2683 Lawrence Avenue

Type
Multi-unit Residential

Client
Zgemi Inc.

Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Scale
203,230 Square Feet (203 Units)

The building responds to the unique, bifurcated character of the site. It is an urban streetscape to the north, facing directly on Lawrence Avenue East. To the south, it faces a rambling landscape, currently an Ontario Hydro corridor meadow, which will eventually become the City of Toronto’s “Meadoway” greenspace. Both of these inform the architectural design. The building implements a three storey podium base with a stepback at the third floor roof, with tower storeys above at 80% of buildings max height conforming to the angular plane. The retail block at grade is designed tightly side by side, to the minimum setback, to be open and with large glazing panels, in keeping with its commercial urban character. The tower storeys have been pushed forward to the minimum stepback and angular plane requirements, reinforcing the Lawrence Avenue East street wall.

The natural landscape of the proposed Meadoway on the south side is also a major design influence. Like Manhattan’s Highline, but at grade, the Meadoway will connect and conceptualize the city’s underutilized residual green spaces to form a network of trails, parks, and community driven gardens. This physical connection is echoed in the architectural concept. Landscape motifs are employed as an integral part of the design – two in particular – the terrace and the trellis: Terraces are employed on the south wing of the building with floors in pairs cascading towards the green space, maximizing views, and tapering the building down to the park. Green roofs on the terraces – which can be articulated as substantial planting beds instead of a minimum green layer – further emphasize this connection to the landscape. The elevation of the building is conceived as a trellis – a simple, repeated, modern lattice which rambles up across the facade like a trellis in a garden. This idea of trellis is not just decorative but spatial. Depending on how it is distributed over the elevation, it groups the unit faces into distinct sections – neighbourhoods – which give the groups a unique character and identity on the building face. It creates different indoor and outdoor spaces based upon its location: glassy curtain wall windowed rooms vs. more enclosed rooms with punched openings, open air balcony vs. closed balcony, extroverted vs. introverted.