Introducing Junction House
Today, we are thrilled to announce that Slate Asset Management and Globizen Developments have filed a rezoning application for a new mid-rise condominium project at 2720 Dundas Street West in the Junction neighborhood of Toronto.
The proposed building contains 173 residential suites (including laneway towns) and at-grade retail along Dundas Street West. The residential gross floor area is approximately 155,000 sf and the retail area is almost 6,000 sf.
We’re calling it Junction House. That’s a working title, but it's a deliberate one.
We believe that Toronto is at a tipping point where, for a variety of reasons, more of us will be living up, instead of out. And so from the outset, we challenged Superkül Architects to design a condominium building that would serve not only young people, but also families and people who may need a bit more space.
We wanted to create a better substitute for low-rise housing.
The result, at least at this early stage, is that 40% of the suites in the proposed building have 2 or 3 bedrooms and almost 40% of the suites are 2 storeys.
One of the reasons we ended up focusing on multi-level units was because when we spoke to families living in condos today they told us loud and clear that they wanted (needed?) greater acoustic separation between their sleeping areas and living areas. They told us it was simply impractical to have a baby sleeping behind a sliding glass door next to the kitchen while you try and flip eggs and blend protein shakes in the morning.
Ultimately, it is this obsession with multi-level units that ended up driving much of the architecture of the building. It translates into the specific proportions on the building's facades.
The other driver of the building's architecture is the site's position on what we internally call an "urban island", located at the eastern entrance to the Junction and at the top of the West Bend neighborhood.
As you drive or cycle up Dundas Street West and as the street starts to bend toward the west, the Junction House site becomes your exact view terminus. That's why one of the existing buildings already has a rooftop billboard on top of it. Some clever person clearly discovered this unique vantage point before us.
Because of its positioning, Superkül felt it appropriate to encourage a sense of motion as you approach and pass the building. That's why the upper portion (the white part) is outfitted with angled windows. The idea is for it to feel cinematic as you pass the building and enter the neighborhood.
The windows are also conveniently angled to optimize the views of downtown toward the southeast.
The other thing you might be noticing in the above rendering is the inconspicuous pink neon sign on the roof. This is a public art placeholder designed to replace the advertising billboard that's there today.
We inserted a pink neon sign because, well, we love pink neon. But the intent is for this to be a community-driven process. We're new to the area. We want locals to tell us what should go here and mark the entrance to the neighborhood.
It's still early days for Junction House, but we're excited and we hope you are too. In the coming months we'll be working with both the city and the local community to make the project even better.
If you have any questions or if you'd like to learn more about the proposal, please feel free to reach out at @globizen or at hello@globizen.com.
Image: Norm Li