This week, Toronto City Council will review a controversial proposal to alter a former Canada Post building at 1117 Queen St W., following the Toronto Preservation Board’s recommendation that Council adopt confidential directions regarding the site’s heritage permit applications.
The decision follows a trail of legal and planning disputes over the future of the heritage-designated ‘Postal Station C’ — the two-storey Beaux-Arts building was completed in 1903 and designed by the architecture branch of the federal Department of Public Works. As we previously discussed, for more than a century, the building has been a landmark at the junction of Queen St W and Abell St, but a developer plans to build a tower atop the historic structure (which has even led to a petition to protect the site from major renovations for private interests).
The developer is seeking to alter and partially demolish elements of the building as part of a proposed 28-storey mixed-use development. According to revised development applications submitted in February, the existing north, east, west and part of the south elevations (5.5 metres) of Postal Station C will be retained and incorporated into the base of the new tower. Above this, a curved glass-and-steel addition is planned, designed to gradually pull away from the heritage façades.
“The curved form of the addition was reshaped so that the portion of cantilevering beyond the back sides of the heritage building is limited,” the revised Heritage Impact Assessment report stated. “The addition now cantilevers over this limited portion of the building’s side elevations by an approximate maximum of 0.9 metres (reduced from 2 metres) at its greatest extent.”
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The design includes a total gross floor area of 17,353 square metres, consisting of 16,421 square metres of residential floor space and 932 square metres of community space. A total of 272 residential units are proposed, with one level of underground parking for 309 bicycles.
Last year, Council refused the Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment applications for the site, which led to the developer filing appeals with the Ontario Land Tribunal (a 10-day hearing at the Tribunal is set to begin this July) as well as submitting the above-mentioned revised proposal plans.
Council will consider the confidential directions regarding the site’s heritage permit applications this week, from April 23 to 25, 2025. The outcome of the Tribunal hearing this July, as well as Council’s response, will ultimately determine whether the redevelopment proceeds.
