What it feels like to live in a 16-sided building

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While Toronto’s decades-long condo boom has generally bolstered the city’s architectural reputation, its strongest statements have mostly come from the downtown core. It was time Midtown made a move.

Spiralling upwards from a square retail podium one block north of Yonge and St. Clair, the 47-storey tower at One Delisle is the first project in Canada by Jeanne Gang’s Chicago-based architecture firm. Studio Gang has designed such striking structures as San Francisco’s rippling MIRA tower, the uniquely splayed One Hundred building in St. Louis, and Chicago’s undulating Aqua and St. Regis skyscrapers, which at 82 and 101 storeys are the world’s tallest buildings designed by a woman.

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What it feels like to live in a 16-sided building Back to video

The spire rising from One Delisle’s podium, which will preserve the Art Deco building currently housing the project’s newly opened presentation centre, will gradually morph into a 16-sided collection of interlocking eight-storey modules inset with balconies and topped with terraces. The slender hexadecagonal shape of the residential building was chosen in part because it casts less shadow than a typical skyscraper, explains Brandon Donnelly, managing director of development at Slate Asset Management, the developer behind the project, and provides a wider range of vistas for the project’s 263 suites. Most will feature roomy balconies, and some will have terraces, too.

“We have been really impressed with how thoughtful Studio Gang is with their design process,” Donnelly says. “I think people appreciate the amount of effort we’re putting into creating a great piece of architecture. One of the things you hear so much in Toronto is that people are getting bored of typical condo towers, and seeing yet another glass box.”

As it stands, One Delisle’s 263 residences are divided into three tranches: the City Collection from floors 5 to 29, the Sky Collection from 30 to 43, and the Penthouse Collection” from 44 to 47. But Donnelly believes this will change. “I think our unit count will go down as the project moves forward owing to demand from empty nesters, and will skew towards larger units even more than it already does. Our average unit size is about 200 square feet larger than that of a typical high rise.”

The building’s interiors, also designed by Studio Gang, contrast natural materials like wood and stone with contemporary metal fixtures and will be outfitted with furniture and artwork curated by Toronto’s Mason Studio. Buyers can choose from various palettes of features and finishes that include porcelain and engineered stone surfaces, extra-long wide-plank engineered hardwood flooring and European cabinetry. Residences include custom eat-in kitchens with islands designed by Studio Gang, while bathrooms feature wall-mounted faucets, wall-tile surrounds and floating wall-attached vanities.

Among the building’s upscale amenities — a fitness centre, pool, dry sauna, salt room and eucalyptus steam room, chef’s kitchen and dining room, wine and cocktail lounge for entertaining and a playroom for children — the Ravine Terrace stands out. Inspired by the geography of the area, the landscaped expanse topping the podium “provides those types of opportunities where people can get to know their neighbours, and have a sense of community in the building,” Donnelly says, adding that the terrace will connect to the adjacent Delisle-St. Clair Parkette, which in turn is being enlarged by about 50 percent and landscaped by Janet Rosenberg & Studio.

While Slate is aiming to transform the Midtown skyline with One Delisle, the developer is already making its mark in the surrounding Deer Park neighbourhood. In six separate transactions starting in 2013, Slate acquired 10 local buildings, including those on all four corners of the Yonge and St. Clair intersection. Since then, it has conducted extensive renovations and streetscaping, and has invested in public art installations including multistorey murals on the sides of both 1 St. Clair E. and 1 St. Clair W., and a landscaped Ravine Bench on the northeast corner of the intersection.

“One Delisle is a capstone project of our broader city-building initiative,” Donnelly says. “We are planning to invest in the neighborhood forever, and when you have that kind of time horizon, and you have all these holdings, you make decisions that benefit the whole, as opposed to just an individual project.”

Units starting in the low $900,000s. For more information, visit https://onedelisle.com.

Three things

With ornamental fountains, reflecting pools, a gated garden retreat and a children’s playground accessible via scenic biking and hiking trails, the 20-acre David A. Balfour Park offers a more expansive alternative to the Delisle Parkette. 75 Rosehill Ave.

The relaxed neighbourhood trattoria Capocaccia serves plates of branzino stuffed with lemon, garlic and sauteed kale, plus veal ragu and other rustic dishes from the south of Italy. 1366 Yonge St.

Bespoke flower arrangements, handmade gifts and sweet treats by chocolatier Michel Cluizel are on offer at The Chocolate Tulip, one of several stylish florists on Yonge just south of St. Clair. 1251 Yonge St.