One of Toronto's most polarizing buildings is getting a big change

A Toronto hotel known for its polarizing architecture is primed for a huge change.

The Hyatt Regency at 370 King St. W., previously a Holiday Inn location until 2009, was constructed in 1990 in the Postmodern style predominant in the era. 

A minor variance application was recently filed for the site, seeking to expand the existing 19-storey hotel building through conversion of office space and a minor structural addition.

Owner Westmont Hospitality Group is pushing for an exemption from a site-specific by-law governing the site in hopes of significantly expanding the hotel component, along with changes to the building structure overseen by designers architecttura.

The existing office component, known as Toronto Showmart Centre, would be absorbed by the hotel, dramatically increasing the number of guest rooms from the current 394 up to 644.

architecttura

The hotel was one of many constructed during a wave of hospitality projects built in the Entertainment District during the neighbourhood's era as a club destination and in the wake of the 1989 opening of the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) added significant demand for hotel suites.

Jack Landau

The Entertainment District's gradual shift into a high-rise mixed-use neighbourhood has seen the area's warehouses and parking lots sprout into tall towers around the hotel. Once the tallest building in the area, the hotel has since been dwarfed by surrounding high-rises. Its architectural style has since fallen out of favour, though while it may stick out like a sore thumb, its distinctly Postmodern look is still revered by some.

Designed by Darling & Downey Architects, which later evolved into Stanford Downey Architects, the building's contrasting white metal-panelled facades and turquoise-tinted windows are similar in style to the Metro Hall complex nearby at King and John.

It's a style of architecture that has grown to become associated with the excesses of the late 1980s and the shock of reality that followed with the early 1990s economic recession that brought the wave of Postmodern-style commercial developments to a crashing halt.

Many of Toronto's Postmodern-style buildings completed before that 1990s crash would stand as monuments to the faltering economy until a new wave of construction reshaped the skyline in glass and steel starting in the 2000s.

Is the Hyatt on King an architectural gem worth saving, or would you rather see a new tower redefine this prime location?