A towering temple to wellness, millennial-style, in downtown Toronto
Meditations rooms, green kitchens, chem-free cleaning – the Saint, at Church and Adelaide, is betting on young buyers’ faith in self-care and socializing
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By Matthew Hague
Downtown life often seems off-kilter. There are so many people about, jamming roads and sidewalks, that a moment’s peace can feel hard to come by. And yet, despite population density, cities can easily feel isolating, precipitating stress and depression.
The vision behind a new 45-storey tower at the corner of Church Street and Adelaide Street East, by Canadian developer Minto Communities, is a residence that achieves a better balance. Called the Saint, a reference to the St. James Cathedral nearby, the 420-unit tower is designed to support the wellness of both introverts — there are private meditation rooms, an indoor Zen garden and an overall aesthetic reminiscent of a minimal Japanese spa — as well as extroverts, who can congregate in rooms set up for group spin and exercise classes.
Matthew Brown, Minto’s director of product development, says that, based on data from internal studies of past Minto projects, “many condo amenities don’t get used very much.” The research, however, hasn’t discouraged him. Instead, it’s given him insights into the types of spaces, design features and tactics required to boost engagement with condo buyers.
“The best way to get people to use a gym is to have a live instructor leading a class,” he says. “The issue is that few condo boards can afford to bring in outside instructors without significantly raising condo fees. So we’re going to try a system where pre-recorded classes can be broadcast on big screens, creating the motivation and structure of a live class without the same ongoing expense.”
As for the amenities catering to individual reflection — including private plunge baths, steam rooms and meditation spaces — Brown believes they will resonate with the interests of younger urban condo buyers. “I’m just coming up on 40 myself. 55 percent of Minto’s staff are millennials. Talking to the team here, it’s clear how much wellness matters — including things like the mental health benefits of meditation. We tried to reflect that in the Saint.”
The quest for wellness shows up in several of the building’s details. “Because the Saint is going to be near the St. Lawrence Market,” says Brown, “we decided to include larger than normal pantries in each kitchen, anticipating that people would want extra space to store more fresh produce and healthy foods.”
Likewise, water purifiers are a standard offer in each unit, as are under-sink kitchen garbage bins that are segmented for trash, recycling and green waste — a nod to environmental wellness. “We’ve found that, historically, multi-unit residential buildings such as this have had very low diversion rates for waste,” says Brown. “That’s partly because there wasn’t enough room under the sink for anything but one of those large stand-up garbage cans. We’re hoping if that if we make it easier for people to sort what they are throwing out with a better design feature, more will be recycled or put in green bins.”
Even the way the building will be cleaned, when it’s complete in 2023, has been considered through the self-care lens. The janitorial room will be equipped with a Tersano, a built-in dispenser that contains a chemical-free, ozone-based cleaning solution. “It helps improve indoor air quality,” says Brown. “That’s important. It would really detract from the calm of, say, a mediation space if that space smelled of harsh chemicals.” The lack of odors is especially salient given the Saint’s meditation room will have a salt wall, a feature meant to purify the air that residents are deep-breathing in and out.
The Saint is the first project in the Minto portfolio aiming for WELL Certification, which recognizes a building’s positive impacts on its occupants’ health. Another aim is to extend the idea of respectful communion architecturally. Although the Saint is one building, the massing, designed by Toronto’s Wallman Architects, has been broken into three blocks. A five-storey podium is composed of two adjoining volumes that align with neighbouring structures to soften the presence of the 42-storey tower above (units within range from 400 to 1,000 square feet).
The materiality of the base — brick with touches of wood and glass — hint at the character of the building within. The brick is a sedate, cerebral black, and the wood is fashioned to look a bit like shoji screens, the kind often found in secluded Japanese resorts. “There’s also stone in the interiors,” says Brown. “But it’s left rough so that when people touch it, it reminds them of nature.”
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1. For health-obsessed locavores, Greenhouse Juice Co. offers kombuchas, cleanses and shakes made from as much Ontario produce as possible. Greenhouse Juice Co. 176 Yonge St.
2. Poa Studio aims to help its customers look as good as they feel: the shop not only offers stylish athleisure wear but a spa in the back for facials and massages. Poa Studio. 98 Church St.
3. Adding contemplation to the wellness mix, the Toronto Sculpture Garden is a pocket-sized park near the Saint featuring provocative art and a calming waterfall. Toronto Sculpture Garden. 115 King St. E.
For pricing and sales centre information, visit http://saintcondominiums.ca/
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