The Cambridge Suites Hotel has long been a staple of Toronto’s financial district and its long been a distinctive landmark as well, easily picked out from a crowd due to its postmodern green glass façade. Currently at 21 stories, it’s now set to be adaptively reused into a 71-story residential mixed-use building with through a core strengthening engineering feat that will see the addition of 50 floors on top. This new portion would sit atop a 23-story podium and take the form of a narrow spire in order to reduce darkening nearby Moss Park and Nathan Phillips Square.
Led by WZMH Architects, 560 condo units are proposed for the new project for a total of 40,557 square meters of residential space, along with 126 square meters of retail space at grade. Of the energy-saving technological upgrades, a thermal façade is set to replace the current glass, to better prevent heat loss. A green roof will add to the 41 square meters total of outdoor amenity space and 571 bicycle parking spaces will be provided along with a special corresponding bike elevator. The building will also plug into the PATH system.
WZMH was actually behind the Cambridge’s original design, and the transformation of it from a hotel into condos echoes its original use. WZMH plans to simply it architecturally while incorparating the 90s aesthetic into a timeless design that makes use of as much of the existing building as possible.
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