Location: 1 Bloor St East, Toronto
Developer: Great Gulf Homes
Architect: Hariri Pontarini Architects
Status: Under Construction (Excavation)
This is Canada's most important intersection. The corner of Yonge and Bloor streets in downtown Toronto is a bustling hub of activity for pedestrians, drivers, and commuters. It is the intersection of two subway lines, on the longest street in the world, and home to the cities second pedestrian scramble crossing. The corner is the northern bookend to downtown Toronto's skyline and probably the most appropriate site in the city for an iconic tower.
The Original Proposal
The large plot of land sitting at the south-east corner has a storied history. It had seen numerous proposals and redesigns that have fallen flat until Great Gulf's most recent proposal. The original proposal from the 1990s envisions a tower with an oval shaped plan that narrows towards the top. It's crown is a sort of shark fin shaped thing reminiscent of early condo designs in Vancouver.
Original 1990s Proposal for 1 Bloor.
The proposal rezoned the site for a large mixed use tower but nothing came of it. A few years ago in a lecture I recall a professor discussing how the proposal was only intended to drastically increase the value of land with the intent of selling for huge gains - the developer had not intended to build the building at all.
Second & Third Designs
A development company from Kazakhstan called Bazis purchased the site and proposed a mixed use tower with large scale retail, residential and hotel space. The design was released in the early days of Toronto's massive building boom that continues to this day. Of course, the proposal sat stale for a while before Bazis released their third design.
Second and third designs for 1 Bloor by Bazis.
Fourth Design: It Hits the Market
In 2007 this development became the talk of the town when Bazis officially released their 3rd design (4th overall for the site) and the project hit the market. It became the biggest development in town and people lined up overnight for the opening of the sales office. Needless to say it seemed this was the most successful condo project in the city.
Fourth design for 1 Bloor
Fifth Design: Great Gulf Takes Over
Despite Bazis' great success with sales, the Lehman Brothers who financed the project went bankrupt and the project was no more. Great Gulf bought the site from Bazis and came up with the site's fifth design which is slightly scaled back, but features a much more elegant design by Hariri Pontarini Architects.
The architects use balconies to their advantage to create a sleek curvy façade along the tower, as well as a series of terraces on the podium.
Fifth (and final) Design by Great Gulf + Hariri Pontarini Architects
Construction photo posted by Androiduk on urbantoronto.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment