The site’s impor­tance is also deter­mined by its prox­im­i­ty to the Toron­to Ref­er­ence Library, a Toron­to insti­tu­tion just north of the tow­er at Yonge and Asquith. The library, built in the 1970’s by leg­endary Cana­di­an archi­tect Ray­mond Moriya­ma, is the largest of its kind in Cana­da and has served as a beloved com­mu­ni­ty ameni­ty and learn­ing space for gen­er­a­tions. For the project at 771 Yonge, it pro­vides a rich mason­ry coun­ter­point to the new wrap­ping podi­um along Asquith Avenue, includ­ing the library’s sig­na­ture pop out win­dows, now emu­lat­ed beyond Yonge Street’s exist­ing, his­toric com­mer­cial archi­tec­ture which is now restored and inte­grat­ed at the side­walk to accom­mo­date retail ameni­ties at street lev­el. The tow­er above the her­itage build­ing sets back 10 meters to height­en and frame the pedes­tri­an scaled tex­ture at grade, with a mod­ern lob­by dis­creet­ly locat­ed on Asquith Street.

The set-back base of the tow­er con­tin­ues for 10 sto­ries before the com­po­si­tion shifts back 8‑metres. Pro­ject­ing bal­conies with dec­o­ra­tive fea­tures, as well as artic­u­lat­ed met­al pan­el “zip­pers” that redress the win­dow wall are used to ele­gant­ly absorb the ‘jog’ in façade.

Ulti­mate­ly, 771 Yonge Street knits itself into the diverse and trans­form­ing Yorkville fab­ric, includ­ing the her­itage struc­ture at its base, while at mid­dle and top, each face is embroi­dered with liv­ing bal­conies at var­i­ous depths to address the Rosedale ravine to the east, the new Cum­ber­land Square pub­lic prom­e­nade to the west, and the ter­raced Metro Toron­to Ref­er­ence Library to the north.