LOFTY LIVING
In a clutch of new super-tall condos coming to market , there’s a tradeoff for unobstructed sightlines on upper floors: sunset viewing is indoors-only
Drew Desmond doesn’t miss the fifth-floor balcony he and his partner left behind after buying a suite on the 68th floor of Canada’s tallest residential building.
“We definitely used our old balcony quite a bit, but it was small and it overlooked a parking lot,” the fortysomething stock market analyst says of the two-bedroom Liberty Village unit the couple rented from 2013 to 2015. Since moving into the 78-storey Aura Condo at Carlton and Yonge, he says, “we wake up to the most amazing views every day.”
Built by Canderel Stoneridge, the 272-metre-tall Aura is home to 985 suites, most of which include balconies. From the 59th floor up, however, higher ceilings and taller panoramic windows replace private outdoor spaces. When Desmond wants fresh air, he either cracks a window or takes an elevator down 63 floors to the building’s 40,000-square-foot podium-top terrace. “It takes me about a minute to get down to the terrace, which is so much nicer than any balcony could ever be,” he says, adding that after four years of watching sunsets from the 68th floor, “we tell people there’s nowhere for us to go but up.”
If he’s serious about that, he’ll soon have plenty of options. With several even loftier condo projects now under construction, on sale or in the planning stages, the number of Torontonians residing at 50 storeys or over is set to increase over the next five years.
According to Chestnut Park Real Estate broker Dylan Donovan, who sold several pre-construction units in Mizrahi Developments’ 85-storey The One, “It’s becoming easier to live on higher floors than it was in the past, when you had to take elevators that were slow and crowded. Now it’s convenient.”
Penthouse residents of The One, for instance, will be able to reach the building’s sixth-floor terrace in as little as 43 seconds by using any of its four non-stop Skyrise elevators. “This being a high-end building, one of the things we’ve heard from the market is that people don’t want to wait for an elevator,” says Joshua Lax, Mizrahi’s vice-president of development.
And of course the lack of private outdoor space up high doesn’t preclude a buyer from zipping down to outdoor amenities on offer at lower levels. Here’s how four of the newest supertalls are negotiating the tradeoff.
SKYTOWER, 95 STOREYS
The tallest of three towers rising over the 4.4-million-square-foot Pinnacle One Yonge, a mixed-use community at the foot of Yonge Street, the 313-metre Skytower will be home to more than 800 condo suites ranging from 520 to 2,300 square feet.
Like Aura, Skytower’s uppermost reaches will favour expansive windows over balconies from the 78th floor up. “When you’re up in the 80s and 90s, it’s really more enjoyable to take in the views through windows than outside on a balcony,” says Anson Kwok, Pinnacle International Realty Group’s vice-president of sales and marketing. “We’re obviously concerned about wind, as well as the safety of leaving things outside on the balcony. We’ll still have operable windows up there so you can get fresh air.”
The building’s sleek, tapered design by Hariri Pontarini Architects would also have made balconies prohibitively small on upper floors. “We didn’t want to have 25-square-foot balconies just to say we have them,” Kwok says.
As for alternative alfresco options, an outdoor pool, a terrace with barbecues, a dog walk and a 2.5-acre public park at the base of the development are in the works.
MIRVISH+GEHRY WEST TOWER, 82 STOREYS
David Mirvish describes this monumental project, being developed by Great Gulf, Dream Unlimited and Westdale Properties, as “unlike anything that has been built in Toronto.”
Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the pair of 82and 72-storey towers, set to contain 2,087 suites, will be covered not with balconies but with surface treatments including a glass curtain wall and a mottled reflective material of as-yet-unknown composition. Overlooking the Theatre District along King Street West, a series of communal landscaped terraces will adorn a six-storey stepped podium, giving residents a chance to spend time outdoors on-site. The multipurpose podium will also house a new Mirvish Collection public gallery and an OCAD University campus.
1200 BAY STREET, 87 STOREYS
This Swiss-canadian architectural effort, helmed by developers Kroonenberg Groep and Prowinko, is notable for its super-skinniness as much as its supertall status. According to planning documents, the 14.08-metre width of the tower above the 16th floor yields a height-to-width ratio of approximately 1:18. This will make 1200 Bay the skinniest tower in the city and one of the skinniest in North America. The project will also be the densest in Toronto, housing nearly 54,900 square metres of gross floor area in an 890-square-metre site.
Instead of balconies, the 332 condo units will feature floor-to-ceiling operable windows with external shutters designed to regulate both natural light and heat. A restaurant and sky lounge will occupy the top three floors.
THE ONE, 85 STOREYS
Now under construction and slated for completion in 2023, the 416 suites in Canada’s first supertall condo will feature “Sky Benches” in lieu of balconies. Following the perimeter of outward-facing glass walls, this indoor built-in bench seating will snug up against the floorto-ceiling windows, giving residents a comfortable perch for taking in unobstructed views.
Penthouse units on the top six floors, meanwhile, will include everything from climate-controlled garden rooms and glass-enclosed terraces to indoor lap pools. A 9,000-square-foot garden terrace will sprawl across the top of The One’s six-storey podium, where a heated all-season infinity pool will run the length of the outdoor space.