69-storey residential tower at Isabella Street approved with heritage facades retained but World Pride murals not preserved

housing

69-storey residential tower at Isabella Street approved with heritage facades retained but World Pride murals not preserved

City Council approved a reconfigured zoning amendment for a 818-unit tower at 90-94 Isabella Street, repositioning the building to retain the heritage structure at 94 Isabella Street in full. The decision preserves two heritage facades through in situ retention and reconstruction, but a deputant raised concern that World Pride murals will not be recreated despite developer and Preservation Board openness to doing so.

not yet heardToronto City Council · Wed, Jul 29

From the floor

“The World Pride Murals, which is very much important to the pride community of Church Wellesley and Toronto Center, should be preserved. Despite having the recommendations by the Toronto Preservation Board, despite the developers also being relatively amendable to the idea, it was there was no mention of anything that you are going to do to preserve the World Pride murals because right now on the report it remains said that the World Pride murals the only preservation of the World Pride murals will be a TIFF image, a TIFF file on a computer somewhere on a USB drive somewhere for future use. There's been no mention whatsoever of said recreation of World Pride pride that that was made to be relatively amendable by the Toronto Preservation Board.”A resident

Also in this item

• World Pride murals at the site will not be physically recreated despite developer and Toronto Preservation Board openness to including them in the design; digital preservation only via TIFF file

The journey

Wed, Jul 8 · Toronto and East York Community Council · amended

Wed, Jul 29 · Toronto City Council · not yet heard

Decision

Zoning by-law amendment approved for 69-storey, 220.5-metre residential building with 818 dwelling units. Tower reoriented north-south to permit full retention of 94 Isabella Street heritage building. Front facade of 90-92 Isabella Street retained in situ; east and west return walls dismantled and reconstructed. World Pride murals documentation only preserved as TIFF digital file, not physically recreated on new building.

On video

Jump to this item in the meeting video

Why is this story here?

Big deal at city hallThis is a multi-year, large-scale built outcome affecting a major downtown site. The reorientation and redesign of a 69-storey tower with 818 units, combined with heritage retention requirements, represents a hard-to-reverse infrastructure and land-use commitment. The decision constrains what future use of this site is possible.Felt nowThe building will occupy a prominent Isabella Street location in the Church-Wellesley neighborhood and affect residents, workers, and visitors in that area directly. The completion of an 818-unit residential tower is a material change to the streetscape, traffic, and daily life in a recognizable neighborhood. The heritage retention also affects preservation-minded residents of that area. However, the effect is localized to this neighborhood rather than citywide, so it does not reach 3.

Stories are ordered by how much weight a decision carries and how directly it reaches daily life. They rise as a decision date approaches and fall as they age.

Official title: 90 to 94 Isabella Street - Zoning By-law Amendment Application - Decision Report - Approval · meeting video