4050 YONGE STREET

4050 YONGE STREET

Located in Toronto’s “Hoggs Hollow” district, at the northwest corner of Yonge Street and Wilson Avenue, is a new mixed-use complex, integrating office condominiums with a four-star hotel. Specifically the site; a former commuter parking lot, is dripping in nature, with mature hardwood forests on its northern and western edges, including a small, active run-off creek. Northwest of the site can be found the manicured grounds of the Don Valley Golf Course, an equally natural, beautiful landscape.

The concept for this mixed-use project was twofold: to clearly articulate all of the building’s separate programmatic parts (office condominiums, hotel, retail and entrances) and to express the building in an architectural language inspired by nature.

As such, the facade of the nine-storey hotel was configured with vertical, bent bands made from silver prefinished metal (spandrel panels) and fritted glass, that are a nod to the verticality of the surrounding trees. To carry this concept further, maple trees have been planted on the rooftop terraces at the hotel’s outer edge, capping the building with foliage year-round.

To clearly demarcate the hotel’s main entrance, a large vertical sign has been added to the facade (hotel operator to be determined) along with a horizontal two-storey window cut from the hotel’s vertical tree-like texture.

East of the hotel, the seven-storey office condominium facade is expressed with vertical maple wood battens set between the glass, starting at chair rail height and running below the slab, to control solar glare, on every floor. Contrasting with the hotel, the office building has a horizontality to its facades, readily distinguishing it from the hotel adjacent.

On its east facade, a vertical glass tower composed entirely of vertical maple wood battens set between the glass, signals the entrance to the office condominiums and the below grade TTC entrance.

Horizontally separating the hotel and office programs from the street level retail is an organically shaped canopy, whose outer edges bend up, like a curled leaf. Cladding its underside is tongue and groove composite wood decking, giving this sheltered pedestrian space an unusually warm, natural feeling.

In its completed form, this mixed-use project presents a collage of architectural languages all of which are inspired by nature, strategically bound together by common materials and tailor made for this urban corner lot.

LOCATION: Toronto, Ontario

ARCHITECT: IBI Group Architects

DESIGN LEADERSHIP: Michael Poitras,
Consultant-in-Charge of Design

CLIENT: The Gupta Group/Easton’s Group

STATISTICS:

  • No. of storeys (office): 7
  • No. of storeys (hotel): 9
  • Total gross floor area:
    480,824 ft2 (44,670 m2)
  • Below grade parking: 592
  • Below grade bicycle parking: 134
  • Loading dock spaces: 4

MATERIALS:

  • Curtain wall + vertical wood battens set between the glass
  • Silver prefinished metal panels
  • Fritted glass
  • Composite wood soffits
  • Painted steel channel fascias
  • Flamed black granite floors
  • Limestone floors
  • Oak floors
  • Carpet floors
  • Outdoor landscaping

GENERAL PROGRAM:

  • Office condominiums
  • Multi-purpose 7-storey atrium (office)
  • Four-star hotel (+200 rooms)
  • Multi-purpose 8-storey atrium (hotel)
  • Retail
  • Rooftop pool & bar
  • Underground subway connection

LEED: Gold

COST: $300 million

COMPLETION: 2018