A plaza in the centre of the site has been designed to be the heart of the district and will feature a public building. The footprints and heights of the 12 proposed buildings have been refined to increase the amount of publicly accessible space in the district, from an original 41 per cent to 65 per cent. The result is a plan with pedestrian streets 10 metres wide, protected from the wind with heated pavers that will remain dry and safe even in the winter, Mr. Kuwabara says.
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The district plan is unusual in that it’s leading with the office building, rather than residential, says Alfredo Romano, president at Castlepoint Numa and partner at 3C Lakeshore Inc. Its prominent location at the point of a bend in the otherwise straight Queens Quay and its unique design are features intended to attract attention to the location.
“We wanted to anchor the site with an office building that responded to the needs for a flexible office environment and more freedom of movement for employees, which were priorities even before COVID and have become more important today,” Mr. Romano says.
“We started designing this prepandemic with a concept of making the offices seamless when it comes to indoor and outdoor environments,” says Greg Dunn, principal of Adamson Associates Architects, which designed the office building that will rise between the coming Trinity Street and new Cherry Street on the north side of Queens Quay.
“The site has such an interesting angle, we rotated the mass of floors a bit, creating outdoor terraces on seven of the 11 floors. Four of them are connected with exterior stairwells as well,” he notes.
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The building’s floorplates allow for flexibility to expand to smaller or larger spaces. There will also be capability to connect floors with interior staircases, so tenants can reach another floor without having to use an elevator, Mr. Dunn says.
The building is tall enough that it will have a panoramic view of Lake Ontario, as well as the city skyline, from an amenity deck on the green roof. The project is aiming for LEED Gold certification when it is ready for occupancy in 2024.
Tech, finance and creative industries are target markets for space in 300 Queens Quay, says Joe Almeida, managing director of Avison Young, the exclusive office leasing brokerage.
“We’re talking to potential tenants not just in Toronto but nationally and internationally through our network. In all sectors – from finance and insurance to technology and arts – there are companies that have actually been growing in the pandemic and a lot of them are looking at Toronto,” Mr. Almeida says.
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