Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/423872
T he site wasn't much to look at. A two-storey concrete parking garage wedged onto a sliver of land dwarfed by a monolithic Bell switching station to the north. All this was across the street from another parking garage to the south. That this site would eventually house No. 210 Residences on Simcoe, a contemporarily designed, 25-storey, 296-unit condo, is a testament to the architectural and development team's skill and imagination, and the input of Diamond Corp. – co-developer of the project that handled the zoning and development approvals. Located just west of University Avenue and only a block north of Queen Street West, it is a two-minute walk to the closest subway and ideally situated for residents seek- ing a truly urban existence. The constraints start with the lot. At 60-feet wide and 250-feet deep, only a narrow design would fit. But there was an additional complication. To the north sat the Bell building – so close that there could be no windows on that side. And the large landowner across the street and to the south, GWL, had long ago purchased a one-foot reserve along 210 Simcoe's side of the street to con- trol any development there. This meant the entire south side of the site would be considered immediately adjacent to another property, even though there's nothing there, and therefore ineligible for windows. But these constraint s provided parameters that saw an interesting shape and unique solution emerge. Designed by Henry Burstyn and Sol No. 210 Residences on Simcoe by Yvan Marston Location 210 Simcoe Street, Toronto, Ontario owner 210 Simcoe Holdings Inc. co-deveLopers Sorbara Development Group / Diamond Corp. architect Page+Steele/IBI Group Architects construction Sorbara Development Group structuraL consuLtant Jablonsky, Ast and Partners MechanicaL/ eLectricaL consuLtant ABLEngineering Inc. Landscape architect Ferris + Associates Inc. interior design II by IV Design Associates gross area 302,000 square feet totaL hard cost $57 million Wassermuhl of Page+Steel/IBI Group Architects, 210 Simcoe is essentially two slender glass towers of 5,000 square feet each joined by a recessed section con- taining the elevator core and corridors. By pulling the building back from the street edge, the design's indented sec- tion allows windows and balconies to emerge, functioning in essence as a light well. The buildings east and west faces offer the one-, two- and three-bedroom units exposed views so that light filters through these long living spaces. The outboard south and north faces of both towers are covered in spandrel glass panels, back-painted with a range of five shades of blue to give the struc- ture the effect of being a fully glazed building when in fact it is a solid wall. "The panels are arranged to give a pixi- lated effect, going from light to dark at one edge of the tower and dark to light on the other. This helps to break up the overall massing of the building," explains Burstyn. He adds that the south face sees four slender vertical elements: the west tower scales to the height of the buildings on St. Patrick Street at 20 sto- reys, the additional five levels that top it are set back, there's also the recessed area and then the east tower, which rises to a full 25 storeys. To speed up construction half of Michael Sweet Avenue was enclosed to use for site egress and staging. "If we hadn't done that, we'd still be talking about how the building was still com- ing out of the hole," says Greg Tanzola, Sorbara Development Group's director of high-rise construction. His team essentially took over one side of the short east-west street run- ning across the site's south. To do this, they doubled the street's width by pav- ing over the opposite side's boulevard, relocated hydro poles and streetlights and hoarded-in their side of the street. As a construction site in the central core of the city, access was already an issue, but part of what complicated matters further was the nearby U.S. consulate. While the consulate fronts on Universit y Avenue, its employee ent rance, park ing compound and visa application lineups provide Sim- coe Street with plent y of activ it y. What's more, drivers stopping in the vicinity are approached by armed secu- rity guards and encouraged to move on. The Bell switching station to the north was another neighbour whose concerns needed to be addressed. Pro- viding data services to many financial services firms as well as much of the city's downtown hospital infrastruc- ture, tremendous care had to be taken to reduce vibrations when excavating and shoring, says Tanzola. "We had to be very methodical about our shoring program because there was a lot of fibre optics that ran along the property line," says Tanzola. In some cases, hydrovac excavation was employed rather than drilling or auguring – in part to reduce vibration, but also because this non- destructive method of excavation uses pressurized water and a powerful vac- uum to safely expose buried pipes, or in this case a fibre optic duct bank. The built structure's underground would eventually yield three levels of parking, but given the tight site con- straints, the team decided to install t wo car elevators rather than lose space to a ramp. This way each level could accommodate 30 parking spaces. "The challenge there," recalls Tan- zola, "was to find someone to do this kind of elevator work." While there are a few car elevators installed in some downtown hotels, the Sorbara team sought advice from car dealerships. It eventually found a supplier to develop a solution that includes a series of traf- fic signals and mandatory training for anyone using the elevator. But this isn't a building for drivers. As the cit y 's available development land is snatched up, projects such as these begin to test the mettle of true urban living, which by one definition is car-less. This is a walking building. Scoring 100 out of 100 on its Google Walk rat ing , 210 Simcoe is located in what is described as a "walker 's paradise." The location's appeal is undeniable. But where so many others passed it over because of the site constraints – which formed considerable construc- tion and design challenges – it seemed to be waiting for just the right team to see these constraints as guidelines rather than obstacles. n renderings courtesy sorbara development group 84/ december 2014 No. 210 residences on Simcoe Page + Steele