GWL Realty Advisors (GWLRA) has unveiled a “once-in-a-generation revitalization” of one of Toronto’s most iconic properties, the 95-year-old College Park building at Yonge and College streets in the heart of the downtown core.

The plan includes three new highrise towers from 65 to 96 storeys -- including one "super-tall" building.

After announcing several months ago it was seeking a vision to redevelop the property, which will be 100 years old in 2030, GWLRA today unveiled a mixed-use proposal which retains and restores the existing heritage building, completes the original vision to include a highrise component, and adds more modern elements with an architectural nod to the building’s history.

“Toronto has waited nearly 100 years to see a completed vision for College Park come to life,” Daniel Fama, the vice-president of development at GWLRA, said in the announcement Tuesday afternoon. “We intend to restore and protect College Park’s heritage, while introducing 2,334 new housing units, a new hotel, new retail and entertainment space, and new public space that makes sense for the Toronto of today. 

“College Park will be a major cultural destination.”

While no construction timeline is immediately available, GWLRA has submitted a development application for the property to the city. There is no indication of how soon the project might actually get under way, but a spokesperson for GWLRA told RENX the firm anticipates two to four years before shovels would go into the ground.

The project will be developed on behalf of GWLRA’s client, property owner The Canada Life Assurance Company.

The design team for College Park

The College Park redevelopment is being designed by Toronto firms Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA), ERA Architects and PUBLIC WORK to transform the intersection of Yonge and College into an essential retail and cultural hub. 

Part of this involves completing the original vision for College Park. It was conceived as an upscale 37-storey retail landmark — a “City Within a Block” meant to rival New York’s Rockefeller Center. However, the Great Depression forced the scaling back of architects Ross & Macdonald’s original, grand vision for the art moderne and art deco building.

The proposed towers would stand 96, 75 and 65 storeys with the tallest hitting 333.3 metres, just over 1,000 feet, the spokesperson told RENX. The project is to contain 2.54 million square feet of space, most of it devoted to new housing components. The podium will range up to 12 storeys.

The plan for the Yonge Street podium includes restoring the “spectacular grandeur of the interior arcade, which would reconnect passersby to a Parisian-style vitrine shopping experience” the announcement states. It protects and expands The Carlu, the Art Deco event venue on the building’s seventh floor, with outdoor terraces and more indoor space for conferences.

“College Park is one of the most significant works of architecture in Toronto,” ERA Architects principal Scott Weir said in the announcement. Weir also worked on the 2003 restoration of The Carlu. 

“For its whole existence, College Park has never reached its full potential. This project is our chance to get it right for the beginning of its second century.”

Three new towers to be added to site

The three new mixed-use residential towers, designed by HPA, are based on the Art Deco heritage architecture of the podium, with elements that echo 1920s skyscrapers.

HPA has designed a ribbon-like raised pathway that winds through College Park’s interior, linking College and Yonge to a glass-encased atrium and outdoor public space at the rear.

“Our starting point for the new College Park architecture was to embrace ERA’s heritage work and ideas from the early 1920s,” founding partner David Pontarini said in the announcement. “We intend to respect the building’s architectural DNA and bringing that up vertically into modern towers that contribute back to the skyline. 

“If you squint, College Park would look like one development, built at one time.”

The design also incorporates the addition of a new tree canopy, native plantings and other elements in the outdoor plaza which backs onto, and is overlooked by, the glass atrium.

Higher up, rooftop gardens inspired by the 1920s “urban mountain” concept would sit atop a series of plateaus, accessible from the sky lobby where the heritage building meets the three towers.

“College Park would mark a new metropolitan culture in Toronto by demonstrating how public and urban vitality can expand from the park and the street, inside and out, from the ground floor into the sky,” PUBLIC WORK principal and co-founder Marc Ryan said in the release. “We want to rev up the intensity of the public experience with a stronger sense of urban forest and more access to light. 

“The building would fully embrace the public realm.”

Busy, highly populous neighbourhood

The project is to be developed in one of the city’s busiest and most densely packed neighbourhoods, and incorporates access into the TTC’s College Station subway stop. A quarter million passengers each week pass through that station.

“Community engagement has been and will continue to be robust and essential,” Fama said in the announcement, noting a website has been created to keep the public updated on news about the site. “This is just the beginning of a multi-year, iterative process, and we encourage the public to stay involved and share feedback through College Park 100.”

Updates will be available via collegepark100.com.