Downtown Eastside - Old Town - Corktown : Development News

The radical renovation of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts will be ready for October 1, the 50th anniversary of its opening.

But better than the 189 re-milled brass doors, the 1,700 restored cherry panels, the fixed marble, the carpeting that now goes with the marble, the LED-lit coffered ceiling, the new Sony store and the removal of several architectural interventions that got in the way of architect Peter Dickinson's original design: there'll be a bar open from 4pm to midnight every day. And you won't even have to buy a ticket to a show to drink there.

The Balcony Bar sounds like it has definite new Toronto hang-out potential. It's part of a new approach the Sony Centre (aka the O'Keefe Centre, aka the Hummingbird Centre) to cater to the city it exists in now, rather than the one it was built into.

"The first show 50 years ago was Camelot," says Sony Centre CEO Dan Brambilla. "It represented the city at the time: homogenous. Now we have 232 cultures, so our programming is no longer focused on Broadway -- there are other theatres for that. We want to program to all the ethnicities in the city.

They want to feed them, too.

"Every night, the food will be paired with the show," Brambilla says. "If we have a Russian show, there'll be Russian food, and so on."

The idea is to bring the city into the Centre. The food will be cheap, the bar will be open to the public, and the whole building will offer free WiFi.

The renovation and restoration, which was budgeted at $30 million, was paid for by the sale of air rights to the developers of the new Libeskind condo going up next door.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Dan Brambilla

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Work began the first week of July on a new mid-rise condo tower aimed at young professionals that could seal the increasingly popular real estate notion that King East is the new King West.

The King East, designed by Core Architects, developed by Brad Lamb's Lamb Development Corp. and managed by 59 Project Management, will be a modern, glass and pre-cast concrete construction, which Philip Marsland, head of 59, calls "very sleek."

"The whole area has really improved a lot over the past couple of years," he says of the once downscale neighbourhood, caught between the business district and Corktown, home to furniture and design shops but with little residential development of note.

The 14-storey, 215-unit building at 330 King East will also have two floors of retail totalling about 20,000 square feet.

The building is slated for a February, 2012 completion.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Philip Marsland

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Waterfront Toronto took another step into the perilous business of neighbourhood creation last week when it announced that it had chosen real estate firm Hines to develop its biggest site yet.

Located between Lower Sherbourne and Parliament streets south of Queens Quay, the site is owned by the city. The plan, which involves architects Cesar Pelli and Stanton Eckstut, will result in 1,700 homes, along with retail, entertainment and office space enough for 2,400 workers.

The plan is being presented to city council today and tomorrow, and if approved, the first occupancies are expected in 2014. The whole project is set for a 2021 completion.

"The Bayside development is another major step forward in the complete revitalization of our waterfront and it will be an integral part of East Bayfront, which is already taking shape into a showcase 21st-century community," says John Campbell, president and CEO of Waterfront Toronto, in a press release.

The development will trigger about $20 million in fees to the city, and is being backed by $800 million in private sector investment.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Samantha Gileno

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Parliament Street is joining the city's not-so-exclusive club of construction zones this month, while the kilometer between King and Gerrard is being dug up for a streetcar rail replacement and complete reconstruction.

"We typically just resurface," says Gordon MacMillan, the city's director of design and construction for linear infrastructure. "But it gets to a point when the sub-base is not strong enough, and you're just wasting your money. It's like putting a new roof on a house that's falling down."

The project will ultimately cost $4.2 million and is scheduled for completion by December.

But the worst may already be over with last week's completion of the work on the stretch's busy Queen intersection.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Gordon MacMillan

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"We're marching up to the altar, so to speak," says Waterfront CEO John Campbell of the latest and penultimate step towards opening up the Lower Don Lands to eventual development and incorporation into the city's cultural ambit.

City Council has finally approved Waterfront's plan to solve the area's flooding problem, a major obstacle to development.

"The river comes down now in a channel south and then turns 90 degrees west and goes out the Keating Channel," Campbell says. "The new flood protection builds a new river where it turns and goes farther south, out towards where the T&T is now. The river topology is going to change so you can allow for the flood waters to get out by an overflow into the Keating Channel and into the shipping channel."

There's no funding for the project yet, but Campbell suspects it will cost about $600 million. He estimates the work will take several years and probably be done by the end of the decade.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Campbell

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Monday marks the official opening of Sugar Beach, Waterfront Toronto's latest development.

South of Queens Quay and east of Jarvis, Sugar Beach is Waterfront's first and the waterfront's second beach, 8,500 square metres (or two acres) of public space designed by Claude Cormier Architects, Paysagistes, and The Planning Partnership. It has 225 metres of waterfront, with 57 trees, 150 chairs and 36 umbrellas.

The beach takes its name from its proximity to the iconic Redpath sugar refinery.

Ground was broken on the project in October of last year, and it's been open to the public since Canada Day.

The opening ceremonies will be held from 10:30-11:30am.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Samantha Gileno

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Work began Friday on the Jarvis Street (or Ted Rogers Way) bike lanes that have been the source both of great anticipation and controversy over the past several months, since an environmental assessment resulted in the recommendation.

The project, which should be finished by the end of the week of July 26, will result in north- and south-bound bike lanes, and the elimination of the reversible middle lane of the formerly five-lane thoroughfare.

The environmental assessment was done to look into ways of improving the Jarvis streetscape and according to Daniel Egan, the city's bike infrastructure man, "there was such an overwhelming response from the bike community to add bike lanes" that they were included in what will ultimately be a larger improvement project, involving sidewalk improvements. "We're sticking with bike lanes now because it's a simple re-striping job," Egan says.

Egan also adds that there is expected to be little impact on car traffic as a result of the elimination of the fifth lane.

The budget for adding the bike lanes is $65,000.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Daniel Egan

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Two options for a new sports complex to be built in the Port Lands have gone to city council for discussion, one of which, a stacked, four-storey design, goes with the strong recommendation of both the Waterfront design review panel and a public meeting held late last week.

The site at the corner of the on Roadway and Commissioners Street, has been the focus of some controversy, including enthusiastic comment from several mayoral candidates who oppose the project entirely, more or less on the grounds that it would suburbanize Toronto's newest urban neighbourhood.

But John Campbell, Waterfront Toronto's president and CEO, says that if council approved the four-storey version, that won't be a problem.

"If you were in Toronto in the 70s when the Eaton Centre was built, there was no attention paid to the outside of the building, and it sterilized Yonge Street," he says. "My concern is to make sure the arena doesn't do the same thing. This will be an urban street in the future."

Though he says the city is still costing out the entire project, Campbell says that Waterfront's contribution will be $34 million.

The four-storey design is by Bob Goyeche of RDH Architects.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Campbell

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The crane went up three weeks ago at the future site of The Modern, a 17-storey, 343-unit glass and steel condo tower currently slated for 2011 completion.

Designed by Du Toit Allsop Hiller Architects, the project was taken over by Empire Communities in 2008 after its original developer ran into financial difficulties.

Du Toit Allsop Hillier describes the building as being "slightly angled to provide better access to sun and views, while establishing a generous public entry plaza addressing the corner."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Du Toit Allsop Hillier

Work on the new $29-million, 4.5-acre park at the foot of Lower Sherbourne has moved above ground with both the pavilion and the water channel getting underway.

"One of the most interesting features of this park is that some of the precinct-wide infrastructure is being amalgamated with the mark design," says James Roche, a senior project manager with Waterfront Toronto, who is developing the site, "so you're going to have treated water being discharged into the lake as a main feature of the park."

Work is further along on the portion of the park south of Queens Quay, which is expected to be completed this summer. The north side, which will be less of a city-wide attraction and is being built as more of a neighbourhood resource, is expected to be completed by October or November.

Other features of the park will include a splash pad, winter skating rink and lawn for recreation and performances.

Though it's temporarily known as Sherbourne Park, the shortlist of eight possible permanent names was released last week, with voting on the final three going into next week.

The shortlisted names were Bayfront Village Green, Blue Edge Park, Kanadario Park, Merchant's Wharf Park, Ridout Park, Sherbourne Commons (obviously the best choice), Tkaronto Park and Waterside Park.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: James Roche

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The enormous River City development planned for the West Don Lands, to be developed by Urban Capital Property Group, received one of the top prizes at this year's BILD Awards.

Named the best building design in the high-rise category (Edgemere won the low-rise category), River City was designed by Montreal's Saucier + Perrotte Architects and Toronto's ZAS Architects.

When completed between 2017 and 2020, River City will be a five-building development with 900 condominiums south of King Street between River Street and the Don. It is being built to LEED Gold standards, with a plan for it to be, with offsets included, carbon neutral.

The first phase is expected to begin construction early next year and completed early in 2012. It will consist of one five-storey, 100-unit building and one 15-storey, 230-unit building. Daily Commercial News estimates the ultimate construction cost of the project to be $150 million.

The BILD Awards are given out by the Building Industry and Land Development Association, a GTA residential building, development and renovation industry association.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Waterfront Toronto

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The first of the Distillery District's two new condo towers, built on the site of the only building in the district to be demolished, a 1926 rack house, poured its first concrete this week, on schedule at about 8 months ahead of its neighbour.

Clear Spirit will be a 40-storey tower, designed by Architects Alliance. Due for occupancy in mid-2012, it will add between 700,000 and 800,000 square feet of residential space to the district when paired with the other tower, called Gooderham for the family behind the original distillery.

"There will probably be one more restaurant," says James Goad, one of the motivating spirits behind the Distillery District and a principal of the Cityscape Development Corporation. "For the most part, it will fit the creative model [of the district], but we're also trying to provide some services for our little community here."

The tower will be characterized by deeper than average balconies, between 6 and 7 feet as opposed to the more usual 4. It will have about 10 three-bedroom units, around 1,600 square feet each, and will be seeking LEED certification.

Goad says that these are the last two buildings that will go up in the district proper, though the company owns lands adjoining the district that they have future plans for, including a (probably) low-rise building to the south.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: James Goad

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Everything but the landscaping has been completed on the new Mini Cooper headquarters and dealership at 20 Sunlight Park Road just southeast of Eastern Avenue and the DVP.

Designed by RAW with several environmental concerns in mind, the project is a series of black cubes set on a triangular lot, highlighted by linear yellow trim.

"It was an empty parking lot before," says RAW principal Roland Rom Colthoff, "really a gap between the Broadview loft building and BMW Toronto.... we wanted a building that was animated and eye-catching, and I think we got that."

At 20,000 square feet and costing $6 million, the new buildings represent a major re-investment in Toronto for the BMW-owned Mini brand, replacing their hip but quite small first location on King Street West.

The dealership opened on April 1, and the landscaping is set to be completed this month.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Roland Rom Colthoff

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The filling in of the relatively empty space between the Distillery District and the rest of the city is taking another step on Saturday, as Streetcar Developments launches its Trinity Lofts at 2 Eastern at Trinity Street.

The 8-storey plan for 81 lofts and 2 townhouses is set to begin construction this fall for a July, 2012 occupancy. As Streetcar VP Jeanhy Shim points out, this is exactly when the new 18-acre West Don Lands park, currently under construction just to the east, is also scheduled to be completed.

"This is a happening area," Shim says. "There are huge changes coming to this area, and it's happening, it's not just pipe dreams."

The brick building, designed by Giannone Petricone to follow Eastern Avenue's curve, will have 54,000 square feet of residential space, including ground floor retail.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jeanhy Shim

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The 60 Richmond Street East housing project made this year's list of the projects honoured by the Ontario Association of Architects for excellence in design.

The 11-storey, 85-unit affordable-rent building was the first new housing co-operative to be built in years and will be used initially as a place to re-house those displaced by the nearby Regent Park redevelopment. It was built to LEED Gold environmental standards and designed by Teeple Architects. It was built by Toronto Community Housing.

"I think the most significant part of it is the way that it animates the street," says Gordon Grice, editor of Perspectives, the OAA's quarterly journal, citing its colourful cladding and saying the only other building as lively in Toronto is Will Alsop's Sharpe Centre for Design. "It's a good urban neighbour."

According to the OAA's citation, "This project explores ideas for the future of urbanism in the North American city. It seeks to understand and express the notion that urban form can simultaneously be environmental form. 60 Richmond East is also an example of the imagination and dedication that is required in creating responsible architectural solutions for the current global economic and environmental climate."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Gordon Grice

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or renovating, even a cool new house in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to [email protected].