At a public meeting last night, developer Sam Mizrahi and his team unveiled highly anticipated design plans for the 80-storey tower they hope to build at 1 Bloor West. Here are four things to know about the soon-to-be-iconic mixed-use development they've dubbed “The One.”
1. It’ll Be Toronto’s Tallest Condo Tower
With 72 storeys of residential units atop an eight-level luxury shopping complex, The One will be Toronto’s tallest condo tower (that dang CN Tower keeps it from being the tallest bar none). The 1M SF structure is proposed at a height of 318 metres, or 1,043 feet. Sam told us last month the project cost will exceed $1B. Some folks are peeved the developer is tearing down old Stollerys, which stood at the southwest corner of Yonge and Bloor for 114 years. But in its place Sam promises a “significant” development that'll be “a gift back to the city.”
2. It’s Unlike Anything We’ve Seen In TO
The One is the creation of Foster + Partners, the UK firm behind landmark buildings like London’s 30 St Mary Axe (aka "The Gherkin"), the Hearst Tower in Manhattan, and University of Toronto’s Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building. Foster is working with local firm Core Architects. And the design they’ve dreamed up will be unprecedented in Toronto: a glass tower wrapped top to bottom in an exoskeleton of structural steel, allowing the interiors of each floor, on upper condo levels and in the retail space at the base, to be left wide open, or “uncontaminated,” as Sam puts it.
3. There's Lots Going On At The Ground
The base of The One will house eight levels (over 240k SF) of retail and restaurant space situated around a 40-metre tall atrium (seen here). The complex will have PATH connections to Yonge-Bloor subway station, plus extensive underground parking and valet service for the retail, slated to open by 2018. Sam plans to widen the sidewalks around the building: five metres along Yonge and eight metres on Bloor. He told us the retailers he's bringing in will be global brands, not yet in TO, who will build flagship international outlets here.
4. The One’s Not The Only One
The One will be part of a trio of new super-tall towers coming to Yonge and Bloor in the next decade. Across the road, Great Gulf Homes’ One Bloor East is steadily rising toward its top-out height of 75 storeys (it’ll have 100k SF of retail.) And the redevelopment of the Holt Renfrew site at 50 Bloor West will see construction of a 230-metre-tall tower. The city’s symbolic crossroads has long been in desperate need of a bit of architectural love. It’ll be getting a healthy helping of it now.
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