Tall & Urban News

An updated proposal has been received by the City of Toronto for 2180 Lawrence Avenue East. The project has evolved since October 2016 from several blocks of town homes with a 12-story building to now include a 21-story mixed-use mostly residential building, with adjacent seven-story mid-rise and three blocks of townhomes. The revisions would bring an increase in density, adding 228 units to the northeast corner of Lawrence and Birchmount—busy arterial streets served by public transit. 

Designed by Kohn Partnership Architects for Lalu Canada, the proposed five new buildings would provide a total of 288 new units to the area. The largest of these buildings along Lawrence rises to 21-stories with a seven-story podium stretching to the east. The mechanical penthouse and podium would be topped by a green roof. The building is proposed to contain 160 units, with 45 one-bedrooms, 96 two-bedrooms and 19 units with three or more bedrooms. The ground floor has 559 square meters of divided retail space, with an adjacent indoor and fenced outdoor amenity space. A total of 342 meters of indoor amenity space and 320 meters of outdoor amenity space is proposed, including an eight-floor terrace overlooking Lawrence. 

A proposed seven-story mid-rise along Birchmount Road will contain 64 units, each with a private balcony or terrace. Of these, 2 are bachelor units, 32 are one-bedrooms, 23 are two-bedrooms, 7 are three-bedrooms. A 131-squar-meter indoor amenity space will be available, with an additional 104 square meters of outdoor space proposed, including a fenced ground floor space and rooftop terrace. A four-level underground garage connects this and the 21-story building, containing 322 spaces, with 256 of these for residents, 43 visitor spaces and 23 for retail and other purposes. A total of 224 bicycle storage spaces are also included in the garage, 197 of which are for long-term storage and the remaining 27 as short-term spaces. 

Three blocks of 3.5-story town homes would border Dulverton Road to the north and the east property line of the site. These are set to contain an additional 64 units, with 16 one-bedrooms, 34 two-bedrooms and 14 three-bedrooms amongst them. A driveway through to a central landscaped courtyard would be accessible from Dulverton Road, connecting residents to the loading zone and the underground garage. A 500-square-meter public park on the northeast corner would cover 5 percent of the site, and a 395-square-meter publicly-owned private space would be accessible from Lawrence, connecting the townhomes and central courtyard. 

For more on this story, go to Urban Toronto.