One of the ‘World’s Coolest Streets’ Welcomes a Stylish New Arrival

Toronto’s Ossington Avenue has come a long way in nearly 200 years. Originally constructed as part of a military road in the early 19^th century, the area has since been home to a bustling meat-packing industry, the Ontario Provincial Lunatic Asylum and, more recently, a motley collection of auto repair shops and warehouses.

But over the past 15 years or so, Ossington has steadily grown into one of the hippest streets in Toronto. It boasts a reputation for having some of the city’s best restaurants and nightlife, along with local design and fashion retailers, creative and tech offices and boutique hospitality offerings. Last year, Ossington was even named one of the world’s coolest streets by Time Out magazine.

For local real estate developer Hullmark — which owns and manages several properties in the area, including the award-winning 60 and 80 Atlantic Avenue in nearby Liberty Village — the transformation of Ossington has been an ongoing labour of love.

“Ossington isn’t just the buildings, it’s the spaces in between,” the developer said in an issue of its self-published Here Here magazine dedicated to Ossington. “It’s the people who call this neighbourhood home, who come here every day to work, shop, eat and celebrate.”

The company recently completed construction on its latest mixed-use project in the area, 12 Ossington, designed by Toronto-based Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA). Comprising three floors of sleek new offices above one floor of street-level retail, the building’s distinctive brick-and-glass design gestures to Ossington’s long history while also offering a glimpse of what the future has in store.

The new building at 12 Ossington replaces an existing two-floor commercial building constructed in 1889 as a branch of Toronto’s early library system and later used for recreational, retail and commercial purposes. Despite that building’s heritage designation, the developers were forced to demolish it after it was determined that the structure was defective.

“The original plan was for an adaptive reuse scheme of the original building, however upon detailed review, it was determined the building needed significant structural interventions, which then steered the design to a new build,” said Eli Miller, vice president of project management at Hullmark, in an email to LoopNet.

To come up with a design that would honour the history of its surroundings, Hullmark approached HPA. Founded in 1994 by architects Siamak Hariri and David Pontarini, HPA’s portfolio has won numerous awards, including three Governor General’s Medals in Architecture and the 2013 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Architectural Firm Award.

“We approached HPA in 2017 because of our intent to deliver world-class architecture to Toronto and the Ossington/Queen West community,” Miller said.

Hullmark’s president, Jeff Hull, was inspired by one of HPA’s previous designs, Camera, a combination lounge, café-bar and 51-seat digital screening room in Toronto’s Queen Street West arts district, that blended old materials and textures with new design features.

“Architecture — what we save and what we build — reflects what we value,” the developer said in its Ossington issue of Here Here. “We like buildings with history. We like details. We like unexpected combinations.”

In the case of 12 Ossington, one of those combinations is the mix of masonry and mortar on the lower two floors with clean glass surfaces on the two upper floors, which also have stepped-back green terraces scaled to complement the streetscape.

“There is a texture to this neighbourhood that is unpretentious and gritty,” HPA co-founder Siamak Hariri told LoopNet. “It has a patina where history is woven into the fabric of the late 19^th century. So, the materials we selected reflect this.”

The building’s façade presents large, irregular arches carved into the ground floor to form vaulted canopies. These serve as entry points to street-level retail on the north side and to the upper office floors at the south end.

“We sought to create a design that fits in but also has an edge,” Hariri said. “It should feel like it has always been there and at the same time, stand out with a specificity that says it belongs here and is part of the streetscape narrative of Ossington Avenue.”

Hariri also said the design takes a holistic approach to sustainable design. The building’s hybrid heavy timber structure, a window-to-wall ratio of less than 40% and habitat protection measures including a green roof and fritted glass all contribute to sustainability performance requirements set out by the Toronto Green Standard.

Occupying the 3,000-square-foot ground floor retail unit is premium menswear dealer Lost and Found, which moved into the space in spring 2023 from another Hullmark-owned property at 44 Ossington. An additional 3,735 square feet of basement storage area is also included.

The 3,324-square-foot second-floor office space will house the film production company Animals.tv as of November 2023.

The third and fourth floors, at 3,495 square feet and 3,122 square feet of office space respectively, are occupied by post-production company Studio Feather.