55 Yonge

In the heart of Toronto’s financial district, 55 Yonge is a landmark 70-storey purpose-built residential tower. The building will include nearly 500 new residential units that will respond to Toronto’s rapid population growth. 55 Yonge is part of a solution to expand residential housing in Toronto while pushing the boundaries of an ambitious architectural character that will define Toronto’s downtown landscape. In the case of 55 Yonge, its context houses some of the most important heritage towers in Toronto. The idea of “future heritage,” or starting to build an architectural legacy, became central in the design discourse. This means the tower requires a grace and form that is akin to the context and density it occupies, but also tells a new story on Yonge Street. This story emphasizes the possibility of an architecture that exhibits high quality, high performance, and a presence different than the current vernacular approaches to high-rises across the city. Our approach to achieving this architectural presence is through the concept of a façade as a performance textile. Much like the fashion industry uses draping to tailor a garment to the body, we see the rigid financial model – that is the building – as needing the requisite garment. To achieve this new standard, our first step was to design the tower’s “garment,” or its “textile façade.” For this drapery, we found inspiration in fashion and nature. We looked to Issey Miyake’s ‘Pleats Please’ fashion line and Lilian van Daal’s biomimetic lattices. Designed through a vertical, modular approach, the façade tightly hugs the building’s massing. To ensure financial viability and longevity, each panel of the façade is simplified to its smallest size possible, while still single or doubly curved to achieve the dramatic effect of a fabric being “draped” over the building. The result is a façade that blends the ground, podium, and tower into a single, sinuous gesture. The façade is a high-performance aluminum envelope that is 60% insulated. To reduce the amount of concrete and embodied carbon, it has undergone extensive analyses to incrementally reduce volumes as the frame ascends into higher floors. The design also uses more steel than typical concrete high-rises to reduce cross sections, enhance performance, and increase recycled material content. The façade design has undergone solar analyses to minimize the shadow impact on the nearby Cathedral Church of St James. The façade’s panelization system responds to varying solar intakes by implementing larger fenestration in cooler areas. The panels are thick, angled, and cast shadows on the glass during peak sunshine hours on the south and west facades. 55 Yonge is set to stand as a defining development in Toronto, blending innovative design with environmental responsibility and financial viability. In integrating aesthetic innovation, urban planners, developers, and architects alike are encouraged to think long-term in designing what will be the significant cultural and historical facets of our future urban environment.