Cynthia Cheng

The Four Seasons Private Residences had its groundbreaking ceremony in great fanfare on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 in Yorkville. In attendance at the event were City Councillor, Kyle Rae, local Member of Provincial Parliament, George Smitherman, the Honourable Jim Watson, Minister of Municipal Affairs for Ontario and Isador Sharp, founder, CEO and Chairman of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Guests were treated not only to scrumptious delights, but also a ravishing performance by Circus Orange, which included pyrotronics, at the construction site.

The residences, which will also contain a Four Seasons Hotel and developed by Menkes Development, will be located at the corner at 1263 Bay Street, not too far from its current location at the corner of Bloor and Avenue Road. It will have two towers. The west tower, which will have 55 floors, contains the hotel on the first 20 floors and the remaining storeys will contain 101 residences. The west tower, at 26 storeys, will house 103 residences. The towers will be connected to each other via an elevated pedestrian bridge. The Residences is slated to be completed in 2011. In addition to pool and gym access, other amenities will include in-residence dining, housekeeping, spa services and valet parking.

The building of these Residences is certainly overdue in Toronto, the city of the hotel chain’s birth. Toronto’s Four Seasons was one of the listings in Patricia Schultz’s 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List. However, if one visits the current Toronto location, the hotel certainly does not live up to its award-winning name as the best hotel chain in the world. In fact, some even say that it’s the worst-looking property in the chain. The new building will certainly resurrect its grandness in Toronto, making it the ideal flagship property for the chain.

At over 50 floors, the Residences will tower over many of the older, more historical buildings in the area. The height of the buildings has caused controversy with its neighbours. The local elementary school, Jesse Ketchum, for example, believed that the buildings will cast a shadow on its yard. In addition, many locals believe that the large number of condos being built in the area changes its ambiance. Yorkville is supposed to be an area with small boutiques, not full of major names. That’s for Bloor Street, which is just south of the area. However, these people seem to forget that the 1960s, when Yorkville was Toronto’s answer to Haight-Ashbury, have long gone.