Just a walk to the park
New condo The Keeley is a stroll to Downsview Park, plus new subway and GO stations
Stella Rahman says she didn’t find her Sheppard-Keele neighbourhood especially interesting when she and husband Mohammed bought their new, semi-detached house there in 1997.
“My daughter was accepted into a gifted program and our goal was to live near her school,” explains Rahman, a free- lance interpreter who is fluent in five languages.
“Downsview Park was almost right in front of our door, but it was a military base then and there wasn’t anything too exciting for us other than our daughter’s education.”
In the 20 years since, they’ve come to appreciate their North York neighbourhood — especially the transformation of Downsview Park into an urban park from being an aircraft manufacturing centre and Canadian Forces base.
Still being developed, the park is where the Rahmans enjoy the trails and greenspace several times a week.
With their daughter grown and on her own, and Mohammed soon to retire, the couple’s 2,800-square-foot house is large for just the two of them. They found a downsizing option just a block away: at The Keeley, a new 12-storey midrise condo from TAS, on Keele St., just south of Sheppard Ave., that will have 319 suites. The Rahmans will pass their current home on to their lawyer daughter, and move into an 820-square-foot, two-bedroom-with-den suite when the building is ready for occupancy in about four years. TAS President and CEO Mazyar Mortazavi says he wasn’t enthused by The Keeley site when it was brought to his company’s attention five years ago.
“But about 18 months ago, I circled back and went for a Saturday drive,” he says. “What I found was fascinating. The park had started to take shape and I could see the infrastructure. I could see the new GO station and subway taking shape and everything coming into place.”
Mortazavi felt the site “was a bull’s eye in the middle of a very interesting neighbourhood,” and felt TAS could create a development that would help to enhance the area as it transformed.
Architect Martin Baron, of Teeple Architects, had the same view. “For us as architects, it’s important that each building takes cues from the site and we look around to see what we can draw from. When I think of Keele St., I think of the threestorey shoebox apartments along the street. This building is an evolution of that, with those brick boxes stacked up.”
“The other playful move is that the walls are angled and exposed to the sun and triangular shadows will shrink and grow as the sun moves,” says Baron.
Mortazavi is passionate about community building and one of his priorities was to integrate the landscape with the park across the street into the building design. One of the Keeley’s main features will be a transparent lobby — inspired by Japanese hotel lobbies — to provide views of the park in front of the condo, and of the landscaped courtyard and greenspace at the rear.
“There’s an extraordinary ravine system to the rear of the site. You could get on a bike, go to the ravine and bike to York University,” says Mortazavi. “You’re sitting right by a15-kilometre bike trail. There’s unbelievable pedestrian and biking infrastructure.” The popularity of bicycling in the area inspired Mortazavi to put a café catering to cyclists at the corner of the building, closest to the ravine and trail entry.
“I never look at a building as a count of units, but how to deal with the fabric of families and how they will engage with the building,” says Mortazavi.
“One thing I’m super excited about is taking the main fire exit stairs, making them 50 per cent wider and putting in a skylight,” he says. “It will act as a spine in the building, where people can move up and down.”
Rather than being concentrated on one floor, 6,650 square feet of amenities is spread to 12 separate spaces and includes a gym and yoga studio, student study area, co-working area, media room, lounge and family room.
Baron says many of the condo units have been designed with families in mind and include three-bedroom units, plus generous storage and in-suite laundry.
“There are a lot of terraces in the building. We are trying to create a lot of quality outdoor space and to maximize views across the park, the ravine and the natural landscape,” says Baron. “There is an extraordinary amount of greenspace in this project.”
As well as the parkland and lake at Downsview Park, The Keeley residents will be a short walk away from unique leisure and sports options in the old aircraft hangars — these include circus arts, rock climbing, indoor basketball courts, ice and roller rinks. The park is also home to an organic farm, vendors’ market and to the Toronto Wildlife Centre, a hospital and rehabilitation centre for ill or injured wildlife. And a new subway stop and GO transit station has been operating since December.
The Rahmans appreciate they won’t have to leave their burgeoning neighbourhood behind when they move to The Keeley. And they’ll gain something else: a prime view from their fourth floor balcony of the small lake in Downsview Park, directly across the street.