Proposal

Introducing The Q.V. on the Park

The Q.V. on the Park provides distinguished living in a prominent core location, convenient to work, shops and restaurants. Living in the heart of the City invokes a tangible vitality. This form of living enables participation in urban activities that can’t be imitated. Peaceful strolls or stimulating nightlife, shopping, restaurants and festivals all provide a backdrop for an exciting lifestyle. The prominent location enables residents to enjoy the City’s open space jewel: Victoria Park for a morning stroll, leisurely gazing of others enjoying passive activities or participating in the numerous festivals throughout the summer season.

City’s are a collection of people, places and buildings that facilitate various components associated with living. It is the people that define the pulse of the City, but it is places and buildings that attract people. The promotion of quality residences in the core provides positive synergy and momentum for the City. The health and prosperity of the core can provide benefits well beyond its immediate area. The assessment growth associated with the core of any City defines its prosperity and ability to provide services for the greater community.

The recognition of an appropriate approach to creating these places evolves from understanding the attributes of the area and context within the City Structure. This acknowledgement of a locations’ prominence, is important to “City Building”. Recognizing this special ability of improvement through land use planning is fundamental to developing sustainable, healthy prosperous Cities.

Proposal Evolution

Auburn Developments Inc. is proposing the redevelopment of 560 and 562 Wellington Street; providing a 17 storey residential high rise condominium. The proposal will provide 173 residential units and main floor commercial uses including a café to animate the street as well as compliment activities in Victoria Park. Currently, the two buildings are exclusively used for offices with surface and underground parking. The current buildings are approximately 50 years old and are located at the north east corner of Wolfe and Wellington Street, a prominent location in the core of the City of London.

Proposal Revisions

Additional time has been taken to contemplate and review the various comments from various departments, design panels and public processes that have occurred over the last year. The evolution of the proposal reflects the considerations associated with input of the various background reports, planning analysis and incorporation of appropriate architectural design elements to respond to input received. The ability to reduce the height and reduce the massing of the building from the original proposal as well as incorporate a more sensitive approach to the architecture design has provided a more sensitive and compatible building than the original proposal.

This refined proposal recognizes the locational attributes of the property as well as its context and relationship with adjacent lands. The proposal supports intensification within Central London and contributes and is consistent with the current vision articulated for Wellington Street.

The proposed development:

• Recognizes a prominent location within Central London with a signature building providing benefits to local businesses and the core;
• Provides a compact intensification of lands in the core of London;
• Completes a streetscape for Wellington along the frontage of Victoria Park in character to that which is planned for lands south and within the civic lands towards Dufferin Ave.;
• Further utilizes significant transportation and planned transit corridors on and near the subject lands;
• Recognizes a sensitive transition from the downtown designation and downtown zones that is immediately adjacent to the subject site;
• Fulfills the objectives of the current and future Official Plans for the City of London and balances overall City objectives for intensification while minimizing the impacts of change and development evolution close to the core;
• Provides for housing choices and forms within Central London to add to the vibrancy of living in the core.

The ability to link the locational attributes of a property with the appropriate land use, to match the prominence of geography, infrastructure, employment and recreational attributes with a complementary residential land use provides a benefit beyond the property boundaries and can impact the economics and vibrancy of a City. This approach represents good land use planning and is part of the evolution of a vibrant and prosperous City.

Architectural Approach

The proposed development at 560 Wellington Street in London, Ontario is a building worthy of its historically significant context. Although the proposal is situated within a heritage district, it will not damage or require removal of important buildings, but will instead become an enhancement of the neighbourhood essence. The buildings that stand neighbouring the subject site are replications of the heritage buildings that previously were located here. This realization then elicits the question of what is actually significant about this neighbourhood: the answer to which is the essence of the neighbourhood itself. Auburn Development proposes a modern reimagining of the surrounding heritage essence that goes beyond synthetic recreation of architectural forms. This reimagining is done in keeping with the West Woodfield Heritage Conservation District (WWHCD) Guidelines through the design of the heritage reflecting podium that speaks to human-scale, the design of the tower that complements the podium in an elongated form and the landscaping that precisely speaks to the 19th and early 20^th century.

We begin with the podium that is designed to convey the heritage characteristics of the West Woodfield Neighbourhood to help retain the overall visual context of the area. The podium portion of the building has been especially designed to respect the architectural transition between the new and the existing in terms of the architectural pattern, use of materials, size of the building, setbacks, and streetscapes. The height of the podium has been retained to four storeys in order to compliment the visual cohesion with the adjacent residential buildings by offering a smoother transition with the context. The façades of the building are oriented to face the two major streets of the neighbourhood: Wellington Street and Wolfe Street, providing the architectural interest and contributing to the visual appeal of the neighbourhood. On the ground level, the podium provides a commercial space, residential lobby and amenities; especially, the commercial area located at the intersection corner, projected to be occupied by a café, is expected to revitalize the neighbourhood area and promote activities on Wellington Street and Wolfe Street and from Victoria Park. The podium utilizes a variety of materials that represent the texture and palette of the West Woodfield Neighbourhood. Similar to the adjacent heritage buildings, red and buff-yellow bricks are majorly used and incorporated into the design of the building façades, creating a series of bay-like volumes that emulate both the existing historic building on site, and neighbouring properties. A bold podium cornice reinforces horizontality and weight over verticality, while using the historical vernacular. The podium is also similar in form to the nearby heritage with undulating bays that create an impression of separate residential facades along a streetscape. In character with the WWHCD and historical neighbourhoods in London, the podium provides a consistent setback from both Wellington and Wolfe Streets. This is in conformity with the urban form of WWHCD and reinforces the consistent setback from the perspective of the streetscape experience between the existing and the proposed. The podium parking structure will be masked by historically sympathetic materials and spandrel glazing.

 The tower emulates the material and formal choices of the podium in a simple elongated form. Through the several shadow studies, the proposed height of the tower has been adjusted to mitigate the impact of shading on the neighbourhood area. The height of the tower has been reduced from 25 to 22 to the current 17 storey proposal reflecting the lower height permitted south of the site and opposite Victoria Park, as well as integrating into the surrounding neighbourhood with greater setbacks from the podium beginning at the fifth floor. The red brick façade at the podium will continue as brick coloured concrete onto the tower at the corner of Wellington Street and Wolfe Street, simplifying fenestration, articulations and ornamentation at the tower level, rather than introducing new architectural elements. The tower utilizes the brick colour and inset window motif from the podium, diminishing appearance of verticality from street level. The tower mass is broken up through the articulation of the facades, implementing multiple envelope treatments to create a prominent corner through the use of red brick colour, flanked by minimal grid-like fenestration patterns, minimizing repetition across elevations. As the red brick colour does not extend the full height of the tower, the appearance of overall height is diminished, using white/lighter materials at the upper levels. Also, by removing the previously proposed horizontal banding elements at the top of the tower, the appearance of weight and heaviness is minimized. With this heritage-influenced contemporary façade at the tower level, the revised building acts as a formal intermediary between the increasingly dense downtown core to the west and the low density heritage residential buildings to the east. The tower has been revised to be more sensitive to the surrounding heritage context, implement creative materials, and appear less massive through reductions in size and in thoughtful articulations of the built form.

The landscaping that will be proposed also respects the heritage by choosing specific species and built elements that speak to the 19^th and early 20^th century. A row of timeline-consistent trees along the building edge at grade is proposed for landscaping to assist in enhancing views, pedestrian comfort, and mitigating the issue of building height. Above grade, a green roof and terrace will be implemented at all feasible locations, which will provide more private landscape open space. This will also reinforce sustainable design initiatives, which are well in keeping with the nature of the WWHCD Plan, benefitting the community and environment. Where vegetated roofing is not possible, high SRI materials will be incorporated, the two helping to minimize the heat island effect. Trees along both Wellington and Wolfe streetscapes will create canopied vistas, emblematic of the nature of WWHCD, while buffering upward views of the tower above the podium and mitigating the visual presence of the podium façades on the street level. Bicycle racks will be provided at grade, creating a promenade in keeping with the existing residential community that will encourage pedestrian activity.

In addition, working with the City of London, there may be opportunity to plant strategically placed evergreen material that will contribute to buffering views from Victoria Park to the proposed condominium. In keeping with the historical nature of WWHCD, and HCD’s in general in the City of London, the exterior ‘private’ property of the condominium will be landscaped with a high level of attention and detail to an individualized garden-like treatment, which will add to the visual appeal of the property and the streetscape experience. By combining the redesign of the culturally sensitive podium, a visually appealing and heritage sensitive tower, and experience enhancing landscaping at both above grade and the ground floor, we are proposing a well-balanced piece of architecture that lends itself as both an intermediary from the bustling downtown to quiet neighbourhoods and as a destination worthy of its surrounding heritage context.

Design Responses

Read the list of public participation design panel comments and our responses to their comments here.

Exclusive Amenities

The Q.V. on the Park’s collection of desirable amenities ensures a life well lived. Start your day off with a revitalizing workout in the comfort of our private fitness centre. Relax and savour the warmth of the sun while enjoying a novel on a lounge chair next to the pool. Savour your favourite glass of wine while meeting new and old friends in the entertainment lounge. Let the environs envelop you in green foliage, scenic city views and fresh clean air on the rooftop terrace or from your private balcony.

Amenities:

• Rooftop terraces
• Main floor entertainment lounge
• Fitness centre
• Library
• Meeting rooms
• Bicycle storage
• Security
• Car share
• Car charging station

A Premier Location

The Q.V. on the Park will provide the luxurious, carefree lifestyle you aspire to achieve – in an unparalleled location nested beside Victoria Park and a short walk to downtown London.

The outdoorsy and active type will appreciate a stroll, run or bike ride through the picturesque streets of West Woodfield and greenery of Victoria Park.

The Q.V. on the Park inspires you to live life in the moment by being able to step outside your front door to some of London’s best restaurants, cafés, boutique shops, cultural and music festivals, yoga and recreational centres.