city building : Development News

Digging has commenced and new poles are being erected as part of Project Brian, Toronto Hydro's upgrading of a neighbourhood's old electrical infrastructure that was blacking out almost 10 times more often than the city's average.

The six-month, $1.4-million project in the area around the intersection of Brian and Old Sheppard in Don Valley East will replace both overhead and underground lines.

"Over the years, they've deteriorated," says Toronto Hydro spokeswoman Denise Atallah. "Underground, they're removing the direct buried cable and putting in new, concrete-encased ducting, which helps with premature aging and maintenance."

Crews are putting in about 20 new poles; the old poles will remain in place until the other utilities have replaced their wires.

Begin in May, the project is slated to be completed by October.

There will be power outages as a result of the work, Atallah says residents will be alerted.

According to Atallah, the neighbourhood was suffering between 8 and 12 power outages a year. The city's average, she says, is 1.5.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Denise Atallah

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Roncesvalles is finally getting its own LCBO. Opening on July 19 at 2290 Dundas Street West at Bloor, the 8,600 square foot store (5,600 square feet of selling space) will carry 2,400 brands, with a 390-strong Vintages section.

"We wanted to get a tore into the Roncesvalles village," says LCBO spokesman Chris Layton. "Previously, the closest store was at Brock and Queen, which is more towards Parkdale."

Hours will be Monday to Wednesday, 10am-8pm, Thursday-Saturday 10am-9pm, and Sunday noon to 5pm.

The store is moving in to the retail property anchored by Loblaws, which also houses a Zellers, a Firestone and a Coffee Time.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Chris Layton

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As a logical follow-up to the bus bike racks, and a precursor to an eventual Bixi outpost, Toronto installed its first subway bike shelter last week at the Wells Hill entrance to the St Clair West station.

"I believe it will be a path-breaker in allowing Torontonians to see that we need this across the system," says Councillor Joe Mihevc, in whose ward, and at whose insistence, the bike shelter was constructed. "If you go to almost any subway station right now, you'll see bikes attached to trees, attached to anything that's sticking out of the ground."

The shelter will house 20 bikes, in addition to the 10 that are already accommodated by unsheltered ring and posts.

"I hope to get them done at all subway stations," Mihevc says, "in my ward, and in every ward."

The public realm division of the city's Transportation Services funded the project.

"This is the first of many secure bike parking facilities that are being put in place at other subway stations across the city," said Daniel Egan, manager of Pedestrian and Cycling Infrastructure in a press release. "Some will be full lockers. We expect to have more in place over the next two years."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Joe Mihevc

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Museum House, the long touted ultra-luxe condo next door to the McDonald's on Bloor west of Avenue Road has finally poked its head out from underground, reaching the third of its small-footprint floors this week.

Designed by Page + Steele IBI Group Architects with interiors by Powell & Bonnell, the 19-storey building will be one of the city's most expensive. But the tiny site � the tower takes up the space of a single store front � presented some challenges.

"It's almost like trying to build a Swiss watch," says Page + Steele associate Omar DaBarp.

The first two storeys will be retail � no tenants have yet been signed � and the residential space begins on its third floor. The first 12 residential storeys will be split into two units each, levels 15 through 17 will be single-unit floors, and the top two floors will be part of an as-yet unsold penthouse.

The building, which is also across the street from the Royal Ontario Museum, is scheduled for completion in the fall of next year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Omar DaBarp

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Toronto Hydro has launched a site that allows anyone to keep track of the work the utility is doing around the city. Searchable by ward, powerUptoronto.ca is a response to customer research that indicated people would like to be kept abreast of work around the city and in their neighbourhoods in particular.

"They wanted to know about timing of the projects, when it would start ,when it would finish," says Toronto Hydro spokeswoman Denise Atallah. "They were also interested in knowing things like if the timing changed on the project, if there was going to be a delay, and they were also interested in knowing is it going to impact my driveway, am I going to be able to drive down my street, when will my lights be out."

The site allows users to brose a project map and search for current projects, future projects or all projects, across the city or ward by ward. It also gives a list of all projects, project updates and major initiatives, as well as a glossary of commonly used but poorly understood terms relating to Toronto Hydro's work.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Denise Atallah

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Six of the mayoral candidates debated their thoughts on how the city has been building itself at a panel discussion last week at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Moderated by architecture writer John Bentley Mays, with questions from former city planner Gary Switzer, president and CEO of MOD Developments, the panel discussed issues as specific as planning committee approvals procedure and as general as the aesthetic merit of Toronto's architecture.

Five of them agreed that most, if not everything, should be changed about the way development works in Toronto. Sarah Thomson, admitting she thought the city was "great," said that its architecture "doesn't tell a great story." George Smitherman said current plans for a hockey arena in the Port Lands would ensure that "the Port Lands of tomorrow is as bleak as the Port Lands of today."

Current deputy mayor Joe Pantalone emerged as the sole defender of the way the city works now. "There are 100 cranes up now," he said in front of the standing-room-only crowd at the AGO's Baillie Court. "Somehow, the system is churning things out, there's no doubt about that. There's no other city in North America that has anything near 100 construction cranes."

Writer: Bert Archer

A two-tower condo complex slotted for northwest Kerr Village in Oakville, approved for 10 and 14 storeys, is going to the Ontario Municipal Board to increase its height allowance.

The site, at the corner of Kerr and Speers, was once part of an 11-acre orchard and is also home to two historically designated houses, both vacant. Singled out for being the earliest examples of their particular style of stone-based architecture in Oakville, they have already been relocated once, when the developer built its sales office. "They're going to be shifted two more times before they reach their final resting place," says Stephanie Lane, spokeswoman for developer Empire Communities.

Rain was designed by Graziani and Corazza Architects, and is scheduled to launch in September.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Stephanie Lane

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

As part of the study of how to improve the stretch of Dundas Street between University Avenue and Bathurst Street, the city held a public meeting last night at Ryerson to discuss options and priorities.

According to Councillor Adam Vaughan, the study is intended to "provide a concept design on how the public realm on Dundas Street between University Avenue and Bathurst Street can be improved.

A preliminary design for the strip, which includes the AGO, Chinatown, and Alexandra Park housing community as well as Kensington Market, was presented at the meeting. According to Vaughan, "it seeks to tie together the diverse communities and neighbourhoods through design elements that will also highlight the various distinct areas."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Adam Vaughan

There will be a public meeting tomorrow to discuss the future of John Street, which the city, the local BIA and The Planning Partnership have all decided should be a cultural centre of some sort.

"It's not a new idea," says Harold Madi, partner at TPP, which is spearheading the planning and design aspects of the process. "It's been germinating for 20 years so."

The first official mention of what now looks almost certain to be the 3/4km street's future came in the 2001 Waterfront plan, followed up two years later with a similar reference in the city's cultural plan. Both thought John Street should be a sort of cultural corridor, linking, as it does, the AGO, the CBC, the convention centre and the CN Tower.

Though it's been percolating for years, there is now, according to Madi, a sense of urgency about the project, spurred, he says, by two things. "One, there are a lot of developments proposals along John Street, some already under construction, like Bell Lightbox, and when those developments take place, they re-streetscape the block, and this was an opportunity to create a vision for John Street that would inform those developments, so they could streetscape with a common vision."

The other was the Pan Am Games. "The opening and closing ceremonies are right smack dab in the middle of John Street at the Rogers Centre," he says.

To hurry the process along, TPP has put together a presentation, including background research for the various things that could happen to John Street, which they'll be presenting at the public meeting which will be at Metro Hall tomorrow in room 309 at 6pm. They'll also be unveiling their own suggestion of what they figure, all things considered, would be best for the street.

Though no work is expected to start any time soon, Madi says he hopes the entire project will be finished in time for the Pan Am Games in five years.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Harold Madi

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The Rockport Group has taken over an assembled property near Sheppard and Bayview and will be building a 7-storey, 128-unit mid-range condo called 21 Clairtrell.

The original assemblers, who bought five adjoining single family dwellings, ran into financial difficulty during the recession. Rockport bought the property from the mortgage company earlier this year.

"They had applied for a 14-storey building," says Rockport's president and CEO Jack Winberg, speaking of the former aspirant developers, "the city went mad. Then they made it an 8-storey building" before they went under. Rockport kept the architects, Kirkor, but the project is going to be substantially different, with a largely brick facade and interiors done by Mike Niven.

"This is one of those great examples of re-use and intensification," Winberg says. "Now there's a subway at Bayview and Sheppard, the world's land has become more expensive, living styles are changing, and you're taking five units and you're going to put 128 on the same piece of land."

Though he says land is scarce up there, Winberg is happy to be providing an alternative to the high-rise projects by the likes of Daniels and Shane Baghai. "Across the street, you've got townhomes," he says of 21 Clairtrell, "not a 30-storey building, and across the other way is a school. It's a quiet residential street."

Rockport, under Winberg's father, Burton, built Toronto's first five condominium projects, beginning with a still-extant townhouse project on Albion Road, known as York Condominium No. 1, in 1968, one year after the legislation allowing for condominium development was signed.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Jack Winberg

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The big black tower, said to be architect Peter Clewes' homage to Mies van der Rohe, is almost finished at Jarvis and Charles.

Built by Great Gulf Homes, X is the first phase of a two-phase development, the second of which will rise on the site of the old headquarters for Pizza Pizza. Phase I, which begins occupying this summer and will be fully completed by the end of the year, is 44 storeys with 410 units. Construction started three years ago, after demolition of the vacant former police headquarters building was completed.

"It's the boundary line, if you will, between this rolling, bucolic road where it hits the city grid," says Great Gulf's director of marketing and acquisitions, Geoff Matthews, speaking of Mount Pleasant, at whose base X sits, across the street from the Rogers building, "and it lines up against Charles and Isabella, which are all becoming higher density streets."

With a total square footage of about 400,000, the building sold out, with prices in the mid-$400 psf range.

When completed, there will also be a sculpture by Shayne Dark  out front.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Geoff Matthews

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Underground construction has begun at the site of the latest condo towers to go up in in the increasingly intense King and Spadina area.

Charlie, designed by Diamond + Schmitt, built by Great Gulf with interiors by Cecconi Simone and landscaping by Janet Rosenberg and Associates, will be a 36-storey, 300-unit tower on an 8-storey podium.

All glass, the building will also include 6,000 square feet of retail along King Street, livening up a strip that used to be dominated by the parking lot this condo, replaces. The entrance to the residential portion of the building will be off Charlotte Street.

"It's a highly sought-after residential area that's changed immeasurably since Barbara Hall took the industrial use restrictions off in the mid-1990s." says Great Gulf's director of market and acquisitions Geoff Matthews.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Geoff Matthews

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Ground was finally broken at the end of April, and excavation is now almost complete on what will be the country's tallest condominium tower.

Aura at College Park will be 75 storeys when built, rising 243 metres with 931 units and a total of 1.1 million square feet of residential space.. It's three-storey podium will house 150,000 square feet of retail and professional offices, including BMO, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Canyon Creek and Alice Fazooli's.

Aura was designed by Barry Graziani of Graziani + Corazza Architects, and is being built by Canderel Stoneridge.

"We believe that the tower's location along Yonge Street, at one of the most historic sites in the city, required an exhilarating architectural form," Canderel president Michael La Brier, said in a press release.

In addition to being connected to the College Park shopping centre, Aura will give its residents indoor passage to the subway system and promises eventual inclusion in an expanded PATH system.

The entire 75th floor, at 11,370 square feet, is still available as a single penthouse, currently priced at $17.5 million.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Michael La Brier

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].

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

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].