55 Yonge Street
Architect: BDP Quadrangle, PARTISANS
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Residential, Office
Year: 2021
Images: NORM LI
The following description is courtesy of the architects. In the heart of Toronto’s financial district, directly adjacent to the King Street station on the Yonge subway line, 55 Yonge is a landmark 66-storey mixed-use apartment and office tower designed by collaborating architects BDP Quadrangle and PARTISANS for H&R REIT. The building will include approximately 500 new residential units, state-of-the-art offices, retail at grade, as well as an exceptional amenity program which is shared with both the office and residential components. The project is a creative response to the rapid growth of vertical communities in Toronto, while achieving a design that makes a striking addition to the city skyline.
The collaboration between PARTISANS and BDP Quadrangle is based on the shared belief that together
we can achieve the unexpected. The two studios came together, even before beginning conceptual
design, in the belief that dovetailing our expertise would lead to outsized benefits and outcomes. 55
Yonge is also a story of legacy building, city building, and working collaboratively within Toronto’s
talented architecture community.
The facade of 55 Yonge marries the massing of the podium and tower into a single sinuous gesture, by
treating the facade as a fabric — a delicate lace that drapes over the structure. The pattern of the
exterior panels is designed to adapt and modulate solar gain through the pattern that shifts depending
on its location on the building. At its crown, the tower culminates in a series of stepped terraces offering spectacular views, which have been sculpted to minimize shadow impacts on the grounds of a nearby
landmark place of worship, The Cathedral Church of St. James.
The building’s facade gracefully touches the ground on 26-foot-tall tapered columns that frame large
expanses of glass, allowing the street to extend visually into the grand lobby for the retail, residential and
office tenants as well as visitors and passers-by. The transparency of the two-level lobby creates a
welcoming space for the public as well as an unconfined aesthetic at street level.
55 Yonge will feature apartments ranging from 450 sf one-bedrooms to multi-storey 2,000+ sf
residences. The ten floors of office space are designed for the contemporary worker in a post-Covid
world, supported by efficient layouts and full use of the building’s indoor and outdoor amenities. These
amenities will include a spacious open-air terrace, a pool, a fully equipped gym and health-oriented
programming, as well as boardrooms, informal meeting areas and services to support both the
residential and office uses.
Project Details
- Official Name: 55 Yonge Street
- Location: Toronto
- Client: H&R REIT
- Collaborating Architects: BDP Quadrangle + PARTISANS
- Property Type: Mixed use (residential, office and retail)
- Number of Floors: 66
- Number of Apartments: 497
- Total sq ft: Between 450-2,000
- Amenities: Sky garden and trellis, gym, swimming pool, common room for events
- Image credit: Renderings by NORM LI
