Woodcliffe Proposes Condo on Yonge in Summerhill

Woodcliffe Properties has submitted an application to the City of Toronto for the rezoning of a property located at 1196 Yonge Street, just a block north of the iconic North Toronto rail station-turned LCBO. On the northwest corner of Yonge and Birch Avenue in the Summerhill area, approval of the application would permit a 14-storey mixed-use, mostly residential development on the site.

The section of Yonge street surrounding the site boasts an eclectic mix of Victorian and Edwardian era main street commercial buildings, late 20th and early 21st century commercial and residential developments, as well as the landmark, repurposed North Toronto station structures. The 1196 Yonge site itself is an assembly of six properties along Yonge Street — 1196 through 1210 — plus 2 through 8 Birch Avenue. The properties currently have of a mix of low-rise buildings lining Yonge that wrap the corner of Birch.

None of buildings on site are listed on the Toronto Heritage Register, nor designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. In a Cultural Heritage Evaluation Report completed by ERA Architects, the specialist firm concluded that the properties on site are not candidates for designation. The building on the Yonge/Birch corner (pictured below) was, however, assessed by the firm to carry historical value for its association with the event of the 1914-16 regrading of Yonge Street in response to the city-wide grade separation of the Canadian Pacific Rail corridor (which runs just south of the site), but while the building exhibits a few remnant features that express the story of that time, it does not effectively communicate the story on its own, and resultantly, it is not considered a candidate for heritage designation solely on the basis of its associative value. ERA has made the suggestion that the corner building’s associative value can be conserved and communicated instead through methods including commemoration and interpretation.