city building : Development News

Loren Ackerman thinks Toronto needs more high-end homes to rent.

At the moment, with the conversion of the Benvenuto into condos, there's Minto Yorkville, 50 Prince Arthur, the Colonnade and very little else. So with some funds from the sale of a family commodities trading company, Ackerman, along with his father, Hy, and his sister, Ivy (who's with the operation part-time), has been buying up big homes and small multiplexes and converting them into places people with $3,000-$10,000 a month might like to live. Each conversion, Ackerman says, falls into the $1-million range.

At least to begin with, Ackerman figures his tenants will be mostly transients. "People who've got terms in Toronto," as he puts it. People who are here on contracts, or who have sold one house and have yet to find another. When asked about the possibility of people living in his places, branded Rue de Lux, more permanently, paying rents that aren't unusual in other cities, he says, "No one's approached us about that, but of course it's something we'd entertain."

So far, Rue de Lux has one house, divided into two properties, completed at the corner of Admiral and Bernard, within a couple of houses of both Margaret Atwood and Galen Weston Jr's new pad. It's that kind of address that he's putting his mark on in Rosedale and Forest Hill as well, with the help of William Ryan Design.

In addition to the Annex property, part of which is called Bernard House, the other bit Admiral Suites, Ackerman is working on The Garden House at 73 Forest Hill Road, Chestnut Park Suites at Chestnut Park and Roxborough, and Thornwood Suites at 9 Thornwood, which is the next scheduled for completion, sometime in May or June.

The unfurnished rentals themselves range from 1,000 square feet to 4,500 square feet.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Loren Ackerman

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Thanks to some federal stimulus funding, the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto is getting a new $70-million building.

Built on a former parking lot on the west-end campus, the 150,000 square foot Instruction Centre will include new lecture rooms and larger spaces for such things as exam-writing and other mass gatherings. The building was designed by Shore, Tillbe Perkins and Will.

The design includes distinctive copper cladding for the building, which will appear to be constructed out of stacked blocks. According to the architects, the building is intended to "frame a new entry plaza at the north end of the campus" and create a "new hub of student life."

Work began on the project in March of 2009 and according to Nadeem Shabbar, the university's chief real estate officer, it's one of the few large recipients of the stimulus funding that is expected to be completed in time for the program's stated March 31, 2011 deadline.

This is the second large commission on the UTM campus for the architecture firm, which also designed the Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre and Library, a 98,000 square foot, four-storey building completed in 2006.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nadeem Shabbar

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New owners are starting to move in to the just completed commercial building known as Junction Triangle Lofts at 229 Wallace.

Initial businesses to take up residence in what could turn out to be a new anchor in this emerging neighbourhood, just east of the Junction, include a medical office, an animation operation and the requisite yoga studio.

Ubisoft, the videogame giant, opened up shop across the street from the building recently, and will ultimately be hiring as many as 800.

"I did see a definite need for artists' studios and so forth in the downtown area," says Ashley Ross, the developer. "The Queen West triangle, all the artists were kicked out of there four or five years ago, which is when I bought the property, and I said, 'There has to be somewhere to fill that void.'"

Taking the place of the former D&M Building Supplies, the 216 by 112 foot lot houses the 28,000 square foot building. Each of the 10 two storey units is 2,650 square feet, and features a 180 square foot deck on the back of the second floor. Prices started at $619,900.

Construction began March 15 of this year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Ashley Ross

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With the first tower complete, the second is slated for spring occupancy and now the townhouse portion of the West Harbour City development in City Place are almost done.

The first two of the 9 townhouses, which range from 1,748 to 2,253 square feet and cost between $645,990 and $798,990, are completely done, inside and out, and the last 7 are having their interiors finished and kitchens installed.

According to Nestor Repetski, speaking for the Winick Realty Corp., which is selling the Plazacorp properties, "If you go to Vancouver, there's a lot of high-rises where the high-rise component is fronting onto the main street and then there's a low-rise, like a town home component, fronting onto a side street or a backstreet, which is what we've done here. There's an L-shaped tower that fronts onto the main thoroughfares, and then the town homes complete the square."

The rest of the town houses will be finished by the end of the month.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nestor Repetski

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The Onni Group and architect Stephen Hood hope that their massive new development, Westlake Village, will become a new centre for the entire south Etobicoke neighbourhood.

It's based around a community square that would have limited surface parking - about 30 cars -- but "it's basically a pedestrian landscape realm," says Stephen Hood, of Page and Steele/IBI Group, of the 1,300 unit, three-tower project that will also include 70,000 square feet of retail space, including a major grocery store.

Units for the first phase have just gone on sale, and the site plan is before Etobicoke's community council.

"It's very crisp and clean," says Hood of the concrete structure with pre-cast concrete detailing. "It's after a modern look to it. At the same time, we will be introducing a fair bit of masonry in the podiums and along the townhouses and retail frontages to give it a better interface with the natural setting along Mimico Creek, and a more human element relating to the pedestrian realm."

The builders will also be introducing a new traffic light to the neighbourhood, between the Kraft office building, which is next to the Mr. Christie's factory, and the grocery store, which if approved will be built as part of the development's second phase.

If sales go well, Hood expects to be in the ground next year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Stephen Hood

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Spadina House re-opened on Monday after a 10-month closure for its first comprehensive renovation since the house was converted from a private home to a museum in 1984.

The museum's $600,000 renovation, handled by general contractor COSAR, includes a refocusing of the museum on the 20th century.

"The first restoration in 1984 focused on three generations," says museum administrator Karen Edwards. "Each room was a different generation. That kind of jumping around was sometimes difficult to interpret."

The house's former owners, the Austin family, left the museum about 100 boxes of documents, including invoices, grocery bills and even unused rolls of wallpaper, and a lot of the time during the closure was spent poring over those boxes, and creating exhibits and props for the house to show as clearly as possible what life was like for this prosperous family throughout the 20th century.


Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Karen Edwards

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Construction is slated to start within the next 30 days on the new Munk School of Global Affairs on Bloor Street at Devonshire.

Architecture firm KPMB will be working with builder Govan Brown on the heritage building that started life as the University of Toronto's meteorological centre and served generations of students as the admissions office.

The cost of the whole project is about $13.6 million, according to U of T's chief real estate officer, Nadeem Shabbar.

"There will be some landscaping done as well," he says, and we'll make the building accessible, because currently, it's not. We're going to put an elevator in the back of the building."

Because it's a heritage building, its fa�ade will remain unchanged.

Shabbar says the target is to complete the project by the summer of 2011.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nadeem Shabbar

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Ground was broken last week just north of Finch on the west side of Yonge for the area's newest condo project, called The Palm.

It's the third project for developer Castle Royale, which built Belair Gardens at York Mills and Don Valley in 2006, and Tuscany Gates at 220 Forum Drive in Mississauga in 2008.

"Finch station is the second busiest subway station after Union," says Castle Royale CEO Nick Nanji, "and when its connected to York University, it will get even busier. That's why we felt this location was just perfect."

"The Kiss and Ride is right next to it," says Castle Royale president Mona Bhamani, "and Ontario has been putting a lot of pressure to increase density on Yonge Street and for developers to use the TTC."

The building team, including HC Architects, was brought in from Dubai, where Castle Royale is also active.

The 23-storey building, with 216 units for sale between $250,000 and $450,000 (with a $650,000 penthouse) is expected to be ready for residents by the summer of 2012.

Writer: Bert Archer
Sources: Mona Bhamani, Nick Nanji

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"It's not just a fad," says Shane Fenton, talking about the current popularity of the strip of Ossington between Queen and Dundas.

He's vice president of Reserve Properties, the company that's just announced its new loft-townhouse-retail development going in at 41 Ossington. It's the sort of project that may end up ensuring Fenton's right.

"The interesting thing about Ossington is that it's a truly mixed-use neighbourhood," Fenton says, "residential and commercial. From a public standpoint, it's known for restaurants and galleries, but by developing a mixed use property like this, we're demonstrating that it's not just a great place to go for lunch or dinner, but it's also a great place to live."

The 12 lofts, 9 townhomes and 2,500 square feet of retail will be replacing a disused commercial spot, the old  Hesco Electric. Prices will start at $315,900 for the lofts, and $829,900 for the townhouses.

The architect is Raw Design, and the interiors are being done by II by IV Design Associates.

The first sign for the project went up on Oct. 16, and the grand opening of the sales office will be November 13. Fenton expects they'll start to dig by the spring, and will have the project completed by the summer of 2012.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Shane Fenton

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The Scarborough campus of the University of Toronto will be getting a new academic block as a result of $70 million in federal stimulus funding.

Built on a former parking lot at the east end campus, the new building will include large rooms for the bigger lectures and exam writing. The Scarborough campus pitched in an extra $8 million of its own money to add academic and administrative offices to the teaching spaces.

According to the university's chief real estate officer Nadeem Shabbar, the parking has already been replaced at an aboveground site nearby.

Since no money was raised for the project, the 165,000 square foot building will simply be called the Scarborough Instructional Centre. It's slated for completion by March 31, 2011, the deadline set by the federal stimulus package.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nadeem Shabbar

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Infrastructure Ontario and Waterfront Toronto has announced that a consortium led by HOK architects has been awarded the planning, design and compliance contract for the athletes village to be built in the West Don Lands to host the Pan American Games in 2015.

Mark Guslits, HOK's senior project director, describes the job as providing "detailed documents that describe all the elements of the village, both the overlay, which relates to the PanAmerican Games portion of it, as well as the legacy, which is what will remain once the games are over."

The plan is to create accommodations and facilities for the 8,000 athletes expected for the July, 2015 games, and to build it all to a LEED Gold environmental standard. Though there will be some temporary buildings, including welcome centres and meal halls, most of what's built will be converted into a commercial and residential community once the games are over, including both affordable and market-value homes.

The consortium includes Quadrangle, which will concern itself primarily with the larger buildings on the site, Dutoit Allsopp Hillier, which will focus on the community-related aspects of the project, and Montgomery Sisam, whose experience with Infrastructure Ontario projects will, according to Guslits, allow them to be "a guiding influence related to generating the documents in the fashion in which IO expects them."

HOK will take on the sustainability aspects of the village.

Guslits expected the request for qualifications (RFQ) to go out to the developer and builder community in the next couple of weeks, and figures the project as a whole will be done by the end of 2014.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Mark Guslits


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When the model of the final plans for the new Women's College Hospital were unveiled at the end of September, the press release was headed "One thousand women. One thousand voices. One hospital reinvented to meet their needs."

And according to hospital president and CEO Marilyn Emery, those 1,000 women interviewed online, by phone and in focus groups, had a profound effect on what the new hospital is going to look like, and how it's going to operate.

As a result of their two years of research, the hospital decided that privacy, safety, flexible family eating areas with diverse food options, open spaces with curved walls and staircases, and accessibility are all big priorities.

"Safety and privacy for some women means there's an opportunity to use a washroom that's a single-unit washroom instead of communal," Emery says, "especially for trans women, and it's considered a safety issue for many trans women."

But it was the discussions of accessibility, which Emery figured after 30 years in the healthcare industry she knew all about, that surprised her most.

"One thing that I learned from listening to women with disabilities was from a woman who herself was very, very large -- she required a mobility device," Emery says. "She said that through her entire adult life, she has never been able to undergo a physical examination in a room with the door shut because either the room wasn't large enough, or you couldn't shut the door with all of what was needed in the room. On the one hand, I couldn't believe my ears, but on the other hand, all I had to do was look at this woman to say, absolutely. We don't routinely build space that accommodates that kind of disability. It's a lot more than wheelchair access via a ramp in and out of a building."

The research encompassed a massive variety of communities and perspectives, including seniors, lesbian and queer women, lesbian and queer youth, transgendered women, women with addictions, abused women, women with disabilities, women living with HIV/AIDS, street workers, women with mental health issues, low-income women, recent immigrants, Tamil women, Bengali women, Caribbean women and Mandarin-speaking women.

The $460-million project is expected to open in 2016.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Marilyn Emery

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The first major step in the plan to re-develop Mimico is being taken this week with the launch of a 9-storey condo called Eleven Superior.

Designed by Raw Design for Davies Smith Developments, the project, pending approvals, would be the first new building in the Mimico 2020 plan to develop the small Lakeshore community. (Amos Waites Park is also part of the plan.)

"This is sort of par for the course for Davies Smith," says project architect Roland Rom Colthoff. "They're pioneer developers, one of the first in Mississauga near Square One, they were the first people in the Distillery District with a couple of affordable condominiums, and now this will be the first significant building here for some while."

The brick-exterior building will go up on the corner of Lake Shore Boulevard and Superior on the site of a disused three-storey commercial-residential building.

Colthoff expects that construction will begin next fall or early spring.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Roland Rom Colthoff

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The city's planning department, working with Urban Strategies and Hariri Pontarini architects, have released a Tall Buildings Study that puts forward comprehensive recommendations for how tall buildings should be built in the downtown core.

It should please anyone worried about unrestricted growth in this booming building economy, though people hoping for more building like Alsop's OCAD classroom block will probably be less enthusiastic.

The study concerns itself with what it calls downtown, from Front to Dupont, and Bathurst to the Don Valley. It calls for tall buildings to be restricted to areas it calls High Streets, main commercial thoroughfares, and dictates how these buildings should be designed and spaced.
According to Robert Freedman, the city's director of urban design, the study is aimed at making sure that as downtown builds taller, that the streets remain vibrant."

"We like to think of tall buildings as having a base, a middle and a top," he says, "and within the urban context of downtown, the base should relate very appropriately to the street. Much of the document is about the context that you see adjacent to the street and that really contributes to the street life."

The study includes stipulations that every tall building be designed with a podium that's at least 3 storeys tall, and designed with what the study refers to as "a high degree of permeability" through the inclusion of transparent doors and windows. "At least 60% of the frontage on High Streets between 0.5 metres and 3 metres in height must be glazed and transparent," it stipulates.

The study recommends 17 such regulations.

The city is taking the Tall Buildings Study to the public of wards 20, 27 and 28 for discussion this spring.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Robert Freedman

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Many large buildings have several architectural firms credited with its design, but rarely are their separate contributions as obvious as in the first building to be completed on the new eastern waterfront.

Headquarters for Corus Entertainment, the building at the base of Lower Jarvis Street next to Sugar Beach was designed by Toronto firms  Diamond and Schmitt and Quadrangle Architects and is owned by Build Toronto.

"You do want a harmony between the two," says Quadrangle principal Brian Curtner. "Our goals and objectives were different. They were building an office building for the city and we were trying to create a unique branding location for an innovative broadcast company."

The building's exterior design, which according to Curtner was originally handled by Eberhard Zeidler's firm, fell to Diamond & Schmitt when the building was being pitched to Global TV, according to Curtner. The designs were originally presented to TEDCO, now known as the Toronto Port Lands Company, which handles the leasing and managing of properties for the city.

Curtner says that though there were a couple of changes to the exterior, including an articulation on the facade and an 8th-floor "presentation theatre" and lounge, the designs were developed and executed separately. The result is a fairly ordinary black shell wrapped around a surprising interior of bends and curves, salvaged hemlock wood, transparencies and flow.

As the Waterfront grows -- a new George Brown campus is under construction next door to Corus -- Curtner expects their project to play a definitive role in the new neighbourhood.

"Will Corus be an integral part of the revised east Waterfront? Of course," he says. "They're young and hip and they're going to start demanding the type of life that they don't have there."

Now that the CityTV building is mostly silent, Speakers Corner shuttered and little activity behind its once famous Queen Street windows, the new Corus building may eventually take up its street-involved cultural mantel.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Brian Curtner

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