Twenty Gothic, 20 Gothic Ave: The Condo Built Over the Subway Line

Twenty Gothic is the building I bring up when a buyer says they want High Park at the door but cannot face a 40-storey tower. It is eight storeys, tucked mid-block behind mature trees on a quiet side street, and it does something almost no other condo in the city does: it sits on top of the subway tunnel. That one engineering fact explains most of what is good, and most of what you should ask about, in this building. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A mid-rise that straddles the Bloor line

Sweeny&Co, the architects, describe Twenty Gothic as spanning the west end of High Park station, and most of the building sits over the subway tunnel. Former mayor David Miller called it a skyscraper laid on its side over the subway, which is a fair description of the long, low L-shaped plan.

Building over a live subway line is expensive. The architects say the extra cost of the structure and of controlling noise and vibration was partly offset by putting the parking above grade, in a garage structure at the back that overhangs the tunnel and forms a podium facing the tracks. That is unusual in Toronto, where nearly all condo parking goes underground.

Sweeny&Co say the building set precedents for acoustic and vibration engineering. During construction, Monarch installed vibration-isolation plates, and people following the project at the time linked them to a delay of roughly a year. One resident reported back then that the subway could not be heard or felt inside. That is one person’s account, not a test result, so I tell buyers to judge it for themselves.

Brick, trees and a design that tries to blend in

This is not a glass showpiece. The facade mixes yellow-toned brick with metal and teal glass, and the design was deliberately kept conservative to sit beside the older houses on Gothic Avenue. Neighbours pushed back during approvals and won design changes plus more visitor parking inside the site, which is part of why the street still feels residential.

Opinion on the look was split when it went up; some people found the brick colour dull. What I notice in person is the setting: the building is set back behind a canopy of mature trees with a circular front drive, and the lobby leans traditional, with a fireplace and marble.

For buyers coming from a downtown tower, the scale is the selling point. Eight storeys and 175 suites means short elevator waits, a lobby where the concierge learns your name, and a neighbourhood of houses and low-rise apartments rather than other towers.

Layouts: mostly one- and two-bedrooms, no windowless bedrooms

The suite mix leans heavily toward one-bedroom, one-plus-den and two-bedroom plans, with two-plus-dens making up about a fifth of the building and true studios or three-bedrooms rare. Sizes run from about 450 sq ft to just over 1,700 sq ft, so there is a real step up for people who need space.

Ceilings are about nine feet, with hardwood throughout, stone counters with matching islands, glass balconies and soaker tubs in the bathrooms. Commenters on the original plans pointed out that the layouts are traditional and avoid the windowless interior bedrooms that became common in later Toronto condos. That still matters at resale.

Because the building is L-shaped and runs beside the subway corridor, orientation varies a lot from suite to suite. A unit looking over the trees on Gothic Avenue and a unit looking toward the tracks and the parking podium are not the same product, even if the floor plan is identical.

Living here day to day

The appeal is simple: High Park is a short walk south, Bloor West Village and the Junction are close, and you are steps from the subway. The panel on this page shows the transit, school and Walk Score detail, so I will not repeat it.

What surprises some people is how quiet the street is for a building this close to Bloor. Gothic Avenue is a short residential street, and most of the traffic noise stays on Bloor. The trade-off is that the immediate block is homes and apartments, not shops, so your errands mean a walk up to Bloor or over to the Junction.

Pricing: High Park money, but parking is in the fee

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $971 per square foot. Strata.ca’s figures for recent sales are higher, roughly $1,085 to $1,167 per square foot depending on unit type. The two use different time windows and sample sizes, so I would treat $970 to $1,150 as the working range and price any specific suite off recent comparables, not the average.

Active listings are thin. At the time of writing there were only two for sale, both two-bedrooms, asking roughly $850,000 to $949,000. That is too small a sample to call a trend; it tells you what the larger two-bedrooms are being offered at, not what they sell for.

Fees on current listings work out to roughly $1.07 per square foot, which looks high for a 2009 mid-rise. Part of the reason is that parking is included, along with common elements, building insurance and water. Heat and hydro are not on the inclusion list, so ask how each suite is metered. For recorded trades, see my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Twenty Gothic

The amenity package is modest but well chosen for a building this size: a concierge, a gym, a rooftop lounge and a landscaped terrace of roughly 4,600 sq ft. There is no pool. Most residents treat High Park as the real amenity.

Jatin’s honest take on Twenty Gothic

Twenty Gothic — frequently asked questions

Looking at High Park North more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.