DuEast
25 Sumach Street, Toronto
Developer: The Daniels Corporation
Units: 437
Storeys: 29 & 11
GFA: 373,955 sq.ft.
Completion Date: 2020
Situated at Dundas Street East and Tubman Avenue, in the heart of the award-winning Regent Park revitalization
The location of this site offers the unique opportunity to contribute to the emerging streetscape along Dundas St. E., and to use the access to green open space and a green roof across Sumach Street as a valuable visual amenity. The site occupies the south half of an urban block along a main east-west thoroughfare (Dundas Street East) and is bounded to the east and west by two north-south neighbourhood streets (Sumach and Tubman) and a laneway to the north (Living Laneway). In this instance one of the neighbourhood streets (Sumach) it flanks is a key civic amenity of the neighbourhood (Regent Park Aquatic Centre).
The proposed design consists of a 29-storey point tower and a 13-storey slab building atop a two-storey street-related podium. The tower and slab contain housing; the podium contains street-level retail along Dundas St. E., and office/commercial space on the second level. There are grade-related townhouses along Sumach and Tubman Streets.
Outstanding resident amenities
The laneway dividing Block 16 (and adjacent Block 17 to the east) is considered to be a community space focused on bicycle culture, with all four buildings providing program elements to support it. Our proposal for Block 16S includes bicycle locker rooms, a tool/maintenance room (not currently shown), and live/work units off of the Living Lane.
Our intention for the Living Lane is to support active design uses in laneways, and provide “eyes-on-the street”. Also following on this intention, we have located the building’s active amenity spaces facing the laneway along the north edge of the building (at Levels 2 and 3), to help animate and provide for desirable overlook. In addition, community garden plots are located on the roof, above Level 3 amenity.
Ideal location
The 29-storey tower located along Sumach Street has a floor plate of 800m2, permitted by way of the applicable zoning for the site. Designing it as several smaller tower shapes placed side by side has mitigated the visual impact of this mass. In this way, the building divides into three narrow vertical forms that appear as a series of small emphatically vertical point “towerettes”. These “towerettes” offer a counterpoint and backdrop to the lean, horizontal mass of the Aquatic Centre across Sumach Street. Service and loading for the whole project are located along the western portion of the Living Lane.
Active Design Uses In Laneways
The sides of the podium vary in keeping with Toronto’s traditional downtown urban typology- retail along the major east-west running streets (Queen/Dundas/College/Bloor) and residential uses on the north-south streets. Retail uses are located along the south face of the podium architecturally expressed as simple large glass panels affording maximum retail visibility fronted by a colonnade of tall slender columns. The columns enhance the public nature of the retail frontage, and will provide visual order to an environment that is often cluttered with signage.
On the residential flank (Sumach and Tubman), at grade units have solid walls and punch windows both for privacy and in keeping with the architectural language of Toronto’s townhouse typology. On Tubman, the podium emphasizes a low-rise horizontal form, in respect to the scale of neighbouring buildings on the street and transitioning to the 13-storey horizontal slab building above.
DuEast Condominium will be surrounded by accessible and convenient transit options
The south face of the podium notches northward on the west side, providing for a widened sidewalk and an alignment with the south façade of the adjacent Aquatic Centre. This configuration has the benefit of making a public open space at the SW corner of the site that visually connects to the adjacent parkland and athletic fields to the west. The programing and design concepts for the public space are currently being discussed, with the intention of providing an enhanced landscape with flexible areas for pedestrians along Dundas Street East.
While the main public face of the podium aligns with Dundas St. E., the 29-storey tower above emphasizes the westward view. The broad flank of the tower orients to the green roof of the adjacent Aquatic Centre and the more distant view of the athletic fields. This provides the maximum number of units with views to green space, treating the park as the “front lawn” of the residential units.
Consultant Team
GC: The Daniels Corporation
Structural: Jablonsky, Ast and Partners
Mechanical & Electrical: SNC Lavalin
Interior Design: Mason Studios
Landscape: Brook McIlroy
