Construction is underway on a 38-storey Toronto rental tower that will use a geothermal heating and cooling system as part of a multi-phase redevelopment at Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East.

Osmington Gerofsky Development Corporation (OGDC) and WJ Properties have broken ground on the tower, the first building in a multi-phase redevelopment of the site. The team expects to include 20 per cent affordable housing, new public parkland, and pedestrian connections.

The building will use a geothermal heating and cooling system supported by 99 boreholes drilled hundreds of feet below grade. According to the project team, the system is expected to reduce energy use by 60 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent compared with a comparable code-compliant building.

The site sits directly across Don Mills Road from the future Flemingdon Park station on the Ontario Line. The development will contribute approximately 0.3 ha (0.7 acres) of public parkland to the City of Toronto.

Landscape inspires design

Architects Alliance designed a slender glass-and-precast-concrete tower above a black porcelain-clad base. The base rises around a glazed, double-height atrium, while a contoured common landscape defines the building’s relationship to the street.

“The building rises directly from a generous, contoured common landscape,” says Peter Clewes, principal at Architects Alliance. Clewes says the design maintains the clarity of the site’s original planning concept while adapting it for a new generation of residents.

“This groundbreaking reflects a substantial new investment in the neighbourhood,” says David Gerofsky, principal and CEO at OGDC.

The federal government is providing $185 million in financing through the Apartment Construction Loan Program for the 7 St. Dennis project, according to Robert Oliphant, MP for Don Valley West.

WJ Properties has owned and managed the site for more than 60 years. Owner Allan Weinbaum says the project will add rental housing, public space, and connections to transit.