Tag Archives: The Yorkville

The Yorkville Condominiums on the rise

The Yorkville Condominium

November 19 2013: A view of construction progress on The Yorkville Condominiums, rising at the corner of Davenport Road and McMurrich Street

 

Climbing higher: Reconstruction of the Davenport Road & Bay Street intersection isn’t the only distraction for motorists driving through Yorkville these days — construction of The Yorkville Condominiums tower is changing the look and feel of the landscape, too.

Work on the building’s concrete frame has passed the 10 floor mark, bringing the structure nearly one-third of the way to its 31-storey final floorcount. Even with completion still a long ways off, the building already exerts a strong presence on Davenport Road, and is drawing some attention away from The Florian, a recently-finished condominium right next door to the west.

A project of Lifetime Developments, The Yorkville Condominiums was designed by Toronto’s Wallman Architects. The 233-suite project includes tower suites as well as six luxury townhomes along the McMurrich Street side of the property. The building interiors have been designed by Tomas Pearce Interior Design Consulting Inc., and renderings of their work for The Yorkville can be viewed on the firm’s website.

More photos of The Yorkville can be seen on page 2 of this post and in The Yorkville Condominiums album on thetorontoblog.com’s Flickr page.

 

The Yorkville Condominiums

This was how The Yorkville Condominiums site appeared only three years ago (November 1 2010, to be precise), before construction had commenced. The Florian condo tower next door was just halfway up, and several low-rise buildings still occupied The Yorkville’s prime corner site. Those buildings had formerly housed offices for the firm of Moriyama and Teshima Architects.

 

 

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Pit stop: The Yorkville Condominiums tower site

The Yorkville condo

August 30 2012:  North view across the excavation for The Yorkville Condominiums, a 31-storey tower being built at the NW corner of Davenport Road and McMurrich Street …

 

The Yorkville condo tower site

… seen here November 1 2010 when construction was just approaching the halfway mark on The Florian condo tower next door. This also was more than a year before low-rise buildings and trees were destroyed for pre-construction site preparation.

 

One up, one to go: Excavation work is in full swing for the second of two condo towers that will completely transform the look and feel of the curved north side of Davenport Road between Bay and McMurrich Streets in Yorkville.

As work on The Florian condos draws close to completion, crews are still digging out the adjacent site to the east where The Yorkville Condominiums, a 31-storey tower, will rise during the next two to three years. Several low-rise buildings once occupied the corner property, including the former offices of Moriyama and Teshima Architects.

 

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31-storey copper-toned condo tower aims to draw Yorkville district’s golden glow to Davenport Road

The Yorkville Condominiums

Artistic rendering of The Yorkville Condominiums, a 31-storey luxury tower proposed for the corner of Davenport Road and McMurrich Street.


More new digs for Dav: The drab two-block stretch of Davenport Road between Yonge and Bay Streets keeps improving, slowly but surely.

At Yonge, the wedge-shaped parcel of land dividing Davenport from Scollard Street brightened up a bit when the Lotus condominium opened in 2008. Sadly, it took more than two years before work finally finished on a new public square in the awkward triangle at the front of the condo highrise. Paving stones, landscaping, lighting and benches weren’t installed until late summer 2010, but the narrow, long parkette instantly became a huge hit with the local pigeon population.

Meanwhile, The Florian luxury condo has been under construction just a short distance away, where Davenport twists to the northwest at its intersection with Bay. Once the location of an Infinity dealership and a Premier fitness club, the elegant 90-suite Florian promises to class up the corner with its gracefully curved brick and glass facade. 

Now, Lifetime Developments has proposed a new neighbour for the site immediately east of The Florian, currently the offices of Moriyama and Teshima Architects. Lifetime’s latest venture, The Yorkville Condominiums, will be a 31-storey glass condo tower with six “executive” townhouses at the corner of Davenport and McMurrich Street. The project is being designed by Rudy Wallman of Wallman Architects, who also designed the Victory Condos development on King Street West that I profiled in a post several days ago.

So far, I’m ambivalent about his design for The Yorkville, though I admit the only drawing I’ve seen is the one displayed on its website and marketing materials (and shown at the top of this post).  First time I saw it, I loved the building … but the more I look at it, the more I wonder if it’s just the artist’s choice of colours that appeal to me. At times, I think some elements of the tower — particularly the roof, the five floors that angle out from the south face of the tower, and the long rectangular gold stripe of glass down the east wall — are merely bold, attention-seeking design gimmicks that scream “Look at me!” Other times, I think those very same features look cool, and give the tower a distinctive appearance.

Maybe I’ll make up my mind once I see more renderings or models. Most likely, this is a building I’ll have to see in finished form before I can tell if I truly like it or not. Either way, I do think The Yorkville will improve this part of Davenport Road and enhance the neighbourhood, so I’ll be happy to see it go up.

Below are some photos I snapped of the proposed development site recently, along with a pic of the pigeon parkette at Lotus.

 

development proposal sign

Development proposal sign outside the Moriyama and Teshima building


32 Davenport Road

November 1 2010 view of The Yorkville Condominiums project site


32 Davenport Road at McMurrich Street

November 1 2010 view of the corner of Davenport Road & McMurrich Street


32 Davenport Road

January 9 2011 view of The Yorkville Condominiums proposed site


32 Davenport Road

January 9 2011 view of The Yorkville Condominiums proposed site


32 Davenport Road

January 9 2011 view of The Yorkville Condominiums proposed site


32 Davenport Road

January 9 2011 view of The Yorkville Condominiums proposed site


The Florian

The Florian under construction next to The Yorkville site on Davenport Road


Lotus condominium parkette

Pigeons enjoying the new parkette at Lotus condominium