Life in the glass lane
Bazis project will include pair of cantilevered pools sure to add big ‘wow’ factor to Condos
Eye-popping midtown condo will feature pool jutting out from 31st floor (but please, no skinny-dipping),
Architect Rosario Varacalli believes that Yonge and Eglinton, one of Toronto’s major intersections, deserves more architecural love than it’s received over the years. “The majority of buildings have been around since the ’50s and ’60s, and Eglinton seems like it’s a forgotten street,” Varacalli says in an interview to discuss E Condos. A new two-tower, 860-unit project he’s designed for Bazis Inc. for the northeast corner. E Condos will comprise two towers, one proposed at 64 storeys, the other at 38 storeys. Each building will have a cantilevered glass-enclosed pool jutting out from the 31st floor. “This development will bring a grander sense of architecture and space to the corner,” Varacalli says.
That’s something Bazis president Michael Gold agrees is long overdue.
“When you go to major world cities, and you go to the major intersections, they have significant, iconic architecture,” he says, seated beside Varacalli at the boardroom table of Bazis’ Concord headquarters. “This is the last corner in Toronto that did not have that.
“So I think what we’re bringing here is going to elevate Yonge and Eglinton to that next level.”
E Condos’ 860 residential units range in size from 480-square-foot one-bedrooms to-1,200-square-foot two-bedroom-plus-den suites. Prices start in the mid $200,000s.
The project goes on sale to the general public in early summer. Occupancy is slated for 2017.
The suites, designed by Mike Niven Interior Design, will have ninefoot ceilings and engineered wood flooring in the principal rooms and living areas. Kitchens will have Niven-designed cabinetry, quartz countertops and an appliance package that includes a fridge and dishwasher, electric cooktop, oven and microwave.
Appliances will be hidden behind paneling, “so it doesn’t even look like a kitchen, more like cabinetry,” says Niven. Bathrooms will have a quartz countertop with undermount sink, and a soaker bathtub.
TOUCH OF CLASS
Bazis is developing E Condos in partnership with Metropia Urban Landscapes and RioCan, which will manage the development’s commercial real estate component. (RioCan also operates the Yonge Eglinton Centre across the road.)
The developer is aiming to attract high-end retailers to set up shop at the base of E Condos; with frameless glass walls and 30-foot high ceilings, the building boasts the same sorts of retail spaces that are found along Bloor West.
“We want to bring the same level of sophistication and luxury to Yonge and Eglinton that exists on Bloor,” Gold says. “We want people to feel they are getting nothing less than they would get on the Mink Mile.”
The two E Condos towers will be built around an open piazza that will tie the development in with the surrounding neighbourhood and street life. In addition to the retail space at ground level, the condo will have a lower-level retail concourse that will connect to the Eglinton TTC station and the Yonge Eglinton Centre on the other side of Yonge. “The premise of the building is all about associations, connections and integration — that’s what’s driving the whole design of the project,” Varacalli notes. “It’s about connecting the building to the intersection, to the city, to the existing retail and to the TTC.” ECondos will include office space, as well, making for a total of 35,000 square feet of commercial real estate. Tall buildings like these might make some locals queazy, but with the eventual construction of the new Eglinton LRT line, a high density, mixed-use development is just what’s needed at the corner. “If you can’t put (high buildings) at the major intersection of two transit systems and two major streets,” Gold says, “where can you put them?”
COOL POOL
Each E Condos tower will have a fourth-floor amenity level with a party room, lounge, kitchen, and dining room with separate kitchen. There will also be a fitness room, boxing studio and yoga area in both buildings. These amenity levels will have a wrap-around outdoor area with barbecues, dining tables, bar and lounge seating. The highlight of E Condos, though, are the cantilevered pools at the 31st floor of both towers — “a first for the city,” notes Barbara Lawlor, president of Baker Real Estate, the brokerage handling sales for E Condos. The glass-enclosed pools will dramatically extend out the side of the buildings, offering swimmers and loungers full views of the city below and beyond.
The surrounding pool area, which Niven says he designed to resemble a Miami day club, will have floor-toceiling windows, saunas, lounge seating and a bar area.
“So you can sit and have a martini on the stairs, and look through the water and down to the city,” Varacalli suggests. “Or if you’re swimming, going back and forth, you’ll be able to look out into the city.”
“It’s going to be cool,” adds Gold, barely able to contain his excitement.
“Imagine living in the building and your friends come over and you say let’s go for a swim in a cantilevered glass pool!”
The fact Bazis is launching an 860unit project suggests the developer is feeling bullish on the Toronto condo market.
“We’ve already had 10,000 registrations,” says Gold, noting that there’s been a fair bit of interest from locals who want to downsize into a condo, or “right-size,” as Lawlor calls it.
“There’s always a market for a good location,” Varacalli notes.
“And this corner is irreplaceable — it’s a rare thing,” adds Lawlor. “So the interest in this has been huge.”