Cooper Koo Family Cherry Street YMCA

Toronto, ON
Construction Cost: Not Available
Area / Square Feet: 69,775 sf
Occupancy Date: June 2016

The 2015 PanAm/Parapan Games Athletes’ Village accelerated the build-out of a site that is critical to the redevelopment of Toronto’s West Don Lands. In the short term, the Athletes’ Village was designed to deliver “a home away from home” for more than 10,000 athletes and officials participating in the 2015 Games. Following the Games, the Village was immediately converted into the Canary District, a sustainable mixed-use neighborhood with a range of private and social housing, a student residence for George Brown College and the Cooper Koo Family Cherry Street YMCA.

The new two-story YMCA defines the street edge along Cherry and Front streets. From the dramatic screened western facade to the fully glazed gymnasium facing south onto Front Street, the vitality and permeability of the new YMCA symbolizes the principles of health and wellness that are a key component of the new community’s identity. Through human-scaled, pedestrian-friendly gestures, the fully glazed base allows visibility to the life within, showcasing the civic spaces to the street and creating an open and inviting public identity.

Designed by another architectural team, the George Brown College student residence occupies two nine-story bars set atop the two-story Y. Operationally distinct but cohesively integrated on the site, the two buildings required collaboration by the two firms to integrate connections of the student residence and the Y. Together, the two buildings create a western gateway into the new Canary District.