Theresa Boyle – Yourhome​.ca

The Sky Pent­houses at the Impe­r­ial Plaza will be Toronto’s ver­sion of the majes­tic homes at the edge of the Hol­ly­wood Hills in Los Ange­les or Cen­tral Park in New York City.

That’s how designer Matt Davis describes the five lux­ury suites launched ear­lier this month by Camrost-Felcorp.

“It’s as if you are both in the city and above it at the same time,” says Davis of The Design Agency.

The multi-level pent­houses will sit on the rooftop of a 21-storey land­mark at 111 St. Clair Ave. W., the for­mer head­quar­ters of Impe­r­ial Oil. Because the build­ing sits on the crest of a high escarp­ment, some­times referred to as the Avenue Rd. Hill, the suites will actu­ally be more than 244 metres (800 feet) above sea level.

To be enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass walls, they will offer spec­tac­u­lar north and south vis­tas of the city. The two-and three-storey pent­houses will tower above an impres­sive urban land­scape that includes lush res­i­den­tial green­ery, mid­town sky­lines, Casa Loma, the ROM, the finan­cial dis­trict and the lake.

David Feld­man, pres­i­dent of Camrost-Felcorp, has always admired the Impe­r­ial Oil build­ing. So when Impe­r­ial Oil moved its head­quar­ters to Cal­gary in 2004, he saw an oppor­tu­nity he couldn’t pass up.

“There are very few oppor­tu­ni­ties you have like this to work on a build­ing that is iconic, his­tor­i­cal and in such a prime loca­tion,” he says.

The build­ing, which was com­pleted in 1957, was orig­i­nally designed by the firm Math­ers and Haldenby as part of a national design com­pe­ti­tion for Toronto’s new city hall. But when the city changed its mind, opt­ing instead to look out­side the county for an archi­tect, Impe­r­ial Oil pur­chased the design for its Toronto head office.

Canada’s largest oil com­pany spared no expense in con­struct­ing its head­quar­ters, which stands as a trib­ute to mid-century mod­ernism. It is clad in lime­stone, has alu­minum and bronzed win­dow case­ments and a two-storey mar­ble and gran­ite lobby with gold mosaic inlay tiles on its fea­ture walls.

When the build­ing was con­structed, its frame was welded together rather than riv­eted. The qui­eter weld­ing tech­nique was used in con­sid­er­a­tion of the wealthy local res­i­dents and made for a more solid build­ing designed to last hun­dreds of years, says Rod Row­botham, pres­i­dent of One­space Unlim­ited, the archi­tec­ture firm lead­ing the conversion.

At the time, it was the largest, all-welded steel frame struc­ture in the world. Because it was so solid and because it was built at the height of the Cold War, it was also designed for use as an alter­na­tive hos­pi­tal and bomb shel­ter in case of a nuclear attack.

Row­botham said the main chal­lenge in design­ing the con­ver­sion was to pre­serve the building’s his­tory while at the same time mak­ing it rel­e­vant to today.

It’s her­itage is on full dis­play in the lobby where the two-panel mural, “The Story of Oil” by York Wil­son has been pre­served. Cubist in style, the work is con­sid­ered a mas­ter­piece of 20^th cen­tury Cana­dian art. Each panel is 32-feet long and 21-feet high. One depicts the ori­gins of oil, while the other depicts its uses.

“The con­ver­sion of such a sig­nif­i­cant build­ing into a state-of-the-art con­do­minium res­i­dence cre­ates a rare oppor­tu­nity in Toronto for select res­i­dents to call an iconic build­ing ‘home,’ ” says Rowbotham

The largest of the five pent­houses will be a 4,800-square-foot cor­ner suite with a 1,750 square-foot wrap­around ter­race, priced at $8.4 mil­lion. The small­est will be 2,980 square feet with a 1,750-square-foot ter­race, priced at $5.1 million.

With con­tem­po­rary ele­gance as the focal point of design, the four-bedroom, four-bath Sky Pent­house suites will boast his and her dress­ing rooms, gallery space and mul­ti­ple fire­places. They will fea­ture sweep­ing stair­cases, ensuite glass ele­va­tors, Ital­ian Poliform kitchens and supe­rior inte­grated Wolf, Sub-Zero and Miele appliances.

Select res­i­dents will have the oppor­tu­nity to dic­tate their own style, pre-construction, with a designer of their choice.

Pent­house res­i­dents will have a pri­vate concierge, an express shut­tle ele­va­tor, valet ser­vice and exclu­sive amenity areas includ­ing a pri­vate eighth-floor lounge and fit­ness cen­tre over­look­ing the city.

They will also have use of the 40,000 square feet of amenity space avail­able to all res­i­dents. This will fea­ture music recording/rehearsal stu­dios, golf sim­u­la­tor, gam­ing room and fit­ness cen­tre with change rooms, squash courts, yoga and aer­o­bics stu­dios, and a spa-inspired swim­ming pool and hot tub.

“The grand scale of ameni­ties at Impe­r­ial Plaza are sim­i­lar to the recre­ational spaces you would find in a Bridal Path home,” Davis says. Other social con­ve­niences include board­rooms, meet­ing and recep­tion lounges, two screen­ing rooms with sta­dium style seat­ing, and a beau­ti­fully land­scaped court­yard by Janet Rosen­berg + Asso­ciates Land­scape Archi­tec­ture ( www​.jrala​.ca).

“I’ve trav­elled to numer­ous urban cen­tres to iden­tify and be inspired by the best. This knowl­edge has helped make Impe­r­ial Plaza a land­mark that’s unique from begin­ning to end,” Feld­man says. “I’ve been devel­op­ing real estate for 35 years, and all that I’ve done cul­mi­nates here.”

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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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Impe­r­ial Plaza toronto

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