Design : Development News

The latest addition to the city's skyline is the RBC Centre at Wellington and Simcoe. You'll recognize it by its distinctive blue stripe running the length of its 43 floors. Designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects and developed by Cadillac Fairview, the tower is remarkable for two things: it's one of three new office buildings (along with Menkes' Telus tower and Brookfield's Bay-Adelaide building) that have added the first significant amount of office space downtown (3 million square feet in total, of which 1.2 million is in RBC Centre) in 17 years. The second is that it's Canada's first office tower to be built to LEED Gold NC standard.

That NC stands for "new construction," which means that though it's measured on how well the landlord's role in the building measures up to LEED's criteria, it also involves a buy-in from future tenants to build and renovate to these same standards, "so it becomes a co-operative and joint effort between landlord and tenant," says Cadillac Fairview's senior vice-president of office development, Wayne Barwise, "to keep the standards of the building and both benefit from the reduced energy costs."

Built with a budget of about $420 million, Barwise lists several of the building's LEED-focused features, including operable windows on the first 10 floors, rain capture and grey-water recycling for the first six floors, and an automated building management system that uses shades and a "light shelf" to respond to changes in the light outside, including both the passage of the sun and glare from nearby buildings.

Though Barwise doesn't anticipate the vacancy rates in Toronto will demand much new commercial construction on this scale for several years, Cadillac Fairview itself, he says, were influenced somewhat by RBC's "very forward-thinking" and specific sustainability objectives, will now be changing the way it does business. "Our standard going forward," he says, "will be to build to a minimum standard of LEED Gold. We believe this is the way of the future."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Cadillac-Fairview

Cecconi Simone, also known as Oni One, are designers known for clean lines, good textures and interesting materials. They are the last people you'd think would have a new approach to one of Toronto's most abiding and destructive difficulties: sprawl. No matter what you may have heard in Alberta or New Brunswick, Toronto is actually not dense enough. Fly into or out of the city and you'll see what I mean.

The recent spate of condo erections has done a lot to improve the situation, but stroll down any street in Riverdale, the Annex or the Junction and you'll see single family dwellings on 20 x 100 foot lots (or thereabouts). That's a lot of space for a very few people.

When Elaine Cecconi and Anna Simone decided they wanted to branch out into architecture and building, they had capital, but not developer-level capital, so they thought small. With a couple of partners they bought a lot on Lippincott in what's commonly known as the South Annex (but is on the city books as "University"). The former site of the Chicago 58 salami factory, it is slightly larger than a double lot, but not out of line with its mostly semi-detached neighbours. Instead of building a house, or a couple of townhouses, they turned things on their side and built 8 houses with architect Brad Netkin, facing south on a north-south street, quadrupling the utility of the space.

Following in the footsteps of architect Alan Littlewood's project at Queen and Givens, six of the eight infill houses on Lippincott, with their open concept back-to-front spaces have already sold in the $800,000 range. Each has front patio barbeques and glass ground-floor front walls that slide entirely open in good weather.

Though the lot is bigger than most, the design is perfectly suited to replace run-down single family dwellings with similar sophisticated densities, offering greater access to desirable neighbourhoods and potentially higher profit margins for investors and developers. And as the desire for laneway housing increases, variations on Ceccone Simone's solution may be one of the things that keeps Toronto's downtown neighbourhoods vibrant through their next several decades of growth.

Writer: Bert Archer

Last February, Nancy Oomen, Senior Executive Assistant to city councillor Mike Feldman (Ward 10 York Centre), took a call from Goldie Feldman (no relation). An elderly woman, she was looking to make a donation in memory of her parents, something in a park. Oomen suggested a tree, or maybe a bench, but Feldman wanted to do something bigger. Something that cost about $1 million. Oones was floored. "She doesn't even live in the ward," Oomen says, "but she has a real soft spot for Earl Bales Park; she goes to the seniors centre there." As a result of the discussion that followed, Earl Bales is about to get a whole new kind of playground.

The 145-acre park, on the grounds of the old York Downs golf course off Bathurst just south of Sheppard, abuts two community centres: Bloorview Kids Rehab and the Zareinu Educational Centre. Ms Feldman wanted to provide something that would be of use to all the kids who use the park. So after an RFP was put out, the city brought on MBTW Group, who had an idea for what they're calling a "water play and sensory garden." They completed the design development just before Christmas, and it's set to begin construction in April, with a completion date of August 1.

"It was made very clear to us by the advisory group that they were looking to engage all seven senses," says MBTW architect and project captain Christine Abe, of the group they pulled together including city staff, community members and representatives from the two community centres. "We went, 'Wow, seven? What are the other two?'" Which was when she learned about the kinesthetic and vestibular senses, related to motion and balance, respectively. "We're looking to engage children who are blind, who are deaf, who have autism," Abe says, pointing out the niche or "nest" areas they plan to build in the larger play spaces so that, in her words, autistic children can be "involved in spaces, but also away from spaces."

Though the park has no official name yet, it will likely ultimately be named for Ms Feldman's parents, Morris and Sarah.

Writer: Bert Archer

Eight thousand square feet of Yorkville's ever-shrinking retail space is re-opening on Friday after several months' vacancy.

Briefly known as Flow (for fans of 80s Yorkville, it's the old M�venpick site), Liberty Entertainment Group is opening up Ciao Wine Bar at 133 Yorkville Avenue with a heavy emphasis on all things Italian, including the severs' Diesel wardrobes.

Richmond Hill's Chef Rob Punzo, formerly of Peter Pan, Pronto, Auto Grill and most recently his own Punzo's Restaurant & Catering in Oak Ridges, will be offering standard regional Italian fare made with local ingredients.

Typical of the Liberty properties (which include the Rosewater Supper Club, the Liberty Grand and the Spice Route), the approach is rather grand. The bottom level will be done up like a wine cellar, with a long alabaster pizza bar as its focus. The mezzanine level will be fairly casual, with the street level as the main dining area. Wine will be served using a system (called Enomatic) that preserves opened bottle with inert gas, meaning almost everything will be available by the glass.

Writer: Bert Archer