city building : Development News

The city is starting work on figuring out whether there's a way to help the visually impaired better determine when they're approaching an intersection.

The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee is overseeing the installation of four trial surfaces at Victoria and Shuter.

"It is our goal to make pedestrian travel as safe as possible for all residents and visitors to the city—especially for those who are visually impaired," said councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the committee, in a prepared statement on the subject. "Testing different options at the same intersection will give us an opportunity to perform a side-by-side comparison of the cost, ease of installation, durability and effectiveness of each treatment."

In addition to textured surfaces, the city is experimenting with different colours, looking for high-contrast patterns that will be more easily detectable to people with low vision.

"We're very happy that the city is undertaking this consultation," says Chris McLean, the regional director for the GTA chapter of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. "Generally, we feel that tactile walking surface indicators add an extra element of safety for blind and low-vision pedestrians."

Though the city chose Victoria/Shuter intersection because it's already slated for reconstruction at the end of next year, which is when the pilot project is scheduled for completion, McLean figures it's a better location than most, given its proximity to St. Michael's Hospital and its ophthalmological unit.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Chris McLean

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Google Canada's got some new digs.

As of the middle of last month, Google Canada's Toronto office moved from its rather inauspicious space in the Dundas Square Cineplex building to 89,000 square feet on five floors of a stately Peter Dickinson tower on Richmond Street West, just behind the opera house.

There have for years been stories out of Mountain View, California of Google's wonderful HQ with its over-the-top amenities, ad now, it seems, Google Canada's decided it worth following suit.

I took a tour of the place last week with Aaron Brindle, Google Canada's communications manager. It's not quite finished yet— there are still some cartographically themed graphics to go into some stairwells, and one floor is still entirely unoccupied, though it's fully furnished.

But they do have a DJ room. And a jam room, where employees can use the full complement of instruments and gear to play and even record. Also, there's food—lots of it.

"I don't think any employee is ever more than 150 feet away from food," Brindle said. Walking down the hallways you run into jars of candy, freezers of ice cream, the occasional mini-kitchen, all in addition to the main dining room, where meals prepared by Google's chef are served five days a week.

It's almost as if Google wanted people to have something to write about when they opened.

There are also more obviously productive spaces, like the 42 conference, phone or "huddle" rooms sprinkled about the place.

Carpets are made from salvaged fishnets, and the walls are lined with reclaimed wood, all of which was designed and executed by Google in consultation with HOK.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Aaron Brindle

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The city's web portal that allows both staff and the general public to keep up with all the construction and other public works going on in the city has been updated for 2013.

T.O. INview, which debuted last year, now includes work being done under the auspices of Economic Development and Culture, Parks, Forestry and Recreation and Cycling Infrastructure.

Though the map that constitutes the heart of the page is not especially intuitive, and perhaps was designed primarily with staff in mind, noodling around it can turn up some interesting information.

So now, if you check "Third Party Construction" and click on, say, the corner of Boradview and Withrow, you find out that there will be curb cuts installed to facilitate wheelchairs for the new and more accessible LRT vehicles coming to that route soon, You may also be surprised by the news that they'll be installing ticket vending machines on the street, and all along the streetcar routes throughout 2013.

According to the city, "T.O. INview provides details about the type of work planned, such as road resurfacing or watermain reconstruction, and is designed to improve the co-ordination of projects—with the goal of more efficient capital spending and greater convenience for the public."

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A new kind of condo is going up on St. Thomas Street.

Though not unprecedented, commercial condos are still a rarity in Toronto—entire buildings devoted to them even more so.

But when St. Thomas Developments, the company behind the residential condo tower at 1 St. Thomas, was trying to decide what to do with its extra bit of land on Sultan Street, compiled between 2002 and 2008, the format made the most sense.

"We looked at all sorts of various schemes," says president Patrick Quigley, "including high-end retirement home, boutique hotel. The site is not that deep, so to do any sort of residential, in the market today, whether it's high-end or entry-level, you need balconies, and we don't have the depth for balconies."

So what’s going up is a nine-storey glass structure, built on top of seven heritage facades from the former single-family homes on Sultan Street. The strip more recently housed businesses like Theatrebooks (which was the last business out of the area, moving mid-July to Spadina and Adelaide).

Though the absence of kitchens and residential bathroom finishes means the construction itself will only take about 18 months, the bracing and shoring up of the heritage facades is adding about six months to the process, which Quigley hopes will begin in March or April. It is expected to be completed by the spring of 2015.

The move's a new one for St. Thomas, but one Quigley thinks is the natural next step in the wake of the city's intense decade of residential development in the core.

"I've been around for a while," Quigley says, "and I can remember the exodus of commercial offices moving out to the suburbs in the '80s and '90s. They weren't able to get staff, who were living out in the suburbs. And now with intensification of residential in the downtown core you're starting to see more and more commercial offices from the 905 and suburbs back downtown."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Patrick Quigley

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Construction started Monday on a new section of the PATH system.

The underground system is already the world's biggest, with 28 kilimetres of idiosyncratically signed pathways connecting hundreds of retail shops underneath the city's largest office and residential towers from Atrium on Bay in the north down to Union Station in the south.

"We are adding a new section to the PATH system beginning at the northwest corner of Union Station," says John Kelly, acting head of the city's technical services division. "It's going to be constructed in two phases. We're adding about 200 metres from Union Station up to Wellington. The first phase is starting construction today, getting us from southwest corner of Front and York to the northwest corner of Front Street and York Street. It's only about 70 metres worth of tunnel, that will get you to an exit pavilion on that corner."

The expansion is meant ot relieve some existing pedestrian congestion, and to prepare for the expected increased in use of the system after Union Station's exansion.

The original budget for both phases (the second takes the PATH up to Wellington and York) was $65 million, but in the years since it was approved in 2007, it's risen to $105 million. The city is looking into potential assistance from the province and the federal government.

Since all the land being developed in this addition is city-owned, there will be no extra retail added.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Kelly

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One of the men behind Le Tramway in Paris and the Moscow LRT expansion is giving a talk on Wednesday, November 28 about how the Eglinton Crosstown could transform our city.

Antoine Grumbach, a Paris architect whose work also includes a hotel for Euro Disney, will give a free public lecture at the North Toronto Collegiate Institute.

"The expected value of this talk is to hear about Mr. Grumbach's work in other cities such as Paris and Moscow, and to learn how similar transit investments have had a positive impact on the city at every scale, both city wide and local," says Lorna Day, the city's project manager for the Eglinton Crosstown Planning Study. "We hope to gain specific direction about public realm elements and built form."

Antoine Grumbach and Associates have been hired by the city as consultants on what's known as the Crosstown Collaborative, along with Brook McIlroy and Planning Alliance.

This event is a continuation of a long-term public education and consultation process that began last spring with a series of public open houses.

Doors open at 6:30pm. The talk begins at 7:30pm.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Lorna Day

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A little rickety wooden footbridge that's been a focus of interest for Ward 26 residents has been replaced.

"The replacement of the former wooden walkway with a new steel walkway was declared substantially complete today," project manager Bruce Tisdale wrote this week in a note to Ward 26 councillor John Parker.

"The walkway was open to the public this afternoon. Some minor restoration in the form of hydro seeding the sides of the walkway approaches and sodding of an area beside the east approach will be completed by November 23rd. Temporary six-foot-high barrier fencing has been installed on the water side of the walkway approaches and will be replaced with a permanent wooden post and paddle barrier by November 30th."

The old footbridge had been there since 1986 and according to Tisdale, had reached the end of its useful life. The new walkway is built of self-weathering COR-TEN steel, with an anti-slip  deck and a hand rail.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Councillor John Parker, Bruce Tisdale

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Our little Billy Bishop Airport generated almost $2 billion for the city last year.

That’s according to a study, commissioned by the Toronto Board of Trade and the Toronto Port Authority, that was released last week.

That money, roughly $1.9 billion, includes $640 million in gross domestic product, $290 million in wages for the 1,700 jobs directly associated with the airport and the 4,000 others that owe their existence to it indirectly. About $57 million is generated in taxes and payments in lieu of taxes.

"Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is more than a convenient transportation link into and out of the Toronto region," said president and CEO of the Board of Trade Carol Wilding in a prepared statement, "it is an economic driver vital to ensuring our economy remains globally competitive."

Though the airport first opened in 1939, it's only since 2006 when Porter began flying from it—hyping its convenience to a primarily business clientele and providing relatively high levels of service—that the airport became the economic and cultural force that it is.

Writer: Bert Archer

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The city's quite enthusiastic about the latest office space numbers.

According to the latest so-called Economic Dashboard, a run-down of the city's financial indicators, despite large growth in office space over the past three years, vacancy rates are actually going down.

The report, released last week, suggests that office vacancy rates are at 5.4 per cent for the City of Toronto, and just 4.5 per cent for the downtown core. Scarborough's not doing so well, though, with 11 per cent office vacancy, compared to the 905 area, which is averaging 9.6 per cent.

This increase in occupancy is happening at the same time as the market is greatly expanding. The Bay-Adelaide opened in 2009, the same year the RBC-Dexia tower received its first occupants. In 2010, the Telus tower opened, and 18 York Street opened this year.

"There have been a few high profile moves downtown," says Peter Viducis, manager of the Economic and Cultural Research department of the city's Economic Development and Cultural Division, referring to things like Coca-Cola's imminent move into 333 King Street East, "but most of the growth appears to be organic. Firms that need to expand are choosing to do so downtown."

Though city officials seem to be optimistic, it remains to be seen whether these occupancy numbers will prove sustainable in light of even more development in the near future. The second phases of both the Bay-Adelaide and the MaRS Centre are opening soon, as is 120 Bremner and 85 Harbour. The  new Globe and Mail tower will be ready by 2015.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Viducis

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Bay street's getting a new fresco next week thanks to Lanterra's taste in public art.

The developer's using its one per cent—the portion of the building costs the city obliges they put aside for public art—for a series of large pieces by Italian artist Sandro Martini.

"We've always sold or projects not just on the units themselves but on the amenities space around it," says Lanterra CEO Barry Fenton.

The glass works, the largest of which is about 150 feet by 100 feet, will occupy a 3,500-square-foot, 50-foot-high retail space in a sort of glass box at street level on the north side of the already colourful Burano condo tower on the east side of the street. Though there's no tenant yet, Fenton figures it'll be a coffee shop or restaurant.

Fenton estimates the cost of the works to be between $500,000 and $600,000. The commission resulted from a public competition Lanterra held in Italy.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Barry Fenton

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Construction has started on the ambitious Fort York Visitors Centre that the city hopes will renew interest in the 17.4-hectare patch of mostly grass where Toronto was born.

The $18-million project has been designed by Vancouver firm Patkau Architects, who are working with Toronto's Kearns Mancini.

"I always tell people, Fort York represents the city's founding landscape," says Karen Black, manager of the city's Museum Services department, "and there aren't many cities that still have right at their core the founding landscape intact. But most people think Fort York consists of the little walled seven-acre site."

In addition to recreating the original shoreline just north of the Gardiner Expressway with its weathered steel facade, the new building will enable the site's administration to move out of the old officers' quarters and school, which in turn will be opened to the public.

Funding for the project has come from the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport ($5 million), the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund ($5 million) and there are hopes of raising $6 million privately. One million dollars has already been donated by the W. Garfield Weston Foundation, intended to be spent on the grounds at the north of the property known as Garrison Common, the site of a battlefield from the War of 1812.

Work is expected to take 18 months, with an opening scheduled for April, 2014.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Karen Black

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As of Monday, the eastbound lanes of Queens Quay from Spadina to Bay are closed till spring.

It's the first stage of the $110-million redesign of the central section of the waterfront, planned in part by Waterfront Toronto, that is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2015.

Traffic is being redirected at Lower Spadina Avenue north to Lake Shore Boulevard. The TTC is also being diverted, and the stop at Rees is temporarily suspended, though pedestrian access to shops and homes will not be affected.

The second stage of the project, which will involve the north side of the street handling westbound traffic, will begin next summer once work on the south side of the 1.7-kilometre length of street has been completed.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: David Kusturin

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The $4-million donation for a Regent Park cultural centre from the Daniels Corporation—and the foundation set up by its CEO—is more significant than it may seem on the surface.

"Part of the donation has been to act as a long-term transition fund for the anchor tenants at the facility," says Daniels VP Martin Blake of the centre now known as Daniels Spectrum. "The Regent Park School of Music has now transitioned into this facility. It's a purpose-built facility for them, 2,000 or so square feet. They don't have the means to pay for market rent in the building."

A portion of the $4 million will fund a five-year transition for these tenants, part of a plan to ramp up their own fundraising and income generation to allow the organizations to ultimately pay the market rent themselves.

But perhaps more significantly, none of the donation had anything to do with Section 37, the municipal regulation that trades developer density for community benefits, the source for much of the charitable-seeming work developers do in the city.

Though it's a first for Daniels, which has in the past funnelled its donations to Second Harvest, Habitat for Humanity Canada and the Daniels School of Architecture at the University of Toronto, it may signal a shift in developers sense of economic responsibility to the neighbourhoods they’re making their money in.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Martin Blake

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Toronto has been named to a list of 21 "smart" communities by a Manhattan think tank devoted to social and economic development.

The Intelligent Community Forum, co-founded by Kitchener-Waterloo tech exec John Jung, put Toronto on their list for only the second time since they started the program in 2002. In 2005, the city made the top seven, which is the ICF’s shortlist.

This list of 21 communities is a sort of long list on the way to naming the world's smartest community in June 2013.

The application was made by Waterfront Toronto, under the guidance of Kristina Verner, Waterfront's director of intelligent communities, part of whose job description is to maintain relations with the ICF.

"There were over 400 communities that applied," Verner says, "so it's a great honour to get to this point. It's an opportunity to tell the story and promote the brand that is the waterfront revitalization as well as the city of Toronto."

Verner says the application highlighted the new George Brown campus at the waterfront, TIFF, ORION and the plan to cover the entire waterfront community with free wifi, as well as the city's kids@computers program, which was also a part of the application in 2005.

The top-seven list is announced in January; the winner is named in June.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Kristina Verner

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Excavation on the $137.5-million Union Station platform addition is now complete.

The project, which began in January of last year, will add another passenger platform on the south side of the rails to relieve the congestion on the current single platform. The TTC estimates that 250,000 people use the station each day, making it the sixth busiest station in the system.

In addition to the extra platform and expanded concourse, the project includes a new connection to the PATH system, access south to the waterfront and an elevator and ramp to link the station with Union’s rail station, which is also being overhauled.

The work is expected to be finished by 2014.

Workers are now occupied with demolition, pouring concrete and waterproofing .

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Samantha Gileno

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].