 'specific' plans to alter two Depression-era Toronto landmarks after a pair of lobbying files emerged indicati...

www.blogto.com

From the above:

In a statement provided to blogTO, a representative of GWL reassures the public, saying, "at this point, we do not have specific plans for our Canada Life building at 330 University Avenue."

I will say that denial is a tad equivocal sounding......

 

[ProjectEnd]

"Specific" doing a lot of legwork there...

 

[A Torontonian Now]

330 University Avenue is essentially a courthouse now. It had long held the Commercial List courtrooms, but in the last several years, the majority of civil court functions for Toronto's Superior Court of Justice have moved there from 393 University. Those renovations have been at considerable cost, and I am certain the Superior Court is an excellent tenant. In the context, I cannot see any significant alteration to the Canada Life building moving forward in the foreseeable future.