WESTside Lofts - Sales pavilion, Toronto
2006
SMC Alsop

Will Alsop building - photo received 270606 from Stratton & Reekie

ALSOP TORONTO SALES CENTRE LAUNCHES MAJOR URBAN RENEWAL PROJECT

A remarkable new landmark designed by SMC Alsop opened recently in Toronto, marking the launch of a massive urban renewal effort in the City of Toronto’s West Queen West neighbourhood. The brightly coloured timber-clad box will act as a sales pavilion for the WESTside Lofts, a major new residential development set to regenerate downtown Toronto’s celebrated artistic neighbourhood and create new connections across the city.

Located on Queen Street, directly opposite the Drake Hotel, the sales pavilion features a bright red timber surround over an internal concrete slab building with colourful Swiss-cheese holes. Architect Will Alsop is now well-known in Toronto for the creation of the Ontario College of Art & Design’s Sharp Centre for Design, known as the ‘Tabletop’.

The timber-clad building will first serve as the sales pavilion for the WESTside Lofts - an ambitious residential development being constructed to the south, part of which will be designed by SMC Alsop’s Toronto office. The area is experiencing exciting changes and community interest is very active around regeneration of a former industrial area into a media and artistic community.

The SMC Alsop ‘gatehouse’ pavilion marks the entrance to what will be a new route from north to south connecting eventually with Lake Ontario through a series of urban rooms that will enliven and invigorate a neglected and depressed part of Toronto.

Speaking of the project, the client, Marc Julien of Landmark said “ The WESTside Lofts are the first step in a long term development that will create a new community finally connecting King and Queen Streets and will enhance an already robust neighbourhood. Our vision will revitalize neglected areas by incorporating residential, commercial and recreational spaces.“

The boldness of the design and potential catalytic effect of the small but perfectly formed SMC Alsop sales pavilion is reminiscent of the impact of Alsop’s Cardiff Bay Visitors centre, built as a temporary structure in 1990 that became a permanent and powerful iconic structure on the Cardiff waterfront.

Info re this SMC Alsop building received 270606 from Stratton & Reekie
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Toronto building - SMC Alsop

WESTside Lofts - Team:
Client: Landmark / Urbancorp
Architect of Record: Giancarlo Garofalo OAA MRAIC, Giancarlo Garofalo Architect
Design Architects: Will Alsop OAA, Gregory Woods with the assistance of Alsop Team Members: Caroline Robbie, Tamara Hains, Mark Chilton
Model Suite Design: Kelly Cray, Chapman Design Group Ltd.
Lighting Design: Stephen Pollard Design
Tooth Desk and Interior Blob Fabrication: Soheil Mosun Ltd. Custom Fabricators
Curtain Wall: Belmont Glass Mirror & Aluminum Inc.
Exterior Blob: Great Lakes Dome Company
Timber Signage Exterior Box: Lido Wall Systems

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