Design : Development News

A week ago, residents in the King-Spadina area got a chance to take a peek at an idiosyncratic new approach to the development of their idiosyncratically zoned neighbourhood.

"We're looking at a couple of blocks that have properties that are landlocked," says ward councillor Adam Vaughan. "They don't constitute development sites in and of themselves, but parcels of land and adjoining developers are proposing a way of building in the interior of a rather large block while protecting heritage buildings on King and on Wellington."

In addition to these developments having no effect on any street-facing buildings, they will also have to contend with rights-of-way that date back to the 1820s. These were put in place to assure property owners' access to fresh water, a real concern in the early 19th century. "It's almost impossible to strip a property of water access," Vaughan says.

As a result, the developments, which won't be much higher than 35 metres, or 10 storeys, are likely to include pedestrian walkways along the old water-access routes. Vaughan compares the idea to the courtyards of Berlin, or a series of apartment buildings in Paris' Marais district that have carriageways cut through  them.

About 40 local residents got an introduction to the basic concepts on Wednesday, as visualized by architects David Pontarini, Les Klein and Core Architects for the Wellington site. A fuller workshop is being held on Dec. 12 to go into more detail. (You can call or email Vaughan’s office for details.)

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Adam Vaughan

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A Pickering house is being built using a new way to build walls, a method that’s attracted Chinese researchers to its open house on Friday.

The house is being built out of modular straw-bale walls developed by a St. Catharines startup, Nature Built Wall Systems Inc.

According to Neeraj Jain, one of three partners behind Nature Built, the owner, a Pickering policeman, had another house on the lot that burned down due to an electrical fire. He decided his next house was going to have the best materials he could get. While he was at it, he figured he might as well go green.

Straw-bale walls are not new, but there have been obstacles to bringing them into the mainstream.

"It's very inexpensive, you're using natural materials, it's fire resistant, it's also very resistant to earthquakes," Jain says. "The problem is it's messy, people think about the three little pigs, and you need specialized trades people to put it together, so [Jain's partner, Chris Magwood] came up with this idea of modularize it, to put it together in a factory, load them up onto a truck, arrive at the site, and pretty much like Lego, lay them down, fasten them to the foundation, and within half a day or a day you've got the whole building envelope done. It's a pretty novel way of building houses, and obviously, we're hoping it's going to catch on."

Representatives of the Chinese Academy of Building Research were interested in paying Magwood a visit to learn more about his system, and organized their trip so they could take a look at the walls in action. The deputy mayor of Pickering will also be at the north Pickering house at Brock Road and Concession Road 9 on Friday to cut a ribbon.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Neeraj Jain

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Toronto, and more specifically the office of Brook McIlroy Planning, has won an award for a plan to build reasonably sized buildings and strengthen our avenues.

Lorna Day, project manager for the Avenues and Mid-Rise Study, which won the award, says she hopes the recognition will help fuel other cities' efforts at increasing density without having to resort to exclusively high-profit, high-rise structures. Toronto's avenues add up to about 324 kilometres of main-street property frontage; about 200 kilometres of that could be redeveloped as mid-rise built form, according to the report. No taller than the width of the street, mid-rise buildings can provide increased density without changing the character of a neighbourhood as dramatically as high-rise buildings.

"I presented this work at the conference," Day says of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute event in Ottawa at which the award was presented, "and the audience was planners, public sector planners from other major cities in Ontario. Some of them would like to start implementing the performance standards themselves." She says she also presented the report at the Canadian Institute of Planners conference in St. John's in June.

The importance of the study, according to Day, lies in its guidelines that go beyond individual developers' usual concerns.

"The development industry in Toronto has figured out a couple of formulas that have worked for them in the past," Day says. "One is high-rises, the other is houses."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Lorna Day

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The people who brought us LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification are bringing their trade show to Toronto.

The 10th anniversary of the Greenbuild expo and conference runs Oct. 4-7 at the Metro Convention Centre. It's the first time the show has been held outside the United States.

"We focused on Toronto not only because it is a modern global hub for green building and development," says Jennifer Easton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Green Building Council, "but also because of our strong relationship with the Canadian Green Building Council."

The show will feature exhibits from about 1,000 companies related to green building, as well as talks by Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, Thomas Friedman and Cokie Roberts. The opening plenary session will be entertained by Maroon 5.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jennifer Easton

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If you think Toronto's been getting a little uppity recently, with all its tall, tall buildings, you may want to stop by Too Tall, a new exhibit that runs through December in the Architecture Gallery at York Quay.

With exhibits from three firms (RAW Design, KPMB, Architects Alliance) and artist Douglas Walker, Too Tall is looking to explain the various issues surrounding building up.

According to RAW's Richard Witt, the show is meant to answer questions like, "How tall should they be? What's the reason for them to be tall? Every time a new building goes up, people are concerned. But there's more to it that just how tall the building is next to it."

RAW's own tallest building in the works is an as-yet unannounced 60-storey tower in Toronto. In recent years, the limits of "how high can you go" have been challenged by various Gulf state projects, like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the planned Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. With the global population about to hit seven billion, and urban migration increasing daily, Witt says building skywards is becoming an increasingly attractive, and practical, option.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Richard Witt

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A new tower's worth of condos just went on sale in a building its architects hope will help create a new hub of street life in the core.

The second phase of Quadrangle's Studio towers--a 41-storey complement to the first, 31-storey tower--will begin construction next month.

"The discussions with the city with respect to the massing on this site were very interesting," says Quadrangle principal Les Klein. "It took a long time for us to uncover that their main concern had to do with the shadowing that might occur on the north side of Queen Street. When we established that this was their concern, we were able to nail down an approach… to eliminate those shadows."

The building, developed by Aspen Ridge Homes, will include what Klein refers to as a linear park, a quarter-acre green roof five storeys above the street, for tenants' use.

The tower's five-storey podium will, Klein hopes, also create some vibrancy-inducing streetscape.

"I like that Phase 2 is at the corner of Duncan and Nelson," he says, "Nelson being an emerging street leading from the Shangri-La on the east end to the John Street corridor on the west end. We see this as a major anchor to creating this new public amenity of this upgraded Nelson Street."

If sales go well, Klein expects the tower to follow close on the first tower's heels, and be completed by the beginning of 2015.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Les Klein

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The 2011 Urban Design Award-winners were announced Monday, with Sugar Beach and the Shops of Summerhill two of the big winners.

Thirteen awards of excellence and 10 honourable mentions were given out in 10 categories, including Private Buildings in Context, Public Buildings in Context” and Large Places or Neighbourhood Designs, the last of which was won by Waterfront's Sugar Beach, Toronto’s version of the internationally popular urban beach.

"Toronto can proudly boast of having one of the most talented pools of practicing design professionals, and sophisticated development companies anywhere in the world," said Councillor Peter Milczyn, chair of the planning and growth management committee, in a statement borne out by the broad swath of winners.

The jurors for this year's awards were journalist John Lorinc, Christine Abe of MBTW Group, Markham's Town Architect Ronji Borooah, Giannone Petricone Associates founder Ralph Giannone and Greg Smallenberg, founding partner of Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg.

The winners are being displayed in the Rotunda of City Hall until Sep. 23, and will be shown at Etobicoke Civic Centre, North York Civic Centre and the rotunda of Scarborough Civic Centre in successive weeks in October, beginning Oct. 10 in Etobicoke.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Bruce Hawkins

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Though it's been open for more than a year, the final touches have now finally been finalized and a plaques going up on the old Roxy Theatre.

Originally known as the Allenby, this 1935 theatre is now an Esso station and a Tim Horton's after years of desuetude.

"It's very exciting," says Councillor Paula Fletcher, who's ward it's in. "Michael McClelland at ERA Architects is who they hired… to restore the façade. It looks beautiful, better than it has in 60 years."

Fletcher suggests that the reason so much work went into the restoration is that Imperial Oil needed several variances, which the councillor implies she was able to use as tools in her negotiations with them. And according to her, they ended up going all out. "Even the ticket booth has been restored," she says, adding that the interior has also been decorated with pictures of the old interior, which was demolished.

A plaque outlining the building's history and paid for by ERA, will be unveiled next month.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paula Fletcher

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Apparently, Oakville's not just for retirees anymore.

That's the assumption behind Stephen Teeple's design for a condo the marketers have called Op Art, which goes on sale this week.

"The client definitely was looking for something more youthful," Teeple says of Neilas, the Toronto developer behind Cube and Stage East. "Oakville is not as straightforward and flat as one might think. There's a lot of use there, vibrancy, an active downtown. They wanted something that would offer something different."

The two 10-storey towers set on a podium are made of precast concrete, which allowed Teeple to play with the shapes, which he expressed in black and white. Though not really producing the trompe l'oeil its name would suggest, the building does have a distinctive, and distinctively modern, design for staid old Oakville.

The 188 units, with interiors done by Cecconi Simone, start at around $250,000, further ingratiating the building with its youthful target demographic.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Stephen Teeple

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Reve, the almost completed condo at Front and Bathurst, may be the first building to bear its architect's name after a recent by-law was passed making it mandatory.

"I don't know if the law is going to take effect in time," says Tridel's senior vice president of sales and marketing Jim Ritchie, "but we already put plaques that say Tridel on every one of our buildings, so it would be easy to do and we'd be happy to accommodate it."

The architect of the 305-unit building is Rudy Wallman.

The building started taking its first occupants, mostly singles and couples according to Ritchie, at the beginning of the month, and it will be complete by the end of the year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jim Ritchie

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The rest of Sherbourne Common opened this past weekend, including its most distinctive feature, the nation's first water feature that's also a water treatment plant.

The first phase of the new park, Sherbourne Common South, with its waterfront lawn and playground, opened last September. With the addition of the 0.5 hectare northern phase, the park rests on 1.47 hectares and cost a total of $30.6 million.

"It's such an innovative park," says Waterfront Toronto's interim manager of project communications Bruce Sudds. "If you get a chance, it's worth seeing at night."

The walkway over the water channel is equipped with motion sensors which alters the way the water sculpture by Jill Anholt, called Light Showers, is lit.

Ontario's Minister of Research and Innovation, Glen Murray, was at the ceremony.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Bruce Sudds

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There are more exciting aspects to city building than planning, but few more pervasively important.

Last week, Steve Diamond moderated a discussion among former chief of planning Paul Bedford, municipal lawyer David Bronskill, architect and former chief planner Howard Cohen and city councilor and chair of planning and growth management Peter Milczyn on the question of whether current planning in the city is producing the best buildings.

"Any time you have a conversation and you have a lot of smart people in one place it should ignite something," says Pug co-founder Gary Berman. "Really what we're trying to do is facilitate a conversation among the stakeholders in the planning process; we think that something positive will come out of that."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Gary Berman

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The downside of all the roadwork that's been going on along Roncesvalles is that it's tipped a few businesses out of business.

The upside is it's made room for new ones. Like the newest addition to the Fresh Collective mini-chain of clothing stores.

"A lot of our customers were already there," says owner Laura-Jean Bernhardson, who has two other locations in Kensington Market and on Queen Street West, but they'd only come in occasionally, because, she noticed, Roncesvalles Village residents tend to shop local. "So I figured if we moved there, they would come in more frequently."

Bernhardson was lucky enough to be given what she calls a "clean box," the approximately 750 square foot space at 401 Roncesvalles, occupied for almost 50 years by High Park Tailor, having been thoroughly renovated by landlord Michael Reis including new floors, exposing a brick wall, and removing an unsalvageable tin ceiling.

"I hired a store designer," Bernhardson says, referring to Rob and Susan Whittaker's RLW Design. "I wanted to take it up a notch."
Though much got finished later than scheduled, and much more was still unfinished, the store opened on April 9, just a little over a month after Bernhardson took possession.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Laura-Jean Bernhardson

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The last of four towers that helped transform Mississauga's city centre got one of its finishing touches this month.

Onyx, the fourth tower by Davies Smith Developments, across from Square One, got its rooftop terrace. Though it's been accepting occupants since last summer, the 36-storey, 353-unit building at 223 Webb Drive has only now reached is registration phase.

"When we started the ball rolling on this whole community, we put a lot of thought into the kind of style for the first building coming in there," says developer Ian Smith, "because that was very early in what has now become a well developed residential core in the city. We saw it not as a suburban site, but as Mississauga city centre, which could be pretty urban.

"So we went with a pretty sleek glass tower design, which hadn't been done there before. Before, it was very traditional suburban condo designs, more individual, punch windows, facades with individual windows breaking up the exterior. At that time, nothing in Mississauga city centre had lofts, two-storey units, and they sold incredibly fast."

The first designs for the four-tower project, which also includes CityGate I and II, and Solstice, were done in 2002, just after the zoning for the area had been changed to allow the increased density, according to Smith.

The towers' architect was Roland Rom Colthoff, current principal at Raw Design, who was a principal of Quadrangle Architects while designing the first three towers; the credit for Onyx is split between the two firms.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Ian Smith

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CORRECTION: Raw Design was incorrectly credited as the architecture firm behind the four towers in the original version of this story. Roland Rom Colthoff was the principal in charge of these designs while at Quadrangle.

Toronto is finally able to take its espresso standing up.

After the briefest of renovations, the Yonge and Bloor location of Crema Coffee Co. has become the first cafe in the city, as far as its owner knows, to have a stand-up, standalone espresso bar.

"It's so people will have a place to stand and have a quick espresso," says Geoff Polci, "basically like they do in Italy."

The walnut-top bar was installed on March 25 by Tom King of Discrete and Discreet, cost a total of $800.

Polci plans to install another, possibly larger one at his location in the Junction over the summer.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Geoff Polci

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