An over 130-year-old church in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood is set to get a new lease on life thanks to a bold new development planned for its site at 38 Walmer Road.
Plans to redevelop the Walmer Road Baptist Church took a huge leap forward in November, including the reveal of a new design for a 25-storey tower set to incorporate the church’s existing 1892 sanctuary building into its base.
Up until this month, the project had been embroiled in the provincial appeals process, working with the City to forge a settlement plan that would emerge over eight sessions under the watchful eye of provincial mediators at the Ontario Land Tribunal.
Developer TAS shared an update on the project to the company’s Instagram on November 19, writing, “after many months of mediation with the City and several stakeholder groups, we’re thrilled to have reached a settlement that reflects the voices and hard work of everyone involved.”
The post goes on to call the resulting plan “an incredibly elegant, thoughtful design by Hariri Pontarini Architects that respects the building’s roots while embracing its future,” noting the inclusion of a “renewed home for the Walmer Road Baptist Church, adaptive reuse of the sanctuary for community and commercial uses, alongside new housing in the Annex.”
Not that there was ever any real concern that the existing sanctuary would be lost to demolition, as the site’s 1986 listing under Section 27 of the Ontario Heritage Act safeguards major alterations or demolitions that impact the building’s heritage character.
However, the church retaining a presence was never a guarantee. The developer went on to thank its partner, the Walmer Road Baptist Church, as well as the rest of the project team, for the work involved to retain both the building and the community staple it hosts, before closing with a call of “onward!”
TAS’ tease of a single rendering comes alongside City documents outlining the updated plan, which incorporates several changes introduced since an initial concept for the site was floated back in 2022.
The 2022 proposal featured a Tetris-like design that is absent in the 2024 settlement version.
Most notably, the floor count has increased by five storeys, though the total building height has only increased by just over a metre, with new floor area added through the reduction of ceiling heights.
The number of residential units has increased slightly from the 162 proposed in 2022 to the current version’s 186 suites. Parking capacity has only increased marginally from 55 to 57 spaces.
With a settlement between the developer and the City now reached, the project’s provincially-endorsed plan can now advance to the final stages of the approvals process and move this new building a step closer to realization.
