The Urban Design Panel reviewed, and supported this unusual housing project in Mount Pleasant in 2017. Called The Grand, it was supposed to have an innovative stacked modular construction system. Ankenman Marchand had designed the 18 unit building to be constructed from factory assembled modules to be trucked to site and then stacked over the retail unit on the lower floor.
Among other problems, that didn’t happen. Initially the excavation for the parkade went horribly wrong when the shotcrete and horizontal anchors failed, and a portion of the street fell into the hole. Relaunched as Gemini, with a more traditional concrete frame, it now has 17 units, in a building that still looks like the modular earlier version, and has taken three years of construction.
Initial renders suggested a muted colour; the copper colour chosen to accent the black panels is altogether more bold.
Changing City Updates 