The Cookbook Store is gone. After 30 years, and some last-minute noises about possibly moving, Alison Fryer and Co. closed up shop for good this month. In its place, a proposed 58-storey condo. They've not put much effort into the name – One Yorkville – but one hopes the
Bazis tower, designed by Roy Vacarelli, makes good the loss.
On the surface, it appears to fit firmly into the Toronto Condo 2.0 school – still a glass tower, but with decorations, in this case, something a publicist calls "3D wallpaper."
The proposed tower would consist of 622 units in the place of the Victorian/Edwardian row houses currently ranging from 838 to 848 Yonge. Unlike 5 St. Joseph a few blocks south, Bazis is not attempting to work its new tower into the existing fabric, preferring to take an out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new approach that has, over the decades, been a standard Toronto approach.
True, the Vicwardians are in no way remarkable, never mind unique, but as more thoughtful developers have shown, there's a value to maintaining familiar streetscapes, to growing rather than razing.
When asked what it was hoping to do differently in this especially condo-crowded section of town, Bazis replied, through its publicist, that they were, "Catering to anyone in the area from students to empty nesters -- those that appreciate the accessibility of the Yorkville area, transit and downtown living." As mission statements go, this is one of the most discouraging heard in years.
The Cookbook Store was a small but valuable part of the city. This large but generically conceived replacement is going to have to do some work to convince anyone it's worth what it's proposing to wipe away.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Vicki Griffiths