Mar­tin Knel­man – Toronto Star

David Mirvish and Frank Gehry are boldly plan­ning a mega culture-and–condo com­plex that brings down the cur­tain on the Princess of Wales the­atre and will trans­form Toronto’s Enter­tain­ment Dis­trict, the Star has learned.

The com­plex will give Toronto two new muse­ums, includ­ing one that show­cases the sen­sa­tional abstract art col­lec­tion of David and Audrey Mirvish. The other museum will fea­ture the col­lec­tion of OCAD Uni­ver­sity, along with stu­dios, sem­i­nar rooms and a hall for pub­lic lectures.

Mirvish, the king of Toronto the­atre, and Gehry, the world’s most cel­e­brated liv­ing archi­tect, are col­lab­o­rat­ing on the vision­ary project. They’re work­ing on a can­vas that stretches along the north side of King Street West all the way from the cor­ner of John, crosses Ed Mirvish Way and extends east­ward for another half block to the edge of the ven­er­a­ble Royal Alexan­dra The­atre, pur­chased 50 years ago by David’s father, the late “Hon­est” Ed Mirvish.

That the­atre, built in 1907, will sur­vive, but the Princess of Wales, which opened in 1993, will be scrapped to make way for the new centre.

Call it the end of one era and the dawn of a new one.

Offer­ing multi-level podi­ums with ter­races and retail shops at its base, the com­plex will reach sky­ward with three danc­ing condo tow­ers, over 80 sto­ries tall – each one dif­fer­ent – designed by Gehry in a way that com­ments on the fab­ric of the city where he grew up.

David Mirvish and Frank Gehry King West Condo Complex

The devel­op­ment, expected to take four to seven years to con­struct, will sweep across six Mirvish-owned prop­er­ties, some of which were once homes to restau­rants opened by Ed Mirvish, David’s father. Those prop­er­ties will all come down to make way for the new devel­op­ment. And while some of the build­ings are des­ig­nated, it is under­stood they are not cov­ered with ease­ment agree­ments that would pre­vent them being torn down.

“We see an oppor­tu­nity to join our his­tory with Frank Gehry’s his­tory and con­tinue our ongo­ing com­mit­ment to the neigh­bour­hood,” said Mirvish, who owns two other Toronto the­atres (the Ed Mirvish The­atre and the Pana­sonic) besides the two on King Street.

He declined to put a price tag on the com­plex, but it’s almost sure to be in the billion-dollar range.

The Mirvish museum (60,000 square feet) will offer free pub­lic access and house a selec­tion of Mirvish’s more than 1,100 abstract paint­ings (by artists includ­ing Frank Stella, Jack Bush, Jules Olit­ski, David Smith and Helen Franken­thaler). For years most of these paint­ings – acquired in his first career as an art dealer from 1963 to 1978 – have been in stor­age, and are fre­quently lent to muse­ums in Europe and the U.S. for spe­cial exhi­bi­tions. The Mirvish col­lec­tion will be pre­sented to the pub­lic with free admis­sion except for spe­cial exhibitions.

Gehry, 83, is fly­ing to Toronto from Los Ange­les, where he has lived and worked for most of his career, for Monday’s offi­cial announce­ment of the project. Appro­pri­ately, that event will take place at the only other Gehry build­ing in Canada – the Art Gallery of Ontario, which reopened four years ago after he rein­vented it.

“We’re at a very early stage of devel­op­ment,” said Mirvish.

Step one will be an appli­ca­tion to the city of Toronto for zon­ing approval, to be sub­mit­ted immediately.

The west sec­tion of the com­plex has a podium with the Mirvish col­lec­tion in the atrium and ter­races over­look­ing King Street and David Pecaut Square. Soar­ing above the podium are two res­i­den­tial tow­ers, each with a dis­tinc­tive iden­tity, ris­ing 80 sto­ries above the street.

“Doing a project on this scale is like dock­ing the Queen Mary,” Gehry quipped in an inter­view with the Star. “It’s always pre­car­i­ous, because so much depends on the mar­ket­place and world events and con­struc­tion prices. It’s because of the art com­po­nent that we like the project so much. I am ecsta­tic to be doing some­thing near my old Toronto neigh­bour­hood, and also to be col­lab­o­rat­ing with David. What­ever we do we want to be very special”

Accord­ing to Mirvish, the project would deliver enor­mous ben­e­fits to the city in terms of jobs and taxes. Peter Kof­man of Pro­ject­core Inc. will take charge of the project’s devel­op­ment, man­age­ment and construction.

As for the demise of the Princess of Wales, Mirvish said while it is a great build­ing, the new cen­tre will be even greater with two muse­ums and other fea­tures. “The podium will become a major cul­tural des­ti­na­tion,” he said. “The tow­ers will not be just con­dos but a sym­bol of the city by our great­est architect.”

Frank Stella who painted the dec­o­ra­tive theme for the Princess of Wales The­atre is work­ing with Gehry to cre­ate new work for the pub­lic areas of the new com­plex, inte­grat­ing art and architecture.

And most of Stella’s work from the doomed the­atre will be saved and stored for pos­si­ble future use. Stella will be in Toronto Mon­day to take part in the offi­cial announcement.

“This area was trans­formed 50 years ago after my father pur­chased the Royal Alexan­dra The­atre,” Mirvish said. Then that the­atre was the only cul­tural build­ing in the area. Today it has been joined by Roy Thom­son Hall, TIFF Bell Light­box and David Pecaut Square.

“This project will con­tinue the theatre’s future and trans­form the neigh­bour­hood again for the next 50 years,” he said. “I am proud that we can con­tinue this legacy.”

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Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion – 416−388−1960

Lau­rin & Natalie Jef­frey are Toronto Real­tors with Cen­tury 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these arti­cles, they just repro­duce them here for peo­ple
who are inter­ested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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