On The Map
It is now possible to live inside an enclosed bridge 300 feet in the air
If heights make you queasy, this news may not interest you: it is now possible to live inside an enclosed bridge suspended 300 feet in the air.
Located at the foot of Front and Spadina, over the former railway Lands, the double-decker dwelling links two towers, Parade One and Parade Two, in Concord’s Cityplace mega-project. At 50 acres, it’s the second largest urban community in Canada; the other is Concord Pacific Place in Vancouver.
you’ve likely spotted the 450-tonne bridge that bears the Concord sign while driving along the Gardiner. Or, if you’re a resident in the building, you may have relaxed in the sky lounge on the bridge’s lower level, which for those brave enough to look contains sections of glass flooring.
Sky Bridge, as it’s called, was installed in June 2012, when it was hoisted up over two days and 14 hours in a bold feat of engineering. using a “strand jacking” method, the team deployed steel cables, pulleys and winches to wedge the sevenmetre-high, 130-foot-wide structure into slots left open in each of the towers like slots in a puzzle 33 storeys up.
“It truly is one of a kind,” says Isaac Chan, vice-president of sales and marketing at Concord Adex. “There’s not a lot of situations where you can pass by a bridge and say, ‘That’s my home.’”
While the Parade towers have long been occupied, the developers deliberately lagged when it came to the bridge suites; there are two of them, and one has been sold.
“We saw it as a crown jewel piece. We didn’t want to rush it,” says Chan. “We are community builders. Our vision was to finish the whole community before releasing them.”
up until now the suites were in a “shell stage,” says Chan, who adds they considered renting them out for special events like fashion shows. “They received inquiries from people in the film industry, especially around TIFF season.”
But the developer decided to maintain a sense of mystery about them. The closest anyone got to accessing them was “for Canada’s 150th birthday,” Chan says, “when an orchestra performed on the terrace — that was cool.” (It’s 823 square feet, by the way, and has extraordinary views facing both south and north.)
The unsold suite is for sale now, for $4.55 million, with maintenance fees set at $1,897 per month. (The neighbouring bridge unit that has already sold is slightly smaller.)
The three-level, 4,168-square-foot unit was designed by LIV design Studio and comes fully furnished.
There are three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a den, a reading/piano nook and 10½-foot ceilings.
In the entrance, the double-height sitting area feels house-like, until you reach the suite’s linear bridge portion. The footprint and sight lines feel distinctly bridge-like: Cross-hatched steel columns and glass swatches frame panoramic views on both sides. The city tumbles out to the north. Look south and there’s Lake Ontario receding into the horizon. An open dining and living area are located in this part of the suite. There’s a sleek, espresso-coloured kitchen with Miele appliances at one end and a double-sided electric fireplace with a seating area on the other.
Another room with lake views is the master bath — which at 400 square feet is as large as a bachelor apartment. Clad in white marble, the standalone tub with matte-black hardware sits on a raised platform. A bather can kick back and take in the lake and the CN Tower over their soapy toes.
“Because it’s in the house category, and buyers may be moving from a house or have multiple cars, we made sure the garage felt special,” says Chan of the enclosed, private three-car garage equipped with a large storage space.
As for who’s going to live there, Chan says it won’t necessarily be an athlete or an actor, as most would expect.
“We had one inquiry from someone in the financial industry in the States,” says Chan. “They wanted a stopover pad with some presence for hosting. Or it could be an expressive person that doesn’t mind showing people where they live, someone who appreciates architecture.”
The Bridge suite is priced at $4.55 million for 4,168 square feet. For information, visit concordpacific.com.