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NEWS: A plan to build above heritage apartments (Summer 2024)

October 15th, 2024 · No Comments

Density on Spadina Road to expand in coming years 

Rendering of 41-45 Spadina Rd. looking southeast. COURTESY WND ASSOCIATES

By Meredith Poirier

The intersection of Spadina Road and Lowther Avenue is no stranger to construction. Currently the corner hosts a work site to add elevators to the Spadina TTC station. In the coming years, residents of the Annex (in particular those who live near the intersection of Bloor Street West and Spadina Road) will continue to see construction of major developments which will lead to greater residential density in the neighbourhood. Many businesses will be forced out, although  some of the developers are planning to incorporate the businesses on the main floors or lower levels of the new developments. Much of the construction happening is in conjunction with the Spadina subway station. 

On the southeast corner of Spadina and Lowther is 41-45 Spadina Road, a modest four-storey apartment building known as Spadina Gardens. It is a heritage-designated building. The low rise was constructed in 1905-1906 and was built in response to the city’s growing population at the time. It was designed by the inventive Toronto architect, Arthur Richard Denison and was built in the Edwardian Classical style. Today, its exterior still meshes beautifully with other buildings in the Annex neighbourhood with buidlings of a similar vintage Spadina Gardens has great significance and was recognized on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Inventory in 1979. 

A proposal for the redevelopment of Spadina Gardens has been submitted by ProWinko, a real estate development firm that builds high-end real estate in prime urban locations across the world. The proposal is a 10-storey residential building, containing 70 units, that will float overthe current apartment building at 41-45 Spadina Road.

 The project was discussed with the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA) in October 2023. Following the meeting, a review of the proposal was done by the ARA, and a summary of the project and concerns were compiled in a Project Position Statement. According to Henry Wiercinski, of the ARA, one of the concerns is the safety of tenants, as tenants will remain living in their current dwellings as construction takes place, which could span two to three years. There is also concern over how the heritage building and its attributes will be meaningfully retained. According to the Planning Rationale Report, created by WND Associates, a consultant to the developer, there are plans to “maintain the prominence of the existing heritage building…while appropriately locating new construction above it with a sensitive and innovative massing, material, and design strategy.” However there does not appear to be more information available to the public on how this will be achieved and how the interior of the building will be maintained. Garbage collection, parking spots, and stormwater allocation are listed as significant concerns as well. 

From the perspective of the developers and the city planners, this new building will be an important one. The Planning Rationale Report also states that the proposed development “is consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement, 2020, as it provides for a mix of new market based housing, within a compact built form in an existing settlement area that is well served by transit, municipal infrastructure and public services.”

According to Dianne Saxe, councillor, University-Rosedale, there are still “many questions to be answered before a decision can be made.”  Saxe explained that Heritage Planning is content with the proposal (which states that the entire heritage building will be kept in place). Local residents reached out to Saxe to request a meeting prior to the public meeting on July 31. As specified by Saxe, this developer has not built in the University-Rosedale ward before, and there are concerns around the construction of the 10-storey building on top of the pre-existing apartment building and how tenants’ lives will be disrupted and how the heritage building will be fully maintained.

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Tags: Annex · News