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Maple House at Canary Landing has distinguished itself on the international stage as one of ten winners of the 2024 Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Americas Awards for Excellence. Developed by Dream Unlimited, Kilmer Group, and Tricon Residential, and designed by the Danish architectural firm COBE Architects in partnership with Toronto’s own architects—Alliance, Maple House stands as the sole Canadian recipient of the award.
The ULI’s Americas Awards for Excellence, established in 1979, is a prestigious program that honours development projects across the private, public, and non-profit sectors throughout North America. This year, an impressive pool of 52 submissions vied for this recognition, demonstrating excellence in design, planning, sustainability, and community impact.
A jury of 13 experts, from fields such as development, planning, urban design, and architecture, narrowed them down to 18 finalists, leading to the selection of 10 winners announced earlier this week. Joining the other nine winners from the United States, Maple House stands among them as a significant public-private partnership, involving municipal, provincial, and federal governments for both market-rate and affordable housing.
Located at 125 Mill Street, Maple House emerged from a competitive RFP process led by Infrastructure Ontario in 2017. It is part of a broader 12-acre site designed to transform the West Don Lands. The distinctive architecture draws inspiration from the area's industrial past, bringing sleek modernism together with the historic character of the neighbouring Distillery District. This is particularly evident in the design of the three residential towers ranging from 16 to 26 storeys, which rise from a robust masonry podium reminiscent of the old tank houses.
The residential complex boasts an expansive 40,000 ft² of amenity space, including a gym, a Nordic-inspired outdoor pool offering city views, and multifunctional co-working spaces. The project also features a music recording studio and a dog spa, alongside extensive outdoor terraces.
Sustainability and inclusivity are major facets of the developers’ design philosophy. Targeting LEED Gold and Toronto Green Standards Tier 1 v.3, the design includes features like a low window-to-wall ratio, self-shading facades, and high-efficiency building materials.
The development counts 30% of its units as affordable housing. The units are randomly distributed throughout the building in a “checkerboard” approach, ensuring no distinction between market-rate and subsidized homes. In doing so, the developers looked to play a part in addressing Toronto’s housing shortage and affordability crisis.
Maple House's design and community focus have previously been recognized, earning accolades such as the 2019 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence and the 2022 BILD Award for Best New Community, Planned/Under Development. The building also came out on top in two categories in UrbanToronto's Best of 2023.
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: | architects—Alliance, CCxA, Dream Unlimited, Tricon Residential, Unilux HVAC Industries Inc. |
