Plans for a new city park in Spadina and Adelaide have been in the works for years, and a recent development application offers a first look at this futuristic public space and the stunning condo tower that will accompany it at 101 Spadina.
The new app shows retro-inspired tower designs with soaring arches and expansive green spaces. Designed by Audax Architecture for developers Great Gulf and Devron Developments, the new building will rise 39 stories above a 1,000 square meter public park.
The current location includes a parking lot and a few businesses in the south, most notably Strange Love Coffee. Everything will be replaced by the proposal, although this will likely be a few years later at the earliest.
Bojan Savabor, president of Devron Developments, told blogTO that the goal here is to create “a building that looks and lives as elegantly in 50 years as when built,” standing out from the sea of glass towers with the time-tested stone finishes and “taking cues from the neighborhood’s character.”
It’s something Savabor vows will “live in harmony with the beautiful architectural heritage of Spadina Street”.
For this, the developers signed up to Audax Architecture, with Director Gianperio Pugliese to shape a design approach that “is based on consideration of context and study of the patterns of building elements typical of the area.”
The architecture of 101 Spadina is influenced by the surrounding architecture, which includes a mixture of historic warehouses and manufacturing buildings.
“In this way, we aim to create a timeless building that respects the past and offers a new interpretation of traditional forms, all while respecting ancient and common ideas of beauty in architecture,” Pugliese says.
The building will include arches, prominent trees and shrubs to distinguish it from the glass towers that dominate the surrounding King West and Entertainment District areas.
The neighborhood will get a much-needed park, but the project will pump 394 units into one of the city’s most densely populated areas. The vast majority of these units have been proposed as investor-friendly one-bedroom units, at 236, along with 119 two-bedroom and 39 three-bedroom.
Apart from the apartments, the park will come with another caveat. Constructed over a parking garage, this public space will have a relatively short life before needing to be excavated and rebuilt a few decades down the road.
This was recently the case with College Park, where a waterproof membrane between the park and a multi-level garage below had to be replaced, and the reason for the revitalization of the park completed in 2019.
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