At the northeast corner of Sherbourne and Shuter streets in Toronto's Garden District, a vacant lot proposal for 191 Sherbourne Street is one of several developments affected by a ministerial zoning regulation – Ontario Regulation 10/24 – designed to make room for St. Michael's Hospital's air ambulance service. After both towers were remodeled to avoid encroaching on redesigned flight paths, a new proposal now calls for a pair of 42-storey towers built around existing buildings on the site in a tower-in-the-park style.
Looking northeast at the revised plan 191 Sherbourne, designed by PARTISANS and Rafael + Bigauskas Architects for Fitzrovia Real Estate Inc.
Currently, the site includes two prefabricated buildings from the early 1970s, each with 17 and 23 floors, and a total of 596 residential units. The site also includes extensive but underused open green spaces, typical of the tower-in-the-park planning style.
View north to current location, image retrieved from Google Maps
An initial December 2020 proposal sought approval for 7- and 15-storey infill towers on the site, but in June 2023 a much more ambitious plan was submitted calling for 46 and 48 storeys to take advantage of the provincial government's new Protected Major Transit Station Area designations and encourage higher density near rapid transit stations. (Moss Park station on Ontario Line 3 will be a 200m walk from this site. The site is currently about a 1km walk from Dundas and Queen stations on Yonge Line 1.) However, with the MZO increasing the protected airspace, the storey count was reduced for the current April 2024 resubmission, designed by PARTISANS (with Rafael + Bigauskas Architects as architect of record) for Fitzrovia Real Estate Inc.
View to the southwest of the design by Zeidler Architecture Inc. from December 2020, image from the submission to the City of Toronto
Looking northeast at the June 2023 design, image from the submission to the City of Toronto
This latest official plan and zoning ordinance amendment calls for towers with heights of 141.9m and 145.3m. Uniquely, the towers would be connected by a bridge running over the more southerly existing building, providing an expansive new rooftop recreational area for residents, the underside of which can be seen in the rendering above.
Site plan designed by PARTISANS (with Rafael + Bigauskas Architects as lead architect) for Fitzrovia Real Estate Inc.
The gross floor area of the new towers would now be 51,850 sq m for residential use, while 609 sq m would be available for retail. This represents a significant increase in retail from the previous proposals and aims to better enliven the street level. 2,244 sq m is proposed for internal communal space, along with 3,751 sq m for external communal space. A 1,208 sq m public park is proposed at the corner of Shuter and Seaton Streets.
The new towers would add 831 rental units to the existing 596, with 351 units in the South Tower and 480 in the North Tower. Rach Tower would have four elevators, which would mean approximately one elevator for every 88 units in the South Tower (promising short wait times) and one for every 120 units in the North Tower, likely meaning longer wait times.
Ground floor plan designed by PARTISANS and Rafael + Bigauskas Architects for Fitzrovia Real Estate Inc.
Beneath the towers, the new buildings will share the current site's three-story underground parking garage, which has been converted to include 289 parking spaces. The design also includes a total of 799 long-term bicycle parking spaces for residents and 163 short-term visitor parking spaces.
An aerial view of the site and surrounding area, image from the submission to the City of Toronto
Other development sites are nearby. To the south, 245 Queen Street East is planned for 25 storeys, the 24- and 33-storey towers of ROQ City are under construction and 225 Queen Street East is planned for 37 storeys. To the north, 214-230 Sherbourne Street is planned for 46 storeys, while to the northwest, Elektra Condos is planned for 42 storeys and 239 Dundas Street West is planned for 52 storeys.
UrbanToronto will continue to monitor the progress of this development, but in the meantime you can learn more about it in our database file linked below. If you'd like, you can join the conversation in the associated project forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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