PEI Architects, the award-winning firm known for cutting-edge architecture around the world, has completed 2221 Yonge Street Tower in Toronto. Marked by a strikingly new exterior image rising from a six-story podium base and capped by a top-floor sky lounge, 2221 Yonge is a long anticipated addition to a cityscape with hundreds of high-rise buildings.

Standing out on this crowded skyline was a primary goal for Russell Masters, vice president with the project’s locally based owner, Tower Hill Development Corp. His team selected PEI Architects, along with local firm Quadrangle Architects and interior designer Alessandro Munge, of Munge Leung, to create “an icon of international style on Yonge at Eglinton Avenue,” says the company.

The result, which took occupancy in 2022, transforms midtown Toronto with a “stunning, cantilevered terrace design,” according to local media. “We sought to distinguish this project from the ubiquitous glass tower schemes by highlighting its cantilevered, wraparound balconies as a unique design feature, rather than as appendages to a large glassy mass,” says PEI Architects partner Li Chung (Sandi) Pei, AIA. “This is a completely new interpretation of the modernist concept that delivers abundant outdoor living space, shading, and privacy from adjacent buildings.”

The 56-story mixed-use residential tower, which is one of several by PEI Architects in Greater Toronto, presents its large, distinctive balconies of precast concrete and glass with an intermittent upturned edge generating an abstract pattern on the north and south facades. The elegant podium below extends from its grand porte-cochere, sloped garden and block-wide lobby to an amenity suite at the seventh-floor setback with extensive lounge space, two media and gaming theaters, a fitness studio, and outdoor seating areas with fireplaces, barbecues and cabanas. The program rises to the sprawling rooftop sky lounge, with another outdoor terrace, lounge area and a spa, and resort-inspired settings around three pools.

Image Courtesy of: Kerun Ip/PEI Architects

According to the PEI Architects project leader, partner Toh Tsun Lim, AIA, the resulting building merges its unique concept while deferring to the local context. “With retail offerings on Yonge Street in the podium, which matches the established streetline, the narrow tower presents a very thin frame system with cladding stone and marble, allowing plenty of daylight and views into the interiors,” says Lim. “This partí allows us to shape the south side to give the building a truly sculptural quality.”

Inside, the noted designer Alessandro Munge of Munge Leung responded to the powerful, neomodernist architectural aesthetic with interiors that “simply pay homage to the architecture,” according to Tower Hill. “I wanted to keep the transition from the exterior into the interior very fluid and seamless,” says Munge.

Completed late last year, the 435,000-square-foot (40,400-square-meter) tower with 566 suites is one of dozens of high-rise residential works completed by PEI Architects around the world. The project team for 2221 Yonge includes the structural engineer Jablonsky, Ast & Partners, mechanical-electrical designer United Engineering, the landscape architects Ferris + Associates Inc., and construction manager Toddglen Construction.

In my mind, Toronto is the mecca of condominiums in North America, if not the world. We have exceptional local architects and developers, but we looked to create something completely distinctive and new,” says Tower Hill Development’s Masters. “We gave Sandi and Toh Tsun free reign, and, well, we are blown away by what they have done here.”

About PEI Architects
For over three decades, Sandi Pei and his partners have run a successful architecture firm winning major commissions and competitions and expanding into new markets globally. New projects and upcoming openings include:

• Major commercial icons, including the twin towers for Bank of China’s Shanghai Free Trade Zone mixed-use development, with a ribbon-cutting later this year.
• New hospitality works, such as Three Lanes and Seven Alleys Hotel in Fuzhou, China.
• The Nanhai Cultural Center with library, arts, sports and community spaces, China.
• The waterfront complex and headquarters for SANY Group in Changsha.
• The second phase of New York City’s China Institute, and more.

On the heels of PEI Architects’ recent successful work, the firm has announced the M+ museum’s new exhibition, which opened this summer in Hong Kong: I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture. Curated by Aric Chen and Shirley Surya, this is the first major retrospective for Ieoh Ming Pei (1917–2019), notes Sandi Pei. More at https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/exhibitions/i-m-pei-life-is-architecture/ or by enquiry to C.C. Sullivan.

Feature Image Courtesy of: Kerun Ip/PEI Architects