Kensington Market - Little Italy - Little Portugal : Development News

City Hall is considering a site plan for an 8-storey condo on Dundas Street at Dovercourt.

Currently the site of a garage at 1243-1245 Dundas Street West, the new building, whose address will be 1245 Dundas West, is being developed by a company called 1245 Dundas West Inc.

The architects are Raw Design.

 "We looked at several options including angled facades but decided on stepping floor plates - progressive cantilever would be the most cost effective and also not result in unusual interior spaces with angled walls," says Raw principal Richard Witt.

The building, whose construction schedule has not yet been set, will have a glazing and metal panel facade.

Neighbourhood meetings will be held, but have not yet been scheduled.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Richard Witt


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One of the harbingers of a new breed of mid-rise, high-design condos is nearing completion at College and Shaw.

Cube, designed by Raw and developed by Neilas Inc., is 21 units and six storeys. It's structurally complete, and the windows are up to the fifth floor, and the mechanical systems are being installed.

Completion is scheduled for September, which, according to architect Richard Witt, is "not unreasonable" though he wouldn't be surprised if it extended to the end of the year.

"Design sells," Witt says of the new breed of condo. "People buy iPhones and iPods because they're objects," a fascination that he says is now extending to the places people live.

"I think the thing with mid-rise architecture is that it takes a lot of creativity to make it work financially," Witt says, "so projects like that attract people who are more creative." And as for the developers, "It attracts more people who are interested and have big ideas, but aren't necessarily as set in their ways as the big developers."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Richard Witt

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].

 

 

Scadding Court and Alexandra Park will be holding two public meetings at the Scadding Court Community Centre to discuss plans and priorities for redevelopment of the areas.

"Scadding Court Community Centre, the Sanderson Library and the Alexandra Park Neighbourhood Learning Centre are starting to plan for the future by exploring options for redeveloping the important community assets at Bathurst and Dundas," the ward's councillor, Adam Vaughan, said in a Dec. 23 email to his constituents.

The development process is currently in its first phase, a feasibility study conducted by Levitt Goodman Architects, begun in October, of which these meetings are a part. Issues such as traffic, parking, zoning and community space requirements are all being considered, and the study is due to be issued next month.

After that, there will be a business planning phase, and finally a decision about what tack to take, which will involve more community consultations. There is no announced time line for this third phase, or for the redevelopment itself.

The meetings will convene on Jan. 26 at 6pm, and on Feb. 1 at 7pm. Scadding Court Community Centre is at 707 Dundas Street West, on the southeast corner of Bathurst and Dundas.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Councillor Adam Vaughan

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Toronto Hydro is replacing 153 poles along western College Street in a $2.4-million neighbourhood upgrade.

The current poles and wiring are between 40 and 60 years old, according to Hydro spokeswoman Jennifer Link.

"We will be replacing wood with wood and square concrete with round concrete," Link says of the cedar and concrete poles along College. "On College 45-foot poles will be replaced with 50-foot poles and on Margueretta, Dufferin, and  St. Clarens the poles will be changed from 30-foot to 40-foot."

The wiring is also being improved, with capacity increased from 4.16 kilovolts to 13.8 kilovolts. As the wiring and poles are replaced, the system in the immediate vicinity is turned off for about 3 hours, resulting in small-scale outages.

The project, part of Hydro's $175-million city-wide upgrade, began in October, and Link expects it to be completed by the end of January.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jennifer Link

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Cube is finally nearing completion on College Street just east of Ossington.

Originally called N-Blox, when it had a slightly grander design, developer Jim Neilas cancelled immediately after its 207 launch due to overwhelming lack of interest. Within months, he had a new design, similar to N-Blox, by Roland Rom Colthoff and Richard Witt, both now with Raw Design.

Neilas, of Neilas Developments, is a former lawyer with an ambition to increase the density of the city's popular strips. "I'm tired of being hit over the head with the bible of Jane Jacobs, he told John Bentley Mays in 2008, describing his frustration of city council and community groups trying to block development.

Set for completion by the end of this year, with occupancy as early as January, the 21-unit, 6-storey black building already stands out in Little Italy.

"CUBE is best known for its contemporary front fa�ade that faces College," says architect Colthoff. "It's a simple expression of the units behind it...some are two storey and some are one storey. We wanted a clean and open design that had visual interest, this was a simple way of achieving that."

Units range from 983 square feet to 1,083, with prices from $516,075 to $635,900.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Roland Rom Colthoff

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The Toronto Community Housing development known as Hydro Block, just off Baldwin Street, got a new playground and community garden this month thanks in part to a ward-specific program that collects 10 per cent of the value of all development to make improvements to the communities.

The $65,000 project was only half-funded by ground-breaking, when councillor Adam Vaughan was able to announce a top-up from his fund.

"We're the only ward that does it," Vaughan says, "but other wards are starting to look at it."

In addition to a new playground by Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds, the park got several large vegetable gardens, which will be tended by young people in the neighbourhood, who will be paid by TCH for their efforts.

"It was great to watch the kids more interested in planting seeds than playing on the slide," says Vaughan of the opening earlier this month. "But they've got both there now."

Home Depot also donated gardening tools and sprinklers.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Adam Vaughan

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Work is about to start on a 1.5km stretch of Dundas between Bathurst and Dovercourt that will replace the streetcar tracks with newer, longer-lasting versions.

"The TTC tracks typically last about 17 years on average," says Gordon MacMillan, the city's director of design and construction for linear infrastructure. "In the past, we used old timbers below grade, just like you'd see on a railway, but now we're using concrete, that's giving the steel a longer life, and making future replacements faster. When we go in to replace these in 20 years, we'll just have to crack on layer of concrete, snap the old tracks out, and snap the new ones in."

With the older timber system, contractors like Bolton-based Domti, who have the Dundas job, have to dig almost a metre down and replace everything, which puts the roads out of commission for some time. In this case, with a winter shut-down, until next July.

While the work is being done on the tracks, the city is also resurfacing the road and reconstructing all the sidewalks and boulevards, and planting new trees.

The budget for the whole project is $4.1 million.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Gordon MacMillan

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Aboriginal housing organization Wigwamen has given $250,000 to support the 50 units being set aside for aboriginal women and their children in the new YWCA Elm Centre.

Wigwamen, a non-profit in operation since 1972, usually builds and owns its own properties, including a 103-unit seniors building at Spadina and Bloor, and a 92-unit community in Malvern. They currently run a total of 405 units in Toronto.

"Although it's nice to own units," says Angus Palmer, Wigwamen's general manager, "it's more important to us that we guarantee access to affordable housing units for the aboriginal community."

Wigwamen will continue to accept, screen and process the applications for the units, and will then hand over the likely candidates' names to YWCA, who will be making the final determination of who gets the units, which will be rented out at a rate of about 30 per cent of the woman's monthly income.

The YWCA, which will be running the facility when it's completed around May, 2011, has put $15 million of its own into the whole project, which was designed by Hilditch Architects and Regional Architects.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Angus Palmer

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].

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