A brainstorm to raise the roof
Blue Diamond condo tower will transform Deer Park church building into open-air public courtyard
Donald Schmitt wasn’t sure what to do with the old church.
The esteemed architect and his team were brainstorming ideas: How to incorporate the decommissioned Deer Park United Church into plans for a new, 28storey glass condo tower, Blue Diamond.
“We were scratching our heads for a while,” says Schmitt, a principal with Diamond Schmitt Architects, about the lovely granite church that’s stood at the corner of St. Clair Ave. W. and Foxbar Rd., a block west of Avenue Rd., for nearly 100 years but has been vacant for the past few.
Blue Diamond is the second phase of Camrost-Felcorp’s Imperial Plaza development. Phase one involved the redevelopment of the adjacent 21-storey Imperial Oil Building — built in 1957 — into a 400-unit condo.
This is the third project in the area for Camrost-Felcorp, which several years ago completed The Avenue, a 73-unit condo on the southwest side of St. Clair and Avenue Rd.
Residences at Blue Diamond, now in buyer pre-registration phase, range from 485-square-foot one-bedroom units to 1,225-square-foot two-bedroom-plus-den suites, with prices starting at $350,000. Occupancy is tentatively set for fall, 2017.
Building the tower and selling the suites is relatively straightforward; it was how to deal with the church on the northern portion of the Blue Diamond site that presented Schmitt and co. with a conundrum.
“Conventionally one would take a church building and convert it into condos,” he explains, noting his firm, working with heritage experts ERA Architects, initially considered doing just that.
They had, however, a change of heart. “When you start to convert the church, with a huge roof, small windows and beautiful stone work, into residential,
“We’re creating this great public space where there always had been the public space of the church . . .” DONALD SCHMITT
you kind of chop it up and break apart all the qualities of the building you admired it for.”
Inspiration struck when Schmitt was in London, U.K., and visited Christ Church Greyfriars. Designed by Christopher Wren (who also designed St. Paul’s Cathedral across the street from Christ Church), the church had its roof completely blown off during Second World War bombing.
Rather than rebuild the structure, church authorities opted to leave the roof off, preserve the original stone work and eventually turned the central part of the church, or nave, into a public garden.
Which is precisely the plan for old Deer Park United. With ERA overseeing matters, the building’s granite walls will be maintained, but its roof removed and the space inside converted into an open-air courtyard that’s open to the public.
The church parking lot that fronts St. Clair Ave. W. will be transformed by landscape designer Janet Rosenberg & Studio into a forecourt garden that runs through the church walls and into the courtyard. The condo tower will rise where the church’s parish building stood; stone salvaged from the demolition will be used in landscaping around the property. “It’s a pretty unusual idea,” Schmitt says of the church conversion. “But the more we thought about it, the more we thought, ‘We’re creating this great public space where there always had been the public space of the church,’ and keeping all the stone elements that define everything in a really beautiful way.” While Schmitt and his team were convinced of the idea’s merits, he admits the city and Heritage Toronto were “a little more skeptical about approving the plan. “But, eventually, we got there.” In addition to the tower suites, Blue Diamond will have a series of threestorey townhomes facing Foxbar Rd., the residential street that runs along the property’s southern side. (Foxbar is also where the building’s entryway will be located.) Suites will have laminate plank flooring, 8-foot-6-high ceilings and stacked washer/dryer. Kitchens come with stone countertops, integrated appliances and smooth-top electric cooktop. Bathrooms have porcelain or ceramic tile flooring, white soaker tub and framed-glass shower enclosure. Amenities at Blue Diamond include a party room and catering kitchen, guest suites and hospitality suites, and a media room. Residents also have access to a 20,000-squarefoot amenity space shared with Imperial Plaza, that includes a fitness centre, indoor pool and whirlpool spa, squash courts, yoga/Pilates studio and sound-insulated music rooms. Like Imperial Plaza and the Avenue, Blue Diamond will sit atop a high escarpment that yields some of the best views in the city, particularly to the south. In the 1960s, the Imperial Oil Building’s top-floor observation deck, at 800 feet above sea level, was the highest point in Toronto. Blue Diamond’s conversation piece, though, will be its two-storey glassenclosed great hall, a gathering place in the lobby of the condo building whose height matches the walls of the church courtyard. “The fourth side of the garden court will look through to this two-storey great hall,” Schmitt explains. “It’ll be an amazing space.” For project developer David Feldman, Blue Diamond is a personal endeavour. He lives in the area and has fond recollections of Deer Park United Church. “There used to be a dance studio in the gym,” he says. “I have the memory of my wife and I taking our daughter to dance classes there. So there’s definitely a con- nection.” Years before his firm bought the Imperial Oil Building, Feldman says he would drive by it and think to himself, “it would be great if people could actually live here.”
It’s nothing new for Toronto’s old churches to be converted into condos and offices, he points out. But the concept with Blue Diamond is different. He wants the old church to continue being used as a community facility, offering a park-like setting within the building’s old walls, plus a coffee shop or restaurant with patio seating to augment a lack of retail offerings on the south side of St. Clair W.
“The idea is for this space to be enjoyed not just people who live at Blue Diamond,” Feldman says.
“It’s also for those living in the neighbourhood who want to come by and enjoy the ambience.”