One of the Mountain’s entry points to downtown is going to look a whole lot different.
In a pre-application community meeting TrueResident attended back in May, we learned details regarding a development of the Corktown Plaza for two towers by Slate Asset Management, CoreArchitects, Janet Rosenburg & Studio, and GSP Group.
Slate has quite an impressive list of completed projects in Toronto — the most notable of which are towers on all 4 corners of Yonge & St. Clair Street.
As the firm’s first entry into Hamilton, the architects involved in the project made it clear that while they plan to build tall, they’re paying close attention to their immediate and urban context.
The proposed towers are to be 34 and 31 storeys with ground-floor retail and plenty of community amenities.
Key amenities will include a large setback along John Street for extra-wide sidewalks (as wide as 9.5 metres) to allow for public gathering spaces, a local art celebrated mid-block connection to residential lobbies, green roofs, and glass facade retail.
What makes this Corktown Plaza development particularly interesting is that all of the units will be rental apartments — not condos. In a time where home affordability dominates discussions, it’s great to look forward to a different type of housing stock enter the Hamilton market.
Just one street down between Charlton Ave & St. Joseph’s Dr is the site for another large-scale project.
Spallacci Homes is planning on tearing down the current Terraces on John and in its place build out three towers at heights of 26, 30 and 36 storeys.
The project will be called Metro City Condos with UrbanSolutions Planning & Land Development Consultants Inc as the authorized Planning Consultant acting on behalf of Spallacci & Sons Ltd. The architect for the project is SRN Architects.
The three towers and common podium will create 923 units as well as underground parking for 934 vehicles. The project will sit on approximately 2.1 acres of land.
This massive development will share a multi-level, mixed use podium ranging from 1 to 5 storeys to accommodate the drop in grade from St Josephs’ Drive to Charlton Avenue East.
In their visual impact assessment, it’s written that the towers are staggered on the podium to “take full advantage of view to the City and Escarpment and Lake Ontario beyond”.
It will be a challenge for these projects to be approved as both sites fall outside of the city’s Downtown Secondary Plan which outlines height limits on buildings within the city’s downtown core.
Furthermore, many of the proposed towers rise above the top of the escarpment which is understood to be the new general height limit for upcoming developments.
Rendering of the Hamilton skyline with completed Metro City Condos from the Jolley Cut
While getting approval from the City to move forward with these projects at their current heights will be a monumental task, both of these projects may have their ace in the hole by way of the Olympia Apartments.
Located on Charlton Ave, the Olympia Apartments tower is Hamilton’s third tallest by total height (98 metres) but second tallest by floor count (33 stories). This structure is far beyond the arbitrary escarpment height limit and makes a strong precedent for the two John Street developers.
The towers that currently make up the Hamilton skyline nearly all come from a time when the city was in decline and planners approved the application of nearly anyone who dared invest here. But with 25+ tower projects currently slated for development, the City of Hamilton can be choosy on how it will build upward. How much of a factor existing tall towers from the 70s have in aiding the approval of new towers is yet to be determined.
What are your thoughts on these developments? Are you excited to see Hamilton get taller? Let us know in the comments!
The proposed towers are to be 34 and 31 storeys with ground-floor retail and plenty of community amenities.
Key amenities will include a large setback along John Street for extra-wide sidewalks (as wide as 9.5 metres) to allow for public gathering spaces, a local art celebrated mid-block connection to residential lobbies, green roofs, and glass facade retail.
What makes this Corktown Plaza development particularly interesting is that all of the units will be rental apartments — not condos. In a time where home affordability dominates discussions, it’s great to look forward to a different type of housing stock enter the Hamilton market.
Just one street down between Charlton Ave & St. Joseph’s Dr is the site for another large-scale project.
Spallacci Homes is planning on tearing down the current Terraces on John and in its place build out three towers at heights of 26, 30 and 36 storeys.
The project will be called Metro City Condos with UrbanSolutions Planning & Land Development Consultants Inc as the authorized Planning Consultant acting on behalf of Spallacci & Sons Ltd. The architect for the project is SRN Architects.
The three towers and common podium will create 923 units as well as underground parking for 934 vehicles. The project will sit on approximately 2.1 acres of land.
This massive development will share a multi-level, mixed use podium ranging from 1 to 5 storeys to accommodate the drop in grade from St Josephs’ Drive to Charlton Avenue East.
In their visual impact assessment, it’s written that the towers are staggered on the podium to “take full advantage of view to the City and Escarpment and Lake Ontario beyond”.
It will be a challenge for these projects to be approved as both sites fall outside of the city’s Downtown Secondary Plan which outlines height limits on buildings within the city’s downtown core.
Furthermore, many of the proposed towers rise above the top of the escarpment which is understood to be the new general height limit for upcoming developments.
The towers that currently make up the Hamilton skyline nearly all come from a time when the city was in decline and planners approved the application of nearly anyone who dared invest here. But with 25+ tower projects currently slated for development, the City of Hamilton can be choosy on how it will build upward. How much of a factor existing tall towers from the 70s have in aiding the approval of new towers is yet to be determined.
What are your thoughts on these developments? Are you excited to see Hamilton get taller? Let us know in the comments!
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