West Don Lands Block 8
  • Toronto, Ontario
    2022 In Construction ● 59,119 m2
    residential ● mixed-use
    Client: Dream / Kilmer Group / Tricon
    Collaborators: COBE Architeccts

    Block 8 opens the latest chapter in the redevelopment of Toronto’s 80-hectare West Don Lands. The project, a City of Toronto pilot, addresses a pressing need for purpose-built high-quality rental housing at all income levels. a-A and its collaborator, Danish architects Cobe, drew heavily on Block 8’s context of vibrant street life, wild ravines, vestiges of 19th century industry, and intimate Victorian side streets.

    These elements are reinterpreted into a stacked massing of a robust, low-slung podium, followed by a finely detailed mid-rise component, and topped with sculpted towers that identify the new neighbourhood on the skyline. By 2022, the site will be transformed into a diverse, welcoming new downtown community of 770 units of affordable and market rental housing within a fully accessible, LEED Gold community.

    Recognition
    2019 Canadian Architect ● Award of Excellence
  • This project reminds us of the basic rules of great urbanism: buildings that help define streets and public spaces, with a vibrant ground plane and appropriately scaled and shaped built form that artfully interprets its historic context, while accommodating a wide range of use and population. It works on so many levels. The approach to affordable housing for this privileged site is timely, ambitious and appropriate for provincial land such as this.
    Jury comment, 2019 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence