BOLTON MILLS RIVERFRONT DEVELOPMENT
Located in a tree-filled valley along Highway 50 and dispersed in and around the Humber River, is the Village of Bolton, a rural community in the Town of Caledon, 50 km (31 miles) northwest of Toronto, Ontario.
Urban Design
Just east of Bolton’s downtown core, are three parallel streets, stretching north from King Street East to the Humber River: Chapel Street, Elm Street and Mill Street. Adjacent to each of these streets and in some cases between them, are three properties perfectly suited for higher density housing. Interestingly, each of the three sites (Site A, Site B and Site C) are zoned differently from one another, requiring the new multi-residential buildings to respond accordingly, while demanding that they share aesthetic features for reasons of scale, rhythm and architectural continuity.
Further, with Bolton being set in a valley, design steps had to be taken to address potential flooding from the nearby river, as public safety and property damage became obvious concerns.
Architecture: Townhouses
Architecturally speaking, the three-storey townhouses and “live-work” townhouses of Site A and the stacked “back-to-back” townhouses of Site B are primarily clad with cinnamon-coloured “Old Ontario” brick, like that found throughout historic downtown Bolton, complemented with white-coloured windows. These facades contain a mixture of contemporary and traditional brick detailing, so that they may be interpreted as neither historic nor modern, but rather a combination of both worlds.
At street level, a typical townhouse facade opens with a series of sliding doors, complete with a pre-finished metal-clad overhead frame (modern porch), with landscaping on its top surface. Directly next to these sliding doors are semi-private, street-side terraces, allowing the indoors to connect naturally to the outdoors, while maintaining the appropriate degree of privacy from street to townhouse. These terraces would behave in a similar manner to Bolton’s historic house porches, allowing their occupants the option of socializing with passers-by. This interaction between the terrace occupant and pedestrian is critical to supporting these social pleasantries, commonly associated with small-town life. Indeed, this ability to create “social streets” through the implementation of the terrace is what creates great residential communities, which is at the heart of this project.
The terraces, found adjacent to sidewalks on all three sites, are clad in dark grey corrugated pre-finished metal, accentuated with landscape plantings and light grey composite wood decking, to soften their appearance and make them more inviting.
Completing the image, the townhouses’ rooftop gardens, three storeys above the street, would each display a potted tree, adding greenery to this elevated outdoor space.
Architecture: Stone Planes
In recognizing the historic significance and character of Site B, which is quite different on its northern edge (Mill Street – east/west) as it fronts onto the picturesque, tree-lined Humber River, the architectural language changes. As such, the three-storey, north-facing facades of the townhouses’ adjoining apartment building is clad in rough stone as a nod to Bolton’s first gristmill, which was erected along the Humber River at Mill Street’s “elbow”, in 1824.
Further, these facades are arranged as a series of stone clad vertical “planes”, complete with white-coloured windows cascading with plant material, mimicking the verticality of the trees in the parkette across the street and those lining the river’s edge. Like the townhouses of Sites A and B, these three-storey stone facades also have semi-private landscaped terraces adjacent to their sidewalks. Differing from the brick clad townhouses, these facades are capped with a horizontal steel trellis planted with vines, adding more greenery to the building, while providing shade on the public rooftop garden terrace.
This same architectural language of vertical stone planes would carry over to the apartment building on the neighbouring Site C to the west, along Mill Street, making it abundantly clear that this is an architecture inspired by the river and its gristmill history. Like the other brick clad townhouses, the apartment building would have similar landscaping and semi-private terraces for its two-storey, lower-level units.
As one begins to understand the design intentions of this three-site multi-residential project (Site A, B & C), it becomes clear that the brick clad architecture is informed by the historic built legacy of Bolton’s past, while the stone clad architecture is inspired by the natural landscape of the adjacent Humber River. Further, as all the buildings sit on raised basements that incorporate semi-private terraces – which address Bolton’s flood concerns – a consistency in architectural design is achieved, linking all these diverse conditions into three beautifully detailed, site-specific, residential buildings.
Note: For Bolton Mills Riverfront Development site information, see Urban Design Portfolio – Bolton Mills Riverfront Development.
LOCATION: Bolton, Ontario
ARCHITECT: LINEVISION Architects
DESIGN LEADERSHIP: Michael Poitras,
Principal-in-Charge of Design
CLIENT: The Cancian Group
STATISTICS:
- Site A:
- No. of storeys: 3
- Total area:
58,480 ft2 (5,433 m2) - Grade level parking: 2 barrier-free stalls
- Below grade parking: 32 stalls
(including 1 barrier-free)
- Site B:
- No. of storeys: 3
- Total area:
61,645 ft2 (5,727 m2) - Grade level parking: 0 stalls
- Below grade parking: 40 stalls
(including 1 barrier-free)
- Site C:
- No. of storeys: 6
- Total area:
113,155 ft2 (10,512 m2) - Grade level parking: 0 stalls
- Below grade parking: 57 stalls
(including 2 barrier-free)
MATERIALS:
- Cinnamon-coloured “Old Ontario” brick
- Textured dolomite limestone landscape walls
- Textured dolomite limestone walls (Sites B & C only)
- Grey pre-finished metal frames (modern porch)
- White curtain wall windows & doors
- Glass guardrails
- Composite wood decking (grey & natural wood)
- Precast concrete pavers (grey)
- Flamed black granite flooring (lobbies Sites B & C only)
- Painted steel rooftop trellises (Sites B & C only)
- Outdoor landscaping
GENERAL PROGRAM:
- Site A:
- Residential:
Total no. of townhouses: 8 (3-bedroom units)
Total no. of live/work townhouses: 4 (3-bedroom units) - Modern landscaped porches (at street)
- Elevated decks (at rear)
- Landscaped outdoor rooftop terraces + barbecues
- Residential:
- Site B:
- Residential:
Total no. of units: 29 (mixture of 1,2 & 3-bedroom units) - Modern landscaped porches (at street)
- Landscaped outdoor rooftop terraces + barbecues
- Loading docks: 1
- Residential:
- Site C:
- Residential:
Total no. of units: 53 (mixture of 1,2 & 3-bedroom units) - Modern landscaped porches (at street)
- Generous landscaped outdoor rooftop terrace + barbecues
- Loading docks: 1
- Residential:
COST: Withheld
COMPLETION: Project