Gargantuan towers up to 71 storeys could soon loom over iconic Toronto landmark

Just over a week after developers teased a sweeping redevelopment of the Canada Life Building campus on Toronto's University Avenue, a clearer picture of the vision has emerged — and it's freakin' enormous.

The iconic Canada Life Building —best known for its iconic rooftop weather beacon — is planned to live on as the centrepiece of a massive redevelopment from developer GWL Realty Advisors (GWLRA).

The property owner submitted plans to the City earlier this month seeking permission to transform its Canada Life Campus at Queen and University with towers as tall as 71 storeys and featuring designs from KPMB Architects.

The redevelopment, centred around a preserved and modernized Canada Life Building at 330 University Avenue, would also retain the existing office buildings at 180 Simcoe St. and 180 Queen St. W., while requiring the demolition of a nine-storey office building at 190 Simcoe and a five-storey parking structure at 206 Simcoe St., both built in 1971.

New towers of 71, 54, and 25 storeys would rise from the site, along with a six-storey pavilion containing residential amenities just east of 180 Simcoe. In total, the project would introduce almost 10,500 square metres of new commercial space and a whopping 1,402 residential rental units.

The plan also calls for an event centre and a new 3,650-square-metre public space dubbed Canada Life Commons, framing views of the historic Canada Life Building.

While the scale of intensification may shock some, provincial planning policies promoting supersized proposals near transit stations, specifically Protected Major Transit Station Areas, give developers a much clearer path to approval. 

The site's location within the Osgoode Station and St. Patrick Station Protected Major Transit Station Areas, as well as within a 200-metre radius of Osgoode subway station on Line 1 and its future Ontario Line connection, would easily classify it as a candidate for a major leap in density supported by provincial planning policy.

So, if that's the case, why is only a small portion of the campus going tall?

Interestingly enough, the height of buildings on the site's southern portion is limited by the helicopter flight path for St. Michael's Hospital, which caps building heights at roughly 25 storeys — leaving the developers with just the site's northern portion to construct tall towers.