April 11, 2012

HARIRI PONTARINI ARCHITECTS

At the building’s base, an arcade of soaring arches frames storefronts and laneway pass-throughs. The red brick construction ties in with the materials palette of neighbouring heritage buildings.

From amoeba to condo, Context poised to build in Toronto

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

TORONTO

Context Development is poised to break ground within the next 12 to 18 months on a condominium project that will occupy an amoeba-shaped site in downtown Toronto.

Designed by architect David Pontarini, a partner at Hariri Pontarini Architects, the 450-suite Context King West development will rise from 10 storeys at King and Adelaide Streets to nearly double that height in the interior of the block.

Such a massing envelope respects the existing King and Adelaide streetscapes while breaking down the scale.

“The architecture is unique,” says Context president Howard Cohen.

“So many condos in Toronto now are precast concrete. Most of them are just, frankly, grey window wall. We wanted to do something different.”

The project is being undertaken by a team that includes Bluescape Construction Management Inc., structural engineers Jablonsky, Ast and Partners and mechanical-electrical engineers Smith and Andersen Consulting Engineering.

Construction cost estimates have not been finalized.

The project will occupy a site in the middle of the block bordered by Adelaide Street West to the north, King Street West to the south, Portland Street to the east and Bathurst Street to the west. The building has four fronts.

Alleyways will “meander” into the middle of the dense city block, beckoning pedestrians into courtyard oases that face “an enticing mix” of retail uses.

“This is not a typical condo: a box with a tower on top,” says Craig Taylor, Context’s director of design and marketing.

“At grade, this will be a microcosm of the Distillery District, with little shops and galleries, in the heart of King Street West.”

At the building’s base, an arcade of soaring, dramatic Roman arches frames storefronts and laneway pass-throughs.

The heavy red-brick construction at this level and the next few storeys ties in with the height and materials palette of neighbouring heritage loft buildings.

The white precast concrete on the upper storeys seems, by way of contrast, to dematerialize as it rises, Context says.

In place of the customary sheer, monolithic curtain wall, a collage of balconies and full-height windows alternately project and recede, enlivening the façade.

The project marks Context’s first collaboration with Pontarini, who has designed many large-scale, mixed-use developments, including the 70-storey One Bloor condo project now under construction at the corner of Toronto’s Yonge and Bloor streets.

Cohen, who set up Context in 1997 with Stephen Gross, felt Pontarini was the obvious choice for lead design architect because he knew the site intimately.

Pontarini’s office sits on an adjoining corner of the block. He also was the architect and planner for an earlier attempt, with another developer, to assemble the same parcels of land for a condominium project.

“Over the years they had assembled pieces to create the oddly configured site we have now,” Pontarini says.

“Adding to the challenge are all these bizarre easements for carriageways that penetrate the block.

“You can build over them, but they have to be kept clear at the ground floor. It’s one of the things that make development and design work in the city interesting. There are several such weird properties in the area; ours is an extreme version.”

Pontarini says an interesting point about the industrial-warehouse area is that the buildings were taxed based on the width of the frontage along main streets such as King Street.

“So they would minimize the frontage with properties that were narrow but penetrated deep into the block. This site is a current version of that.”

Context’s Taylor observes, “To Pontarini’s credit, he picked up on this complicated building footprint and rather than just streamlining it, took inspiration from it. A lot of architects would say, ‘This is my rectangular building and we’ll just pull it in a bit.’ It looks almost like a collection of buildings, a streetscape you might see in Hong Kong, with narrow, tall, structures broken up with inset balconies and outward-projecting bay windows.”

Context currently is completing the Market Wharf development at St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto.

Its Library District Condominiums project now is under construction near Front and Bathurst streets.

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