Living Lush At The Modern Living Zone
offered at $399,900If you’ve been searching the city centre to see which neighbourhoods offer the best mix of character, urban life, and convenience, you already know one of the very best and most dynamic areas is the original Olde Town of York. Located just east of the central business district along King and Front Streets East, this amazing neighbourhood boasts a wonderful patina and human scale streetscape dating from the 1860’s. For those in the know, this vintage pocket of architecturally resplendent buildings with contemporary mid-rise infill developments provides an engaging street life with the very best of urban amenities.
Located on the northwest corner of Sherbourne and King Street East, with the main lobby at 333 Adelaide Street East, the dynamite contemporary MoZo condominium is in one of the most convenient urban locations. All your transportation needs are covered, with the 24hour King streetcar connecting directly to the Yonge and University Subway lines, plus it’s a short stroll to the Go and Via Rail trains! However, in this location you’re more likely to live your life embracing the neighbourhood by foot, where you’re a short stroll to everyday shopping including the charming St. Lawrence Market with its purveyors of fine fresh foods, a substantial cinema complex, a Starbucks, a liquor store and even a top notch 24 hour grocer for those with irregular work hours. And for those with a love of design, you’re smack dab in the centre of oodles of design retailers, art galleries and a fantastic array of entertainment and cafes, including the very popular relaxed Betty’s on King East. Truly invigorating, living at MoZo is all about convenience.
MoZo, the moniker for Modern Living Zone, was developed by Context Developments and designed by Architects Alliance. Completed in 2004, the fifteen-floor building contains 207 suites ranging from 550 square feet to well over 2000 square feet. Condominium amenities include an exercise room, recreation room, and 24 hour concierge. The complex is well managed and well tended, with the main lobby and common corridors recently redone.
Architecturally, the success and popularity of this condominium is a function of good design principles and its seamless integration with the original urban fabric. Using concrete slab construction, the narrow floor plate allows for a skip-stop elevator system and through units. The skip-stop system, pioneered by Le Corbusier in his Unité d’Habitation projects, not only allowed for the creation of through units but also reduced the amount of circulation space necessary, creating significant efficiencies in a building’s net-to-gross floor ratio. This basic strategy used by Architect’s Alliance ultimately contributes to making this condominium special, and keeps the monthly common fees reasonable.
In its design program, Architects Alliance took visual cues and references from the existing neighbourhood and reinterpreted it in the condominium’s facade. Surrounded by 19th century warehouse buildings, the architects borrowed the neighbours’ material palettes of masonry and patterns of fenestration to harmonize the lower, street-related floors. Above, and on the west face where the main lobby is, the building is clad in a more transparent skin of glass and metal, representative of the Modernist tradition of maximizing access to light, air and view while echoing the polished transparent edifices of the financial district. The design is innovative, forward looking and dramatic. In September 2003 the Toronto Star architecture critic Christopher Hume called MoZo ‘one of the most beautiful buildings in Toronto’.
Loft 1024 is a smartly styled efficiently designed crisp contemporary space. Around 780 square feet, this concrete-encased rectangular volume boasts generous ceiling heights, good proportions, an expansive curtain wall of glass and an oversized sun-drenched balcony!
The U-shaped kitchen accommodates the preferred ‘work triangle’, a fundamental design created by connecting the three major work areas of a kitchen: the cleaning area (sink), the cooking area and the refrigerator. For cooks, more trips are made within this zone than elsewhere, creating a natural triangle that protects the cook from interference while allowing guests to flow by without getting underfoot. Renovated in 2010, the kitchen has luxe Caesarstone counters, an undermount sink with new faucet, and new stainless steel appliances!
The open concept layout has a readily defined foyer, kitchen and entertainment zone that can be configured a number of ways depending on your preferences and furnishings. Featuring concrete ceilings and a curtain wall of glass, this soft loft aesthetic is complimented by laminate floors and custom window blinds.
The sleeping zone, fitted with a wall-to-wall closet and custom roller blind, is unusually spacious. Sun-drenched with a west-facing sight line, the bedroom is large enough for all your home furnishings. Opposite is a separate home office or den which, with the addition of a door, could be an optional second sleeping zone. Fitted with a floor-to-ceiling wardrobe, this is a great space for anything double-duty.
The fitted washroom was also renovated in 2010. Featuring a soaker tub, new vanity and contemporary porcelain tile floors and walls, this indulgent spa bath is designer-fresh. How fantastic is that?
Sun-splashed with a courtyard vista, this contemporary clean-lined airy soft loft is coveted for being on the quieter side of the complex, whereas the other exposures suffer for the traffic noise and fumes common to urban arterial roads. Located on the tenth level, this unit will become increasingly prized for its lush green view, as the trees grow taller and fill out as they mature. It will evolve into a bucolic restful sight line with the dynamic city skyline further west.
Having terrific style, loads of panache and reasonable common fees, this terrific space also includes a generous 6×9 foot private secure locker on the parking level! For those requiring parking, the seller currently rents a space within the building for $150 per month which is available pending the parking owner’s approval.
Ready for possession around mid-August, this is a definite contender for “best property on the market”.