How large is this building?

The building is 168 units with a GFA of 154,613 sf (142,611 sf of residential and 12,002 sf of commercial retail). The building rises 11 storeys in the west and 6 storey’s in the east. 

 

What type of retail will be included?

We are aiming to incorporate meaningful service-based retail, like a daycare and/or shared workspace, that will benefit the tenants and neighbourhood.

 

How much parking will there be?

There will be 101 parking spaces located below ground level and 33 covered, open-air surface parking spaces on the ground floor. The underground parking will be allocated to the residential tenants and the surface parking will be for residential and retail visitors.

 

What do you mean by sustainable?

This is one of those elusive terms that can mean a lot of different things. For us, sustainability encompasses 4 elements: 1) environment, 2) economic feasibility, 3) humane, people focused, and 4) scalable.

  • Environment - buildings that maintain greenspace and biodiversity, have low embodied carbon, produce no net greenhouse gas emissions (net-zero), incredible water management
  • Economic feasibility - an amazing building that is too expensive is useless, except perhaps as a platform for evaluating new systems. 
  • Humane - apartments buildings should promote healthy living with access to nature and act as a catalyst for community building
  • Scalable - for innovation to occur we need to share knowledge and build on best practices

 

What do you mean by passive?

Passive is a strategy that doesn't require mechanical equipment and energy. This comes into play when discussing temperature regulation. For example, many buildings are super inefficient because we have really good HVAC systems that can cool the space. In other words, we can afford to build buildings that heat up because we can compensate on the backend with HVAC. A better strategy would be creating a building that doesn't heat up in the first place so as to not require mechanical, and energy intensive, intervention of HVAC.  This may include the elimination of thermal bridges (heat transfer between the outside and inside of a building), good airtight building envelopes, and material choice. The design of a sustainable building requires a passive first strategy to maximize what functions can be achieved without mechanical equipment. Only when passive strategies are maximized should high efficiency mechanical systems be integrated. 

 

What is prefabricated building construction?

This is when a building is constructed off site in a factory or fabrication facility. The benefits of this is improved quality because the building is constructed in a controlled facility. There is less waste, and less noise and disruption in the neighbourhood when the components are brought to site for assembly. 

 

What is the Toronto Green Standard (TGS)? 

This is a framework developed by the City of Toronto that outlines sustainable design performance standards for new developments. The framework involves air quality, energy efficiencies and greenhouse gas emissions and resiliency, water balance quality and efficiency, ecology, and solid waste management. The TGS Version 3 has 4 tiers, with Tier 4 being the greatest level of performance. 

 

What is the unit composition and unit sizes?

This building will host larger format units and will not contain any bachelor/studio apartments. There are an assortment of unit sizes and types. 30% of the units will be 1B’s and with an average size of 539 sf. 54% of the units will be 2B’s and will range in size from 737 sf to 927 sf. A small subset of the 2B units will be 2-storey’s. 13% of the units will be 3B’s with an average size of 1,091 sf the remaining 3% of units will be 2-storey 3 / 4 bedroom units with an average size of 1,356 sf.

 

Approximately, how long will construction take? 

Careful planning and the use of the prefabricated building system will result in an onsite construction duration of approximately 17 weeks. 

 

How much will utility bills cost?

This is an all electric building, which means tenants will receive a single electricity bill for their heating, cooling, and power usage within the unit eg any appliance drawing power from the wall outlets. The design efforts to reduce heating and cooling loads coupled with solar panels result in estimated electricity charge of $26/month for the smaller 1B and $74/month for the larger 3 /4 bedroom units. Water bills will largely depend on the individual and how much water they consume.

 

How can I go about applying to live here?

We’re so excited you want to live here! That said, we have a long way to go before we can accept tenants. Unlike a condo building, this apartment will not be pre-leasing far in advance. We will be sure to keep you posted on when we go to market and provide you with the necessary information to complete and submit your rental application.

 

Will pets be allowed?

Yes. 

 

Will there be any amenities?

The building will include 17,879 sf of indoor and outdoor amenity space. We have not yet finalized our plans to program this space, however, we know that we will not have a pool. We would love to hear what ideas you have about the types of spaces you would like to see, eg gym, party room. You can provide your feedback using the Feedback tab above.

 

Open air corridors in Toronto?! What about weather?

Yes! It's possible. Indeed, tenants will be exposed to a range of weather conditions. Although our corridors are open-air and therefore exposed to the elements, they are nearly 10 feet wide and covered, and located on the interior of the building. This format provides some inherent shelter. It's also worthwhile to note that while this design is rare for apartments, this is the exact experience that people have when they exit their front door of a single family home, namely entry into the outdoors. Moreover, we have done extensive studies to make sure people have sufficient protection from the elements. These include wind studies, daylighting studies, and studies to examine snow accumulation. The results of these studies provide evidence that our open air corridors are sufficiently protected to produce comfortable outdoor space.

 

Will there be storage in the building? 

We will not have storage units in this building. That said, we are looking into alternative storage solutions for our future tenants. For example, we use a company called Cubby at another apartment building that provides on demand storage solutions for tenants. 

 

Which components of this project will be pre-fabricated? 

The building can be decomposed into 3 independent, but interacting systems, namely the 1) underground and ground floor, 2) the main body, and 3) the corridors and balcony. The underground and ground floor system is traditionally poured in place concrete, onsite. The main body and corridors and balconies will be prefabricated. The main body, comprising the majority of the massing, is constructed using the CREE system, which is a timber-concrete hybrid panelized system that is fabricated locally. This system incorporates mechanicals too, such as the radiant coils for heating and cooling. 

 

Is the central courtyard wide enough to admit sunlight? 

Yes. The building was specifically designed to allow sunlight into the central courtyard. For example, we have reduced the height of the north and south sides of the building and have produced a thinner profile using our single-loaded corridor design. Extensive sunlight studies were produced by RWDI to make sure this was the case. A summary schematic of these studies can be found at our project website here: https://www.1925vicpark.com/a-neighbourhood

 

How many hours of the day will it be in the shadow of the taller portion of the building?  

While the number of hours of direct sunlight varies by season, due to the sun’s varying position in the sky, the summer can have up to 5-6 hours of direct sunlight per day. A summary of these studies can be found on our project website here, showing the number of hours of sunlight per day for each month of the year: https://www.1925vicpark.com/a-neighbourhood 

 

What are the differences between a double loaded corridor and a single loaded corridor?

Double loaded corridors are seen in the great majority of apartment buildings, condos, and hotels in Toronto. Essentially, it is a hallway that gives access to units on either side of it. This arrangement does not allow for cross ventilation and provides limited access to natural sunlight. Unlike the double loaded corridor, the single loaded corridor is a building typology with units only on one side of the corridor. This typology provides more opportunity for cross-ventilation, sunlight access to the corridor and opportunity for outdoor space (if they are designed to be open-air).