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24-storey tower by RAW Design has been proposed for the A south side of Victoria Memorial Square, the part of Fort York National Historic Site that includes the Allard monument to the soldiers of 1812 and the city’s first burial ground. Alarming at a glance, the tower’s contribution to the shading of the park would be marginal. Proposed in early November by Density Group Limited, the tower would rise from the corner of Portland and Niagara, where the empty Nygard building is now. This and the Hounds of York building beside it (“a social club for dogs”) will be demolished; a third building at 18 Portland, an empty hydro substation, will partly be retained. The ground floor will be café space or retail, the next two floors offices and the rest residential, with more than 60% of the 182 units having two or three bedrooms. There will be only 54 parking spaces on two underground levels and the Floor Space Index (the ratio of total floor space to lot size) works out to 13.95. The shading study was done by the architects. In standard fashion, they calculated the shadow of the building throughout 21st the day on the of March, June, September and December. The most significant addition to shade in the park is during the late morning and through the lunch hour in March and September. But by early afternoon, there’s no additional shade. In June, the tower’s shadow does not touch a very sun-filled park. In December, with the sun so low on the horizon, the park is already mostly in the shade for much of the day, and the new tower again makes no difference. The little building at 18 Portland – which gives the project its name – is a Toronto Hydro-Electric System substation built in 1925 and designed by staff architect Albert E. Salisbury. The Heritage Impact Assessment (the building has no designation) was done by MacNaughton Hermsen Britton Clarkson of Kitchener, who call the two-storey structure “a modest example 20 The Fife and Drum January 2022
of the Edwardian Classical style.” It has red brick cladding, a flat parapet roof, and a stone entablature with the engraved company name. Brick pilasters flank either side of the façade. The front and portions of both sides, including much of the south wall, will be restored. In the judgement of MHBC, “enough of the original building will remain such that its original scale and massing will still be apparent.” The architects have made this charming corner of the project the bicycle entrance and garage. Directly across Portland and under construction on what used to be a surface parking lot is Portland Common, a 15-storey office building that includes a restored Copp Clark Publishing building at the corner of Wellington. While adding meaningful benefits to the neighbourhood, these two projects will also add considerable pressure to the already heavily used Victoria Memorial Square. The 1925 hydro substation, repurposed as a bicycle entrance and garage, can be seen at the extreme left, behind the car. Imagery here is from the DGL development application.
New tower proposed at Victoria Memorial Shadows thrown on the park are seen for this coming March 21 at 10:18 a.m. shadows are grey while the shadow of the new structure is shown in outline. new shadow will pass over the 1812 monument during the coming hour and afternoon will be on Portland Street. The shading in September is similar but, the rest of the year, there is little or no additional park shade from the new
Square Existing The streetscape on the south side of Niagara will be The continuous when 18 Portland is finished. The ground floor is by early café or retail while the two floors of offices above match the throughout height of the townhouses next door. A carriageway to the tower. townhouse courtyard is seen adjacent to the new structure.
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