WINNER OF A 2019 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Materials and detailing pick up on existing neighbourhood buildings, tying this development to its surroundings on Toronto?s formerly industrial waterfront.
Block 8 is a three-building development in Toronto?s 80-hectare West Don Lands. The brownfield site has a patchwork of neighbours: the brick warehouses of the Distillery District, the glass and steel of the Canary District, and the last vestiges of an industrial waterfront.
The project also has a charged socio-economic context. Toronto faces a 33 percent population growth over the next 20 years, and though renters comprise 22 percent of households, only 10.9 percent of new residential construction is purpose-built rental. As a pilot project for the City, Block 8 will fast-track 770 units of rental housing. Thirty percent of these units will be affordable. Ten percent of all of the units are sized for families. Over 25 percent of all units are either fully accessible or barrier-free, allowing residents to age in place. Affordable and market units alike are designed to a high level of quality and distributed evenly through all three towers. Inspired by their surroundings, the buildings are composed in three tiers. A masonry podium reflects the industrial vernacular of the Distillery District?s single-storey tank houses. The middle layer uses deeply carved lintels and angular infill panels to pick up on the gridded façades of local warehouses. Scallop-patterned tower...