DEVELOPMENT ARCHITECTURE
September 19, 2025 841
Depth: The ambitious development of College Park aims to redefine the city building
For many people in Toronto, the mention of College Park conjures up a variety of memories and nostalgia. During his 95-year lifespan, the terrific structure on the corner of Yonge and College became one of the city's determining architectural monuments. Regardless of whether you are old enough to have the doors on the way to catch a Leaf game in Maple Leaf Gardens; If you have recognized it on TV as a background for one of the many parades in the Yonge Street; Or if you have covered yourself at a gala in the Carlu, the impressive limestone facade has memorized in the collective memory of toronton. Now, before the 100th anniversary, GWL Realty Advisors are planning to transform the iconic building into an even more magnificent landmark that aims to fulfill the vision of its original creators.
Urbantoronto had the pleasure of talking to Daniel Fama, Vice President for Development Services for Ostkanada at GWL, and David Pontarini, founding partner at Hariri Pontarini Architects, to discuss their ambitious plans for College Park.
In the west to the west and with the friendly approval of GWL Realty Advisors.
In College Park, three towers of 65, 75 and 96 floors would be a superstall tower of 333 m high -built on the preserved and restored original college parking building, together with a new extension that was designed on the podium along Yonge, which was designed in a style and follows the existing fader closely to the existing fader. In the development, 2,334 residential units, 21,380 m² of retail space, 24,861 m² of commercial space, a hotel, a daycare center and the historical venue of the Carlu, which are kept and expanded, are included.
In the picture with the kind permission of GWL Realty Advisors to the northeast.
When GWL thought the renovation of the property for the first time, they knew that it had to be something special. “We had put together what we thought was a really solid design team, some of the best heads in Toronto for Urban Design and Heritage,” said Fama. “We really gave you an empty canvas to tell you that we want a brave vision. This is a really important landmark, and we don't want to shy away from what it should be.” The GWL also had an eye on the past and was inspired by the original vision that was never fully realized: a cascadent tower that had defined the Skyline of Toronto for decades, a vision that was scrapped due to the start of the great depression. “In the overall perspective of the project, we knew that we really wanted to respect this original architecture and not just wanted to preserve,” added Fama.
Rendering of College Park, picture with the friendly approval of GWL Realty Advisors.
The team started to define what the building could be, with the idea that College Park is not just a building that people go through the U -Bahn on the way, but that it can be a goal in itself. Elsewhere, they were looking for inspiration, some milestone projects around the world, such as the Rockefeller Center in New York City, the Ned Hotel and the Battersea Power Station in London and the fountain here in Toronto. “The stuff we are looking at does not exist in Canada,” said Fama. According to him, the project contains many “first” that can be inspired by elsewhere, but that will be uniquely Canadian.
The north-south section through the podium shows the various purposes, image by submitting to the city of Toronto.
The project is a complicated puzzle of many different programmatic elements that are stacked on top of each other. On its basis, three levels of the new retail are planned, the content of which has not yet been completely eliminated, whereby only one tenant of the food is mentioned as a likely component. The floor plans show some magnificent architectural gestures with large rooms with several footples, extensive stairwells and a planned winter garden to the park to the south.
Proposed plan on the ground floor, picture by submitting to the city of Toronto.
The layout of the retail is mainly guided by pedestrian flow. The design team wanted to maximize the porosity and connection between the Yonge Street, the college street, the U -train station and the park. This includes the re -connection of the currently separated cultural heritage arcade, which runs in parallel to Yonge, and the introduction of more flexible retail areas that facilitate the pedestrian flow through the building. Current floor plans show a comprehensive curve in the plan, which connects the park with 777 Bay and College Street, with stairwells at both ends. A “winter garden” is planned on the park, the design of which is currently vague, since Pontarini emphasized that this part was still in development when it worked out this important connection to nature.
Proposed level 2 -floor plan, which shows the retail trade in pink and image about the submission of the city of Toronto.
There are four commercial space over the retail soils. There are currently no projected tenants or specific uses, since GWL and the design team aim to make this room flexible and at the same time research a variety of different options that go beyond the simple offices. “We want to make it as flexible as possible,” said Fama. “In view of the natural light and the extensive heights to the ceiling, the office floors are suitable. Whether it is a lecture hall, a kind of sports complex, we look at various things like pickleball places. It can be a variety of different uses.”
Proposed level 4 floor plan with commercial space in orange and hotel in blue, picture over submission to the city of Toronto.
The seventh floor of the building houses the Carlu event room. The existing venue is in the heir and is meticulously preserved and restored, while an expansion is planned that increases the capacity and potential use of the facility. “We have carried out a number of studies for the market for event rooms in the city and they are missing,” said Fama. “There are not enough rooms for the amount of events that should have Toronto for the population. We believe that the Carlu, who has history, is already attractive for various reasons, and we try to make it much more efficient from the perspective of the operations, and better than an attractive venue for every user who would like to use the space in the future.” “
Close up of the southwestern facade in front of the park, picture with the friendly approval of GWL Realty Advisors.
Three residential towers rise above the Heritage base, one of which will be another superstall that is added to Toronto's growing count. Fama confirmed that the first of the three-northern 75-story tower rental units will be, the other two towers will be condominiums or rent depending on the market conditions. The 75-story tower will contain all 244 tenant substitutes from the existing residential complex from the 1970s, which are demolished as part of the renovation.
Typical tower floor plans, picture by submitting to the city of Toronto.
Pontarini explained that the inspiration behind the tower forms comes from the concept of the 'Urban Mountain', which was made popular in the early 20th century and came from Hugh Ferris' iconic drawings from towers, which are curded from a wide base to an ornamental summit and are seen in early skyscrapers such as the Royal York Hotel and the Canada life. The original design for College Park from the 1920s would have been the largest “urban mountain” in the city. “How do you take a podium and then hand it over to an urban mountain without making it an urban mountain in the traditional sense of the word?” Pontarini worked out. “You could never use residential buildings because the floor slabs are far too big. That is why we tried to create this idea to step through the three towers.”
Hand -packed reproduction of the original plans for College Park from the 1920s, picture by submitting to the city of Toronto.
The articulation of the towers is also inspired by skyscrapers such as the Rockefeller Center from the 1930s. Solid elements have the full height of the towers that create a slim verticality, while Lorbefen windows lend the facades of texture and depth. Each residential tower is accessible via a Sky lobby on the first level above the podium in order not to take a valuable place on the ground floor.
Aerial rendering to the north, picture with the friendly approval of GWL Realty Advisors.
Perhaps the most remarkable component of the project is the southern extension of the podium along the Yonge, which wants to complete the missing part of the original facade that was never built. The new podium continues the rhythm of the pilasters, which can be seen in the original facades of College Park, and is probably clad in stone in order to be compatible with the Heritage building. The hotel is housed in the new expansion, the floor to ceiling heights of which are smaller than that of the commercial floor slabs in the existing building. This discrepancy is masked in the size and details of the fenestration of the new podium, a subtle step that distinguishes the new from the old and at the same time maintains the same architectural language.
Close up of the east facade along Yonge, picture with the friendly approval of GWL Realty Advisors.
“We thought that the original design was really authentic and timeless,” said Fama. “Only in view of the fact that everyone knows that it already has a place, it is already a place to which people go. So we really wanted to drive this design language. We decided to complete this basic building facade as close as possible, and since it took 100 years, another 100 years will progress.”
Close up of the south facade, picture with the friendly approval of GWL Realty Advisors.
“It is not exactly imitating what was there, but it is a reinterpretation of what was there,” added Pontarini. “It is made in a really nice, simple, elegant way, and it finds out what kind of large facade movements it can read. If you blink that all of this was built at a time. You will also see these beautifully articulated details that are not exactly built up like the windows of the existing heritage, but they are a certain connection.
The image of the podium to the south and with the friendly approval of GWL Realty Advisors.
Both Fama and Pontarini repeatedly returned to the idea of ​​College Park as a goal and as an attraction, with the vision of creating something unique, fat and groundbreaking at one of the first -class locations in Toronto. The ambitions of the team were clear that this is not a task that everyone does easily and that this will be a precedent determination that will create and improve both of the architectural gemstones of the city. Above all, as Pontarini emphasized: “First of all, this project is about the inheritance.”
Be excited about an upcoming feature to dive the cultural heritage components of the renovation of College Park. In the meantime, you can learn more about the project from our database file, which are linked below. If you want, you can join the conversation in the associated project forum thread or leave a comment in the room provided on this page.
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