national ballet School of Canada/radio City

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1 Awards04Mixed.indd 90 7/28/08 12:47:51 PM

2 mixed use winner national ballet School of Canada/radio City toronto, canada After the Canadian Broadcast Corporation relocated its Englishlanguage broadcasting headquarters from this historic Toronto neighborhood in 1997, the land and buildings sat vacant for several years. Formerly home to a 152-meter (499-ft) radio tower, offices, and performance space, the one-hectare (2.4-ac) site located in the dense rental market of Church/ development team Owners/Developers National Ballet School of Canada Context Development, Inc. Design Architects Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects architectsalliance Jury statement In a creative partnership the National Ballet School of Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the city, and a local developer multiple easements, transfers of development rights, and complex ownership structures have allowed the rehabilitation and reuse of heritage buildings; construction of new residential, academic, and performance facilities for one of the premier ballet schools in the world; public urban spaces; and 414 residential units in 18 townhouses and two residential towers. Master Planner Goldsmith Borgal & Company Limited Architects Urban Planner Urban Strategies, Inc. Mixed use 91 Awards04Mixed.indd 91 7/28/08 12:47:54 PM

3 Wellesley Village now consists of 32,516 square meters (350,000 sf) of condominium space, 18 townhouses, and a 16,723-square-meter (180,000-sf) arts training institute. Context Development, Inc., purchased the site in 2000 and, in conjunction with the National Ballet School of Canada (NBS), structured a deal that allowed the NBS to purchase roughly half the land on which it would restore two historic buildings and construct a new school for the nominal fee of CAN$1. The city then granted Context the density transfers it needed for the financially feasible development of 18 townhouses and two high-rise condominium towers, with underground garages on 92 Best Practices in development Awards04Mixed.indd 92 7/28/08 12:47:57 PM

4 the remainder of the site. The result is an innovative, high-density, urban infill residential project connected to a new, state-of-the-art NBS complex via two landscaped courtyards. Context s master plan established an irregular property line that split the site in two, with the ballet school sited on the Jarvis Street side of the property and the residential component occupying the Mutual Street side. The rezoning and planning approval were filed in a single application, yielding a number of design synergies, such as shared easements for the public lane and single-ramp access to the underground parking. The NBS campus consists of a modern, three-story training center threaded between two heritage buildings an 1856 late-georgian residence and an 1898/1901 academic building. The transparency of the vertical campus reduces the perceived density of the structure and animates the street wall by showcasing the activities of the students. Most of Radio City s 414 residential units are located in two slender high-rise towers the 25-story North Tower and the 30-story South Tower. The structures unusually small floor plates 650 square meters (6,997 sf) and their placement, situated deep within the site, minimize their apparent bulk and do not disturb the residential scale of surrounding side streets. Positioning the towers diagonally to each other and installing floor-to-ceiling windows in every unit maximize views and increase the marketability for the condominium project. Sharing a contractor facilitated communication, created economies of scale, and allowed the use of common construction materials; the use of identical steel, Mixed use 93 Awards04Mixed.indd 93 7/28/08 12:48:03 PM

5 site Plan ProJect data Website Site Area 1.0 ha (2.4 ac) Facilities 16,723 m 2 (180,000 sf) arts training facility 372 m 2 (4,000 sf) retail/ entertainment space 414 multifamily units 18 single-family units Land Uses residential, retail, entertainment, education, parks/open space Start/Completion Dates June 2003 June 2007 glass, and concrete in both the Radio City towers and NBS campus presents a unifying aesthetic for the entire project. Fronting Mutual Street, the three-story townhouses echo the rooflines and form of the adjacent Victorian rowhouses. The façade of the townhomes is covered in light-yellow brick a common building material in the city and each unit includes a single-car garage. The arrangement of the buildings creates an interior piazza enlivened with public art, while a shared courtyard connects the townhouse component to the NBS complex. Like many urban infill developments, the project ran into a major roadblock along the way to completion. During the excavation process, an underground stream was discovered directly below the site of the North Tower. Dewatering took six months, and a portion of the underground parking garage was eliminated from the plans to avoid any environmental impact on the river system. The project responds to pent-up demand for for-sale housing from the area s hip, upwardly mobile residents. Because the village also is the heart of Toronto s gay community, Context geared its marketing efforts almost exclusively to these prospective homebuyers, and more than 90 percent of Radio City purchasers ultimately came from this demographic group. 94 Best Practices in development Awards04Mixed.indd 94 7/28/08 12:48:07 PM

6 Launched in May 2001 and substantially completed in June 2007, the CAN$85 million (US$84 million) project is a clear financial success. Both towers sold out quickly, and resale values continue to climb, outperforming most of the surrounding market. Overall, Radio City has benefited the community greatly, both by introducing new housing that replaced vacant land and empty buildings and by enabling the NBS to construct a new school in conjunction with the restoration of historic structures. According to Howard Cohen, president of Context Development, Radio City was an exciting opportunity to help transform a decrepit piece of land in Toronto s downtown core into a vibrant, mixed-use project. The success of Radio City lies in that it has provided much-needed residential density alongside a new home for the National Ballet School of Canada. PhotogrAPhS by ContEXt DEvEloPMEnt, InC. (90, 94); tom ArbAn (91, 93l, 93r); EDUArD hueber (92, 95) Mixed use 95 Awards04Mixed.indd 95 7/28/08 12:48:08 PM