1. PHOTOGRAPHY+RENDERINGSCOURTESYFIRSTCAPITALREALTY
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Yorkville Village Redevelopment
Toronto, ON
National Music Centre
Calgary, AB
ARIDO/IDC Headquarters
Toronto, ON
C A L G A R Y • E D M O N T O N • T O R O N T O • V A N C O U V E R • D O H A
RenderingCourtesyFirstCapitalRealty
Proud to be part of another successful
First Capital project – Yorkville Village
MANAGEMENT | RETAIL | STRATEGY | PERFORMANCE
paulcameron@camimanagement.com
www.camimanagement.com
416-710-3092
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2. FEBRUARY 2017 |63YorkvilleVillage
PHOTOGRAPHY+RENDERINGSCOURTESYFIRSTCAPITALREALTY
YorkvilleVillage
by YVAN MARSTON
I
t’s not the first time the Hazelton
Lanes mall in Toronto’s Yorkville
neighbourhood has seen a hammer
swing in the name of renovation. It’s
not the second time either. In fact, there
have been a number of works that have
seen this once 60,000-square-foot,
1970s mall grow into a 210,000-square-
foot luxury retail destination.
But this time, after a $145-million
investment, you’d be hard pressed
to call a project of this magnitude
a renovation. Still, that’s where
things began, explains Pochi Lu, an
associate at Kasian. “But when we
did visioning and design workshops
with [new owners] First Capital, it
became clear that an entire rethink
of the project from an urban design
perspective was required,” he says.
The rethink proposed improving
the connections between the interior
retail and the adjacent streets to
attract pedestrians, as well as a
complete revitalization of the dated
food services and common areas
with an eye to creating a more
contemporary and welcoming space
for users not only to shop, but to stay.
The once gloomy and confusing
layout has been entirely replaced
by an easy-to-navigate floorplate at
the heart of which is an airy central
space – named the Oval Square
for its prominent oval skylight.
The new mall’s cream and white
palette is suffused with natural
light that comes not just from the
2,400-square-foot skylight, but also
from other areas like its prominent
new two-storey-high, glass curtain
wall entrance on Avenue Road.
Even the entrance that gives out
onto a 7,000-square-foot outdoor
animation space, which opens a wide,
two-storey presence to Yorkville
Avenue, offers slivers of sunlight
through its skylights and clerestory.
Ready to distance itself entirely
from the former mall’s brick-and-
window style, Yorkville Village, as it is
now known, serves up a bright, tasteful
canvas against which its retailers’
frontages can provide a punch of colour.
“In shopping centres, you want your
retailers to be the feature,” explains
Stephanie Labrecque, project director
with GH+A Design, the Montreal-
based firm responsible for the interior
fit and finish of the public spaces.
GH+A specified a number of high-
end finishes throughout the centre
but that are especially prominent
in the food service area. Diners sit
at hard-surfaced and wood-topped
tables finished with bevelled edges;
feature walls are dressed in custom-
designed mosaic tile patterns and
overhead a ceiling feature made of
hundreds of small oval mirrors brings
to mind the calm of a pebbled beach.
But those are the details; the big
moves come from the recognition that
downtown retail centres must connect
with the pedestrians who walk by them.
On the Avenue Road side, the
former brick facade was removed,
lower levels were backfilled and a
prominent new entrance – a white,
light-filled, two-storey box whose
marquee is animated by thousands of
colour-changing LEDs – was erected
to meet pedestrians at street level.
Inside, escalators, stairs and a small lift
provide access to upper or lower levels.
This was one of the project’s
significant structural interventions,
explains Sean Smith, a principal at
Entuitive. “It’s a concrete building
but we built the infill with structural
steel, both to keep the load down on
the existing columns and footings but
also because it was easier to bring steel
on site than to have to do formwork
and pour concrete,” says Smith.
With a zero lot line, no air rights
and a delicate relationship to manage
with the condominium residents
whose living space is part of the same
structure, construction staging was just
one of the project’s many challenges.
To make it work, Aaron Sartorelli,
project manager at Traugott, used
a combination of scheduling and
diplomacy. “Usually you renovate
a mall at night, but in this case we
had very high noise restrictions
due to the condos above,” he says.
Restricted at night and during
the day (since the centre remained
fully operational) the team worked
hard to impress on the trades the
importance of the noise restrictions,
and they brought material in at
every daylight opportunity.
For some material deliveries they
could get temporary lane closures
on Avenue Road, but there was never
anything permanent. Much of the
material was brought in by sharing
the loading dock with the mall’s
anchor tenant, Whole Foods Market.
A-D Engineering Group Ltd. came
up with different temporary support
systems to reinforce the existing
floor and roof structures so that they
could carry the loads from heavy
construction equipment that was
being used during the construction.
The Traugott team tackled a number
of challenges, from renovating three
entrances and demolishing an existing
building to make way for the Yorkville
entrance, to stripping the entire mall
down to the bare concrete structure
and building it back up with high-
end finishes – and level 5 drywall
finish work where the oval skylight
draws attention to the craftsmanship
of the interior wall surfaces.
A-D Engineering Group Ltd.
assisted in coming up with demolition
procedures and associated temporary
supports so that parts of the existing
structure could be safely removed.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of
this project was a mechanical one:
how to lift 220,000 pounds of new
HVAC equipment to a fourth floor
mechanical penthouse without
using an overhead crane.
“We cut paths through the concrete
floors,” says Traugott’s VP of business
development Thomas Moch, explaining
017-01-31 10:43 AM
AWD-February2017.indb 63 2017-02-01 2:11 PM
3. 64| FEBRUARY 2017
RENDERINGSCOURTESYN45ARCHITECTUREINC.
YorkvilleVillage
that careful planning with the
millwright allowed for the equipment
to be delivered in 18,000-pound
sections whose dimensions matched
the openings cut in the floors. It wasn’t
a straight lift. Instead, sections moved
from the lower parking level through a
series of specialized cranes and hoisting
equipment moved the pieces through
a vertical maze to get to the top.
There were a number of instances
where design changes and new
on-the-ground realities called
for adaptability, recalls Moch.
“Incorporating these design changes
into the scope and schedule required a
co-operative and versatile construction
management approach. And that
approach came from all members of
the team, from Traugott site staff and
project managers through to the other
consultants and the owner,” says Moch.
Redevelopment projects often
require a level of ingenuity to
complete and this one is no exception.
And as the stock of retail centres
downtown begin to show their age,
ambitious revitalization projects
may become more common.
“Shopping patterns are changing,
especially for the sophisticated
consumer,” says Yorkville Village’s
leasing manager Eric Sherman.
“The retail environment needs to be
experiential with a focus on lifestyle.
That’s why, for example, we’ve
created venues like the Oval Square
and The Lane where we can host
entertaining and interactive events.
We have also worked to strategically
intertwine fashion, food, and fitness
to create the concept of a ‘culture
house’ for the neighbourhood.”
While events will bring in people,
it is the parade of human spectacle
that ultimately animates the space,
making retailers want to be where the
crowds are. And as online shopping
competes for consumer dollars, making
shopping about the experience is a
challenge new developments such
as this one are poised to meet. A
LOCATION
55 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario
OWNER
First Capital Realty
ARCHITECT
KASIAN ARCHITECTURE INTERIOR DESIGN
AND PLANNING LTD.
CONSTRUCTION MANAGER
Traugott Building Contractors Inc.
STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT
Entuitive
MECHANICAL/LEED CONSULTANT
INVIRO Engineered Systems Ltd.
ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT
MCW Consultants Ltd.
CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERS
A-D Engineering Group Ltd.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Scott Torrance Landscape Architect Inc.
INTERIOR DESIGN CONSULTANT
GH+A Design
TOTAL SIZE
210,000 square feet
TOTAL RENOVATION COST
$145 million
RENDERINGCOURTESYFIRSTCAPITALREALTY
MG Steeel.indd 1 2017-01-30 8:44 AM
Congratulations to First Capital Realty on their
accomplishment in renovating the Hazelton Lanes Mall
into the new Yorkville Village!
It was a huge undertaking and we are very proud for
our contribution to your project.
603 MILLWAY AVENUE, UNIT 6 CONCORD, ONTARIO L4K 3V1
(905) 738-6274 | basso@guesttile.com
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Structural Solutions Since 1986
Licensed to practice across Canada
info@adengineering.ca
855-998-3514
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AWD-February2017.indb 64 2017-02-01 2:11 PM
![FEBRUARY 2017 |63YorkvilleVillage
PHOTOGRAPHY+RENDERINGSCOURTESYFIRSTCAPITALREALTY
YorkvilleVillage
by YVAN MARSTON
I
t’s not the first time the Hazelton
Lanes mall in Toronto’s Yorkville
neighbourhood has seen a hammer
swing in the name of renovation. It’s
not the second time either. In fact, there
have been a number of works that have
seen this once 60,000-square-foot,
1970s mall grow into a 210,000-square-
foot luxury retail destination.
But this time, after a $145-million
investment, you’d be hard pressed
to call a project of this magnitude
a renovation. Still, that’s where
things began, explains Pochi Lu, an
associate at Kasian. “But when we
did visioning and design workshops
with [new owners] First Capital, it
became clear that an entire rethink
of the project from an urban design
perspective was required,” he says.
The rethink proposed improving
the connections between the interior
retail and the adjacent streets to
attract pedestrians, as well as a
complete revitalization of the dated
food services and common areas
with an eye to creating a more
contemporary and welcoming space
for users not only to shop, but to stay.
The once gloomy and confusing
layout has been entirely replaced
by an easy-to-navigate floorplate at
the heart of which is an airy central
space – named the Oval Square
for its prominent oval skylight.
The new mall’s cream and white
palette is suffused with natural
light that comes not just from the
2,400-square-foot skylight, but also
from other areas like its prominent
new two-storey-high, glass curtain
wall entrance on Avenue Road.
Even the entrance that gives out
onto a 7,000-square-foot outdoor
animation space, which opens a wide,
two-storey presence to Yorkville
Avenue, offers slivers of sunlight
through its skylights and clerestory.
Ready to distance itself entirely
from the former mall’s brick-and-
window style, Yorkville Village, as it is
now known, serves up a bright, tasteful
canvas against which its retailers’
frontages can provide a punch of colour.
“In shopping centres, you want your
retailers to be the feature,” explains
Stephanie Labrecque, project director
with GH+A Design, the Montreal-
based firm responsible for the interior
fit and finish of the public spaces.
GH+A specified a number of high-
end finishes throughout the centre
but that are especially prominent
in the food service area. Diners sit
at hard-surfaced and wood-topped
tables finished with bevelled edges;
feature walls are dressed in custom-
designed mosaic tile patterns and
overhead a ceiling feature made of
hundreds of small oval mirrors brings
to mind the calm of a pebbled beach.
But those are the details; the big
moves come from the recognition that
downtown retail centres must connect
with the pedestrians who walk by them.
On the Avenue Road side, the
former brick facade was removed,
lower levels were backfilled and a
prominent new entrance – a white,
light-filled, two-storey box whose
marquee is animated by thousands of
colour-changing LEDs – was erected
to meet pedestrians at street level.
Inside, escalators, stairs and a small lift
provide access to upper or lower levels.
This was one of the project’s
significant structural interventions,
explains Sean Smith, a principal at
Entuitive. “It’s a concrete building
but we built the infill with structural
steel, both to keep the load down on
the existing columns and footings but
also because it was easier to bring steel
on site than to have to do formwork
and pour concrete,” says Smith.
With a zero lot line, no air rights
and a delicate relationship to manage
with the condominium residents
whose living space is part of the same
structure, construction staging was just
one of the project’s many challenges.
To make it work, Aaron Sartorelli,
project manager at Traugott, used
a combination of scheduling and
diplomacy. “Usually you renovate
a mall at night, but in this case we
had very high noise restrictions
due to the condos above,” he says.
Restricted at night and during
the day (since the centre remained
fully operational) the team worked
hard to impress on the trades the
importance of the noise restrictions,
and they brought material in at
every daylight opportunity.
For some material deliveries they
could get temporary lane closures
on Avenue Road, but there was never
anything permanent. Much of the
material was brought in by sharing
the loading dock with the mall’s
anchor tenant, Whole Foods Market.
A-D Engineering Group Ltd. came
up with different temporary support
systems to reinforce the existing
floor and roof structures so that they
could carry the loads from heavy
construction equipment that was
being used during the construction.
The Traugott team tackled a number
of challenges, from renovating three
entrances and demolishing an existing
building to make way for the Yorkville
entrance, to stripping the entire mall
down to the bare concrete structure
and building it back up with high-
end finishes – and level 5 drywall
finish work where the oval skylight
draws attention to the craftsmanship
of the interior wall surfaces.
A-D Engineering Group Ltd.
assisted in coming up with demolition
procedures and associated temporary
supports so that parts of the existing
structure could be safely removed.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of
this project was a mechanical one:
how to lift 220,000 pounds of new
HVAC equipment to a fourth floor
mechanical penthouse without
using an overhead crane.
“We cut paths through the concrete
floors,” says Traugott’s VP of business
development Thomas Moch, explaining
017-01-31 10:43 AM
AWD-February2017.indb 63 2017-02-01 2:11 PM](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)