In collaboration with developer Aspen Ridge Homes, Quadrangle Architects Limited has unveiled the design of a 41-storey condominium that aims to merge culture with style, defining its alluring entertainment district location while paying tribute to its historic surroundings.
Built on a large 1½ acre site in a neighbourhood characterized by mid-rise industrial buildings (between King Street West and Queen Street West), Studio on Richmond and Studio2 border Toronto’s financial district, making the development a vibrant node for living, working, playing and learning. Studio2 comprises an eight-storey podium building along Duncan Street and a lower five-storey wing along the soon-to-be revitalized Nelson Street, along with a 41-storey tower. Studio2 offers retail spaces at the corner of Duncan and Nelson, and a row of contemporary townhouses, flexibly designed to serve as residences or commercial spaces. Quadrangle embraced the warehouse vocabulary of the neighbourhood in the podium and created ground floors which are animated and pedestrian-oriented.
“As Toronto continues to grow organically, people of different backgrounds, cultures and experiences come together to achieve common goals,” says Les Klein, principal of Quadrangle Architects Limited. “Studio2 is a beautiful expression of urban living which strengthens the notion of community.”
The Studio2 tower reaches a full 10 storeys higher than phase I, and the creative tension between the soaring structures depict both stability and movement. The towers both rest atop eight-storey podiums; the lower podiums mimic the warehouse style of the immediate area, reinforcing the historic connection to the community. The podiums are clad with three colours of precast concrete panels imitating a stone patterned exterior, and are punctuated by a pattern of windows, recessed balconies and projecting walkouts. The glazed towers are designed in striking contrast to the lower portion and focus on dynamic movement. They are bright, airy and light-filled stacks of glass boxes separated by two-storey transitions that take advantage of 360° floor-to-ceiling views. As the boxes stack higher and higher, the angled mullions at the corners suggest subtle movements sideways in all directions, and the balconies undulate in and out on all faces of the boxes.The buildings’ interiors were designed by Mike Niven Interior Design Inc.
Studio2 is scheduled for completion in 2014.