The development partnership of Dream Unlimited, Kilmer Group, and Tricon Residential has been seeing an immensely positive response from among those commenting on the UrbanToronto Forum as their Maple House at Canary Landing project moves into the final stages of construction across the street from the Distillery district. With occupancy around the corner, the topic on everyone’s mind is the quality of the architecture by Danish firm COBE Architects in collaboration with Toronto’s architects—Alliance. Equally impressive is landscaping plan from CCxA, which delivers the same high quality of design out in the public realm for all to enjoy.

Looking southeast to Maple House at Canary Landing nearing completion, image by UT Forum contributor Marcanadian

While interior construction ramps up to complete the nearly 800 rental units that will soon be welcoming occupants, the focus of the landscaping team in recent weeks has been on installing pavers, now that the concrete forming for the planters and curbs is essentially finished. One of the spaces coming together nicely is located between the west and central buildings, where a courtyard outdoor space provides a pedestrian connection from the north side of the site to the south. Lined with grade level retail, these connections will play a key role in animating the streetscape. 

Pedestrian connection coming to life between west and central building, image from Instagram @ccxa.landscape

In the image above, shared on Instagram by CCxA, we can see where red-brick pavers transition into more ornate duo-toned pavers used specifically for the north-south connections. Above all of this, a bridge for residents connecting the podium-top amenity areas of the west and central buildings has also been installed, framing the view up Cooperage Street to the north.

Another image from the same post also provides a close up view of the pavers, highlighting the exceptional level of detail that adds more visual interest to the pedestrian-only space. The black and red pavers (white-ish pavers above are simply red ones coated in construction dust, still to be cleaned) are laid by hand in an accented herringbone pattern, each paver impressed with pair of a decorative concentric circles framed by brick-pattern squares. 

Detail shot of black and red pavers used for north-south connections, image from Instagram @ccxa.landscape

But the accent paving doesn’t end there; all the way at the northwest corner of the site, the Mill Street bike lane that runs parallel to the site’s northern limit has also received a stylish hardscaping treatment. The image below shows the bike turning lane at the intersection of Cherry and Mill Streets being redone with green pavers, with cycle wayfinding in white. 

Mill Street bike lane has been treated with pavers as well, image by UT Forum contributor everydayhim

Meanwhile, along the southern frontage of the site, the previously underused area adjacent to the TTC’s Distillery Loop Station is preparing for its activation with new retail and a sculpted sidewalk. The red pavers populate the wide pedestrian walkway, meeting a large concrete curb that will divide the sidewalk from the plantings slated to fill the space to the south. (A future phase of development will add one more row of buildings to the south, eventually.)

Looking east at landscaping along the site's southern frontage, image by UT Forum contributor ADRM

Another instagram post from CCxA shows the same southern frontage a few weeks later, but puts our focus on the private terrace space above, which has now been outfitted with retro-style umbrellas, a variation on the pink umbrellas at another CCxA-designed site, the well-loved Sugar Beach. 

Umbrellas installed on private terrace, image from Instagram @ccxa.landscape

With the public realm now nearing completion, things are looking up, and the people of Toronto will be looking for their chance to explore these new public spaces once they can.  

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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