Building new in the Old Town
Cityzen’s 158 Front Condos meant to be all-inclusive for urbanites — complete with library and dog spa
The president of Cityzen Development Group, Sam Crignano, practises what he preaches.
A long-time builder in, and admirer of, Toronto’s St. Lawrence neighbourhood, he lives there himself.
His newest project in the neighbourhood, 158 Front Condos, is a two-tower condominium at Front and Sherbourne Sts. and will be a Cityzen and Fernbrook Homes co-development. It will mark Cityzen’s fifth development in the neighbourhood in a decade, after London, L Tower, Backstage and Pier 27.
Originally from Mississauga, Crignano and his wife raised their three children in Richmond Hill before moving the family to a Cityzen condominium — London on the Esplanade — five years ago. Two of his children, both Cityzen employees, have their own units at London.
“I hardly use my car,” said Crignano. “I use it, maybe, a couple of times a week. I’m a cyclist and I cycle a lot in the country.”
“We use Uber a lot, too, because we’re all downtown. The kids all take the subway. I don’t because there’s no need for me to use transit.”
That’s because Cityzen’s offices are also on the Esplanade and many of the firms it does business with are a walk away in the financial district. Crignano says those easy-access conveniences are enjoyed by many St. Lawrence residents.
“If you work downtown, you can walk to the financial core from here,” he said. “That’s why I love living here. Not only do I walk to work and not only do I have developments here, a lot of people I do business with are in the financial core.”
Both of 158 Front’s towers will rise 27 storeys and, up top, there will be a shared 13-storey podium for amenities.
One unusual amenity planned is a library. Crignano says libraries have proved more popular than he’d anticipated.
“We first introduced a library at London
“You can walk to the financial core from here . . . I love living here.” SAM CRIGNANO CITYZEN PRESIDENT
on the Esplanade,” said Crignano. “I was surprised at how it gets used.
“Lots of students who live in the building go down there and study. A lot of people go down there to read a book or they’re working on a project and have notebooks in front of them. Given the success (of libraries), we started incorporating them in other developments. More so than game rooms — you see them with billiards tables and those things hardly get used, but the library at London is very popular.”
Another unusual addition at 158 Front Condos: a dog spa, close to the entrance so residents can clean paws after a walk and before they hit the lobby, hallways and suites.
The dog spa will also be outfitted with grooming equipment.
The project is situated in the heart of Old Town — Toronto’s original site, the Town of York — on the city’s east side.
It’s an area that Mark Cohen, managing partner of The Condo Store (158 Front’s sales brokerage), says will be a different neighbourhood in five years.
Its proximity to the financial hub, shopping, entertainment, universities, hospitals and Lake Ontario gives it a very bright future.
“As the area really comes into its own, it will become more established as an area for people to live, play and entertain,” he said.
“It happened in downtown-west relatively quickly . . . Here, there’s more fine-tuning and growth as a more all-inclusive neighbourhood. There will always be, because of the history here, heritage checks and balances to make sure the area develops responsibly and doesn’t undergo any major facelifts.
“But in five or six years you’ll find it’s going to start looking different.”
ArchitectsAlliance, which designed both the interiors and exteriors of the towers, worked with the existing historic neighbourhood in mind. Principal Peter Clewes describes the outside style as “stacked boxes” — almost like a construction using the wooden pieces from the game Jenga.
“What we’ve tried to do is take the massing of the building and break it up into flat boxes. Visually, it lightens the appearance,” said Clewes.
“The real problem in downtown condominium design is it’s starting to look very generic and very much the same, so we’re consciously trying to do something original,” he added.
Being 158 Front’s interior designer, as well, gave Clewes and his firm a unique opportunity to reconcile both sides of the walls.
“There’s synergy between the inside and the outside,” said Clewes. “Simple, clean detailing. We used simple materials that are less about pattern and texture and more about colour. It’s a visual graphic punch to the building. The exterior plays with black and white, and so will the interior.”