Two of Toronto's most stunning condo tower plans scrapped for something new

Two of the most impressive condo towers planned for Toronto have been quietly scrapped in favour of a new student residence project, and if you were expecting the new vision to look anywhere near as interesting as the last, I have bad news for you.

The pair of side-by-side condo visions at 210 Bloor Street West and 208 Bloor Street West were primed to be among the coolest new residential towers in Toronto. 

That is, until the two sites were combined into a single assembly, and the ambitious architectural visions were replaced by a watered-down design for a 36-storey student residence tower from Turner Fleischer Architects.

Developer Plaza first proposed a 28-storey tower with a dazzling lattice of rose gold-hued metal at 208 Bloor Street West, just across from the Royal Ontario Museum in 2021 after reportedly purchasing the pencil-thin site in 2018 for $27 million.

Just next door, developer Tribute Communities submitted a re-zoning application in 2018 for a 29-storey Core Architects-designed condo building replacing the longtime music store, Remenyi House of Music, with a boutique luxury residence with just 42 ultra-luxe suites.

Previous plans for 208 and 210 Bloor Street West.

The updated plan now proposed in place of these two visions would rise 112.58 metres with a geometric exterior expression that, while still interesting in its own right, is an amalgamated pale imitation of the two luxury designs that came before.

The applicant stresses that the new proposal's massing is comparable to what was previously proposed on the now-conjoined sites, noting that "It is important to note that the built form generally complies with the approved zoning envelope" under the previous zoning by-law amendments.

In fact, the new vision is so similar that the project team even tried to pursue the change through minor variance applications typically used for small deviations from existing zoning.

However, the City of Toronto's Committee of Adjustment refused these applications, and the developers were forced to turn to the Ontario Land Tribunal. 

Now, the project team thinks even the provincial appeals process is too slow, and has since opted to submit a new rezoning application with the City of Toronto "out of an abundance of caution to ensure that appropriate and much-needed student housing can be implemented on a timely basis."