Fashion Icon Karl Lagerfeld to Style Art Shoppe Lofts and Condos on Yonge St.

It’s the first Canadian building initiative to be guided by the celebrity creative director of global design brands Chanel and Fendi.

Lagerfeld, 82, has designed lobbies in hotels and condo projects around the world, including most recently the Fendi Chateau in Miami, a 58-unit building where residences start at $5 million and climb to $22 million (U.S.). His portfolio also includes work as a photographer, illustrator and film director.

“What I really like is what I’ve never done before,” Lagerfeld said in a statement. “I am always looking for opportunities to expand my range of creative expression,” he said, adding he’s excited at the prospect of working in Toronto with the developers.

The men behind the project, Peter Freed, of Freed Developments, and Jordan Dermer, managing partner of CD Capital Developments, said it was important to bring something iconic to the location because of The Art Shoppe’s brand and history.

“Karl Lagerfeld is really hands-on, so it’s not like he will just delegate it,” Dermer said. “We are going to Paris to meet him in the spring and we’ll have an initial design meeting. and he’ll be coming to Toronto sometime in April to continue the discussion.”

Art Shoppe Lofts and Condos is in pre-registration sales. Plans call for a 28-storey tower at Soudan Ave. — with one of the Lagerfeld-designed lobbies — stepping down to a 12-storey midrise on the south that will feature the other celebrity-styled lobby. On the east side will be a six-storey structure along with a 12,000-square-foot linear park. Suites will range from bachelors to one- and two-bedrooms, starting at about $200,000 with occupancy slated for 2019. The development includes plans to animate the Yonge St. streetscape and to create a shopping destination with two floors of retail shops.

With the neighbourhood now the focus of condominium development in anticipation of additional transit with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, the Art Shoppe project needed a touch of magic to differentiate itself in a busy marketplace. There is a Zen courtyard with a two-storey gym overlooking it, a yoga room with doors that open when the weather is nice, wine-tasting room, wine-storage lockers, a chef’s kitchen and a billiards room. The best amenity has to be the roof garden with a linear swimming pool parallel to Yonge St, which, when you look south, has the entire city skyline.

The design plan is to flow interior and exterior spaces seamlessly together with a classy, understated palette featuring crisp whites accented by textured light wood with raised grain.

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