City Building : Development News

The process by which developers get their buildings built will soon be a good deal more transparent, thanks to a new system that requires the electronic submission of all plans.

Called the Toronto Building Electronic Delivery Program and put into effect on Nov. 7, the city now requires that all re-zoning applications, preliminary plan reviews and alternative solutions be handled entirely online.

Al Rezoski, the city's manager of community planning for downtown, says the new system "makes it easier in terms of exchanging information, and that way the public will be able to access plans online for a development application."

Though not yet publicly accessible, the city's plan is to have the customer interaction component up and running shortly.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Al Rezoski

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According to The Atlantic magazine, Sherbourne Common is one of the best new parks in the world.

The new Waterfront Toronto park, completed this year, was listed in a recent posting on the Americans magazine's Atlantic Cities site.

According to the compiler of the list, Mark Byrnes, "[T]his former industrial site integrates a neighborhood storm-water treatment facility into its design perfectly."

The park has also just won the 2011 Design Exchange's Gold Award for Landscape Architecture.

The park was designed by Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, The Planning Partnership, Teeple Architects and Jill Anholt.

Writer: Bert Archer

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].

Diamond Schmitt's latest contribution to the GTA's oeuvre of arts architecture opened last week in Burlington.

The Burlington Performing Arts Centre has a 720-seat main theatre and a 260-seat studio theatre, both connected to a "city room" meant for community use when the theatres are dark.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended the opening and spoke of local jobs and economic growth.

The design makes great use of wood, much like Diamond Schmitt’s recently recognized Harbour Light facility for the Salvation Army on Jarvis. The floors are terrazzo, and the main theatre features a cantilevered balcony that juts out over the orchestra seating.

The firm's other arts buildings include the Betty Oliphant Theatre, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts and the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paul French

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].

A new annual award for landlord and tenant collaboration in energy reduction gave out its first prizes last week.

Race to Reduce, a program established by Greening Greater Toronto, awarded the prizes in the categories of participation, performance and "action and innovation."

"The inaugural Race to Reduce Awards event celebrated some of the region's best examples of landlord and tenant collaboration to achieve energy and financial savings," says Linda Mantia, co-chair of the program at Greening Greater Toronto, in a press release. 


The Race to Reduce has 380 participants in the GTA, accounting for 117 buildings with a total of 51.6 million square feet of office space.

Winners included Whiterock REIT for the performance of their building at 191 The West Mall and the building team behind the TD Centre.

Writer: Bert Archer

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].

Regent Park took another step forward on Saturday at the grand opening of the two new Bixi bike stations, the first two outside the downtown core.

Sponsored by Daniels Corporation, the private-sector development partner for the new Regent Park, the two stations are at Dundas and Parliament, and Parliament and Gerard, with 11 and 27 bikes respectively. The cost, which Daniels covered, was about $10,000, according to Martin Blake.

"We saw Bixi coming around, and thought to ourselves, 'What a wonderful benefit to bring to the neighbourhood,'" says Blake, who's vice president at Daniels, as well as vice chair of Habitat for Humanity Canada, an organization he's been working with since 1996.

The bikes, in addition to the Autoshare and Zipcar spots already there, will serve the residents of the two existing buildings, One Cole, with its 292 units, and One Park West's tower and townhouses, which comprise 227 units.

The bikes were first installed about three weeks ago, and ever since, Blake says he's been using a Bixi app, available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android to monitor their use, which he says is prodigious.

"I sit in meetings and keep track of how many bikes are out right now," he says. "It's kind of addictive."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Martin Blake

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].

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

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].

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

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].

Vine Avenue might be called part of the North Junction, that bit between Dundas Street West and the railway line that gives the neighbourhood its name.

It's overlooked, for the most part, though many of the houses are just as attractive as those in the desirable south. Except for those middle three: two semi-detached houses and an old Victorian that had been nice at one point, but had long ago fallen into a desuetude it was not likely to rise from.

"I certainly thought about working with the Victorian," says lawyer, developer and former Junction resident Tony Azevedo, who bought all three and is now in the process of replacing them with five new townhouses. "But it was fire-damaged, and it just wasn't practical. It was in pretty bad shape. The brick veneer was cracked, the mortar was compromised, it wasn't realistic."

Operating under the name of Daz Developments, Azevedo, with architect Paul Da Cunha, have come up with a modern design for the new structure. "It's my first really cool development," Azevedo says, mentioning he's done a few other more traditional ones around town. He's also in the process of developing 1245 Dundas Street West with a design by RAW.

Demolition of the old houses took place in July, and Azevedo hopes the new places, which are up for sale now—about 1,600 square feet each, ranging in price from about $595,000 to around $630,000—will be ready to occupy by February.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Tony Azevedo

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].

One of the worst residential buildings in the city is finally getting a reno.

The slab tower, 1011 Lansdowne at the corner of Dupont, has long been recognized by the media, the police and neighbourhood residents as a bad place. With an absentee landlord (living in Montreal), it's given city workers a heck of a time, too.

"This building has been an issue for many, many years," says the ward's councillor, Ana Bailão. "It had a lot of orders to comply over the years."

With apartment doors that don't close and drug paraphernalia in the stairwell, 1011 Lansdowne has needed all manner of physical improvements. But protocols, apparently, are protocols, and they can't be rushed.

"Anything with MLS [Municipal Standards and Licensing] takes a long time," Bailão says. "MLS goes in, gives people the order, then takes people to court, then they do a little bit of work, then we have to go back. That's basically the process."

The councillor says she was especially interested in securing some improvements, since the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) rents several units for its patients.

Work on individual units started a couple of years ago, when the ward was represented by Adam Giambrone, but work has only recently started on the exterior.

According to Bailão, the cladding is being repaired, windows re-caulked.

Though there are still outstanding work orders relating to the inside of the building, the exterior work is meant to be done by the end of the year.

Bailão estimates the value of the exterior work at $1 million.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Ana Bailão

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].

The Bayview sidewalks between Millwood and Fleming have had a rough time.

"Hydro went in there and did some work," says Councillor John Parker, of the strip's concrete tribulations that began about four years ago. "I think Toronto Water went in and did some work, and it's probable that Enbridge made a cut. Typically, when one person makes a cut, everyone dives in."

As Parker points out, this little bit of Leaside is a pretty active strip, so it got noticed, and was a bit of a pain and a lot of an eyesore.

So this month, two months after it was originally scheduled and several years later than many in the area thought it ought to have been tended to, work is being done on the sidewalk, one storefront at a time. "They move pretty fast," Parker says. "I think they're at one location a day, maybe more than one per day."

Since it was the utilities who tore it all up in the first place, it's the utilities, and not the taxpayers (or at least, not the taxpayers directly), who are footing the approximately $300,000 bill.

With the work already scheduled, Parker decided it would be a good idea to get rid of the concrete planters, add a few extra benches and ring-and-posts for the bikes, and gather the previously scattered newspaper boxes into little clusters. The work, Parker says, should be done by the end of the month.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Parker

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].

If you want to get a condo built fast, have a celebrity buy into it.

It looks like Mark Wahlberg's purchase of a unit at 36 Hazelton has increased the rate of sales of the rest of the units by enough that ground is being broken this spring, ahead of its most recent schedule.

Thirteen of the five-storey building's units have now been sold, leaving five remaining opportunities to be the Entourage producer's neighbour. The condos range in size from 1,073 square feet to the penthouse, which Wahlberg looked at but decided against, that will be 4,693 square feet.

The building, an expansion of the disused St. Basil’s Separate School, is being built by Alterra and Zinc. It was designed by Quadrangle, with Holbrook and Associates as the landscaper.

Writer: Bert Archer


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].

In a little more than three weeks, you'll be able to buy liquor in Maple Leaf Gardens for the first time since the building end its role as a licensed big league sports venue in 1999.

On Dec. 6, the LCBO will be opening what it's referring to as its Carlton and Church location on the upper level of the retail complex that the extremely aged among us still recall as the site of many of this city's most emotionally intense moments.

The entrance will be off of Carlton Street, and according to Karen Mortfield in the LCBO's communications department, it will be a barrier-free store, with elevator access, five checkouts and 4,000 square feet of retail space, including a 1,300 product-strong Vintages section.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Karen Mortfield

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].

The walls are going up at the new George Brown campus-with-a-view.

Senior project manager Nerys Rau says the concrete work on the Waterfront campus, next to Corus Quay and Sugar Beach, was finished in July. The structural steel is all up, and the curtain wall is now filling in.

"We’re complete to the second floor on the east side and probably even higher on the west side," she says.

The 320,000-square-foot, $175-million single-building project is set to be substantially completed by July 2012, and to open for students in September.

The parking garage, which is 75 per cent funded and owned by Waterfront Toronto, is mostly complete and is being painted.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nerys Rau

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].

The Adelaide Club is getting s $500,000 makeover.

"We're looking to do a total renovation," says general manager Blair Lyon. In addition to renovating the two existing studios, contractors will be creating a third for group exercise.

"There are waiting lists of 18 people per class," Lyons says.

The health club, founded in 1978, is part of the Cambridge Group, which includes the Cambridge Club and the Toronto Athletic Club. Clive Caldwell is the majority owner.

The architect behind the renovation is David Peters, who will be incorporating designs by Steffanie Gareau.

Work will commence in December and be completed in January. The club will remain open, with studios and the squash court going into rotating closures.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Blair Lyon

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].

The Salvation Army's much-awarded flagship downtown building has been recognized once again.

Ontario Wood Works has given the Diamond and Schmitt-designed structure, with its maple floors and red oak millwork and cabinetry, its annual prize for "outstanding use of wood."

"We are pleased to be recognized by Ontario Wood Works and especially gratified that the Salvation Army Harbour Light is the recipient of yet another award," said Donald Schmitt, a principal with the firm, in a released statement.

The $35-million building at Jarvis and Shuter opened its 85 residential treatment beds and its 98-unit transitional housing complex in 2009. It has already won the 2010 Brick in Architecture award, the Ontario Architecture Association Design Excellence award for 2011, and the Toronto Urban Design Award of Excellence, also for 2011.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paul French

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].