Builder's Description:

Context worked closely with St. James Cathedral and the Anglican York Rectors to help St. James - a landmark cultural and institutional beacon - to achieve much-needed funding to be used for renovating and restoring existing buildings and landscape.  In exchange, Context transferred air rights to build a 45 storey glass-on-glass needle thin tower at the north-west corner of Church and Adelaide.  The tower is complemented by a four storey podium building along Church Street, a publicly accessible landscaped court on the west, and street-related retail along Adelaide and Church Streets.
 

City of Toronto - 2009 Toronto Urban Design Awards Submission:

In the shadow of Toronto’s Cathedral Church of St. James, this residential project sets a new precedent for urban renewal. On an L-shaped site that faces the grounds of the Cathedral, the architects found an imaginative way to balance the developer’s need for density with the City’s urban design criteria for this historic precinct.

A slender point block tower [named for its virtuous neighbour] provides the density required by the client’s business plan, while a four-storey pavilion helps to define the street edge, in form and materials that harmonize with the existing 19th century commercial streetscape.  A through-corridor between the pavilion and tower, together with paved laneways through the new landscaped square, create a new network of interior and exterior mid-block connections into the surrounding network of 19th century Toronto streets.

The Spire development complements the restoration of St. James Parish Hall, also being executed by the same architect on behalf of the Archdiocese of Toronto.