Four Seasons Toronto - Four Seasons Yorkville Hotel 2a Edit Building

Identification

Approximate Address - 1263 Bay Street [map]

City - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Region - Greater Golden Horseshoe

Complex - Four Seasons Toronto

Complex Buildings - Four Seasons Yorkville Hotel, Four Seasons Yorkville Hotel 2b

Nearby Buildings - Minto Yorkville, 1255 Bay Street, The Regency Yorkville, Green 'P' - Yorkville Cumberland Garage, 70 Yorkville Avenue, The Lotus, The Maxus, 1240 Bay Street, 40 Scollard Street, 94 Cumberland Street

Technical

Type - Skyscraper

Designation - Condominium, Hotel

Status - Proposed

Height - 195m640feet

Floors - 55

Units - 356 suites

Companies

Architect - Page & Steele Architects Inc.

Architect - architectsAlliance

Construction Manager - Menkes Developments Inc.

Developer - Four Seasons Hotels Inc.

Developer - Lifetime Urban Development Group

Developer - Menkes Developments Inc.

Electrical Engineering - Hidi Rae Consulting Engineers

Electrical Engineering - MMM Group Limited

Mechanical Engineering - MMM Group Limited

Structural Engineering - Stephenson Engineering Ltd.

Building Record History

2006-04-27 - Proposed

Reference Material

Contributors: Rod Taylor

• "Four Seasons Hotel, Bay St and Yorkville Ave, M4W". (2007, 5 October). Reed Construction Data.

  Project: concrete foundation, cast-in-place concrete structural frame, curtainwall exterior, fuel fired heating system, proposed construction of a two-tower luxury hotel/condominium complex. The West tower will contain 200 condminium units and the East tower will contain a mix of 100 hotel suites and 100 condominum units.

  Scope: 800,000 square feet; 46 storeys; 2 structures; 402 units

  Owner: Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts

  Owner: Lifetime Urban Group

  Owner: Menkes Developments Inc

  Const manager: Menkes Developments Inc

  Architect: Architects Alliance

  Architect: Page & Steele Inc

  Structural cons eng: Stephenson Engineering Ltd

  Mechanical cons eng: MMM Group Limited

  Electrical cons eng: MMM Group Limited

  Electrical cons eng: Hidi Rae Consulting Eng Inc

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• Rook, Katie. (2007, 30 April). "$16M condo unit signals market shift". National Post.

  A planned condominium building in Yorkville will feature the city's most expensive penthouse --a $16-million unit.

  The creation of a 9,000- square-foot space atop the soonto- be built Four Seasons Hotel marks a coming of age for Toronto, co-designer Brian Gluckstein said in a recent interview.

  The 55-storey tower at Bay Street and Yorkville Avenue will house 103 private residences above a 253-room hotel, while a second 25-storey tower will include 101 private residences.

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• "Four Seasons Hotel, Bay St and Yorkville Ave, M4W". (2007, 2 February). Reed Construction Data - KeyMail Report.

  Project: proposed construction of a two-tower luxury hotel/condominium complex with 265 hotel rooms and 125 to 150 condominium units.

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• Macdonald, Greg. (2007, 20 January). "Yorkville towers approved". National Post.

  The Ontario Municipal Board has approved a $500-million project, including the city's seventh- highest building, to be built in ''the armpit of Yorkville.''

  The 50-storey, 195-metre tower will be a part of the Four Seasons hotel-condominium complex on Bay Street, between Scollard Street and Yorkville Avenue.

  The complex will also contain a 24-storey residential building. The higher tower will consist of a 20-floor hotel, as well as condo units, for a total of 241 condos and 250 hotel rooms.

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• Mays, John Bentley. (2006, 7 April). "Lots of patience needed to solve Yorkville dispute". Globe and Mail.

  Of the residential skyscraper schemes recently given the green light by Toronto's planning officials, none faces a more bruising political struggle than the Four Seasons hotel and condominium complex in Yorkville.

  "We are appalled by the height and density, and the rather mediocre design," area resident Mary-Helen Spence said on behalf of one important residents' association girding itself for battle. A $2-million offer made by the builders (Menkes Development and Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotel Inc.) to improve a nearby schoolyard that would be touched by the towers' shadow has been declared unacceptable. "It's simply buying the sunshine from generations of children," Ms. Spence said.

  The cause of this fuss in midtown's historic Yorkville district is indeed the largest development ever to come to the neighbourhood. If built as approved, the project will consist of two towers, 46 and 30 storeys tall, on Bay Street between Yorkville Avenue and Scollard Street. It will cast long shadows in a part of town not accustomed to them. But if it is not the most impressive architectural idea to come from the designers of the project -- Peter Clewes and Rudy Wallman of architectsAlliance -- the development will almost certainly not be the aesthetic calamity predicted by some residents.

  But the best part of the design -- something that is much disliked by residents, by the way -- is what's planned for the street level. Though the podium is hard and aloof on its Bay Street side, on Yorkville, the street-wall gives way to a pleasantly intimate harbour framed by the towers. Cars will enter and exit this principal reception area of the hotel. The slow churn of traffic will likely create a lively sense of to and fro, though the hum will be muted by the streetside garden and other landscape features designed by Montreal architect Claude Cormier.

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• Won, Shirley. (2005, 25 July). "Four Seasons to Announce New 55 storey Hotel in Yorkville". Globe and Mail.

  Four Seasons Hotels Inc. today will take the wraps off a posh, $325-million hotel project in Toronto's tony Yorkville district that will go head to head against new rivals as the battle heats up for well-heeled customers.

  The chain will run the 265-room hotel slated for opening in 2009. It will be owned by Saudi Arabia's Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, ranked by Forbes as the world's fifth richest man.

  The new 55-storey hotel, which will become Yorkville's tallest building, is also a long way from Mr. Sharp's beginnings when he opened the Four Seasons motor hotel on Toronto's Jarvis Street in 1961, an area he describes as a "hookers' paradise" at the time.

  The Four Seasons project, which will file applications for rezoning this week, includes plans for 125 luxury condo units on the upper floors during the first phase. There will also be a second-phase condo tower to be built later, which will be connected to the hotel.

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• "Four Seasons to Announce New Hotel in Yorkville". (2005, 25 July). www.yorkvilleresidences.com/.

  Bay-Yorkville Developments Ltd., a joint venture between Menkes Developments and Lifetime Homes, both of Toronto and Halcyon Ventures of Boston, announced today that it has recently signed an agreement in principle with Kingdom Hotels to pursue the development of a new 265-room luxury hotel.

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• "Preliminary Report" [944.28kB]. City Hall.

• "Staff Report" [2.15MB]. City Hall.