Monthly Archives: January 2012

The skyline and CityPlace on a sunny winter day

Toronto growing taller

A view of the downtown Toronto skyline, looking east from the Bathurst Street Bridge this afternoon. The cityscape boasts three new skyscrapers, including Charlie Condos at King & Charlotte Streets (with crane, at left) Living Shangri-La Toronto at University Avenue & Adelaide Street (with crane, center rear), and the Trump International Hotel + Tower Toronto, partly visible to the left side of First Canadian Place. The Trump Toronto Hotel opened for business today.

CN Tower, CityPlace and the Puente de Luz bridge

A Bathurst Street bridge view of the CN Tower, some of the condo skyscrapers at Concord CityPlace, and the yellow Puente de Luz bridge which will connect City Place to Front Street West above the railway tracks. Below are videoclips I shot this afternoon showing the downtown skyline, construction activity at the Library District condominiums complex at the west end of CityPlace, and the various condo highrises at CityPlace. The latter clip includes views of the grey-and-white, 41-storey Toronto Community Housing apartment tower under construction at 150 Dan Leckie Way, as well as close-ups of the points where a 2-level bridge will link the round and rectangular Parade condo towers.

Work crews rushing to complete main floor as Trump Toronto Hotel prepares to open Tuesday

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This sign had been draped above the Adelaide Street entrance to the Trump Toronto Hotel for the past several weeks, but has been rolled up and taken away …

… as crews hurry to finish work before the hotel’s opening this Tuesday

Final stretch: Construction crews were busy both inside the main floor of the Trump International Hotel + Tower Toronto as well as outside the building when I passed by this afternoon. There was a palpable sense of both urgency and excitement as the workers raced against the clock to finish the city’s newest 5-star hotel in time for its opening this Tuesday.

The hotel boasts 261 luxuriously-appointed guest rooms, a 2-level Quartz Crystal Spa and wellness centre, a lobby lounge called Suits, and Stock, a 135-seat restaurant on the 31st floor.

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Pit stop: Crews dig deeper at FIVE Condos site

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January 25 2012: Excavation has reached more than one level deep at the northeast corner of the FIVE Condos site on St Joseph Street

January 25 2012: Looking south from St Joseph Street across the excavation for the 45-storey FIVE Condos tower. For more information about the project, see my December 22 2011 post.

Airy and bright entrance cube welcomes visitors to freshly revitalized Toronto Reference Library

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January 11 2012: The new entrance to the Toronto Reference Library, at the corner of Yonge Street and Asquith Avenue, opened in December …

… well over a year after construction of the3-storey glass and steel cube structure commenced. The entrance area is seen here on November 11 2010, several weeks after work started as part of a $34-million building revitalization project.

Entrance seen from west side of Yonge Street on January 11 2012 …

… and from Asquith Avenue on January 21 2012

The large rectangular windows on the north and west sides of the cube …

… ensure that the spacious entrance area is airy and bright …

… but some work remains to be completed on the interior

A crescent-shaped window brightens a reading room located at the library’s northwest corner, overlooking Yonge and Collier Streets

As of last week, however, the library’s sidewalk-level facade along Yonge Street was still under construction. Windows running the length of the building will eventually provide a visual connection between the interior and the street.

Doors open: They had to wait well over a year, but visitors can now enter the Toronto Reference Library in Yorkville through a bright and airy new entrance at the corner of Yonge Street and Asquith Avenue.

The 3-storey glass and steel entrance cube, designed by Toronto’s Moriyama & Teshima architects, opened for public use in December, though some finishing touches remain to be done on its interior.

As I reported in a January 27 2011 post, the new entrance was created as part of ambitious $34-million, 5-year revitalization project intended to create “a dynamic interface between the library and its community, connecting the library’s interior more directly to the street, and the public to the services inside.”

The spacious, sunny cube certainly achieves that goal, as does a curved row of windows that brightens a reading lounge situated at the northwest corner of the building, overlooking Yonge and Collier Streets.

As of last weekend, which was the last time I passed by the library, construction work still had not been completed on a stretch of new street-level windows along the building’s Yonge Street facade. Once they’re installed and the hoarding along the sidewalk has been removed, passersby should notice an immense improvement to the library’s look as well as the streetscape.

Designed by Raymond Moriyama, the reference library opened on November 2, 1977. The revitalization design is the work of Raymond’s son, Ajon.

Below is a photo from the library website, showing how the entrance looked prior to the commencement of the revitalization project. It’s followed by a Moriyama & Teshima rendering that shows the new cube entry and glass-walled facade next to the Yonge Street sidewalk.

This image from the Toronto Reference Library webpage shows how the building entrance looked before the new entrance cube was added

Architectural illustration by Moriyama & Teshima architects of the Toronto Reference Library building revitalization enhancements

The ROM’s Crystal, after an overnight snowfall

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A light layer of snow covers the sharply-angled east side of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal on January 21 2012. Designed by “starchitect” Daniel Libeskind, the glass and aluminum-clad extension to the Royal Ontario Museum slices into the sky above Bloor Street. Below are several more wintertime views of the Crystal.

Condos and cranes on the lower east side

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Rising in the east: Construction cranes and condo towers old & new dominate the southeast downtown skyline, seen here from the south building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on January 6 2012. From left are: the green-windowed west tower of London on the Esplanade Condos, completed in 2010; The L Tower, a Daniel Libeskind-designed condo more than one-third of the way to its ultimate height of 57 floors; the 33-storey wedge-shaped condo tower at 25 The Esplanade, constructed 14 years ago; the 25-storey Market Wharf condo tower rising on Lower Jarvis Street; and, climbing skyward in the distance behind Market Wharf, the 40-storey Clear Spirit condo tower in the Distillery District. The yellow crane in the foreground is working on the $640 million Union Station Revitalization project.

Dream still alive for green space or new park on boarded-up block of Wellesley Street West

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January 25 2012: The Ontario Government is examining its options to make a prime piece of real estate on Wellesley Street West available for new city green space. The vacant property has been surrounded by navy blue hoarding for years.

More parks for downtown?: City planners and politicians alike have admitted that the central downtown area, and particularly the district between College and Bloor Streets, is woefully deficient in public parks and green space. But at least one new park — and possibly several more — could be in the cards for the city core, according to an Ontario Cabinet minister.

Glen Murray, the MPP for Toronto Centre and Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, says the province is examining its options for making a vacant parcel of property on Wellesley Street West available to the city for redevelopment into green space or a park of some kind. Other provincially-owned lands in the downtown core also might become available for additional parkland, Mr. Murray told the first annual general meeting of the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association (CWNA) last night.

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More development planned for Church-Isabella site where controversial highrise addition will be built

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January 21 2012: These trees and the snow-covered lawn will soon disappear given that the City has approved a 23-storey addition to the 66 Isabella Street apartment building at left. The City is now being asked to approve construction of a 3-storey walk-up apartment building just a few feet north of the trees — on the site of the 1-storey podium that sits at the base of the Town Inn Suites (right).

January 21 2012: This development proposal notice has been posted outside the Town Inn Suites podium next to Church Street

This site plan illustration shows how the proposed apartment building structures will wrap around the east, south and west sides of the Town Inn Suites property

January 21 2012: These trees on the west side of the Town Inn Suites, seen here looking south from Charles Street, will have to be destroyed to permit construction of one of the proposed walk-up apartment buildings

New infill trend?: I’ve heard some downtown Toronto residents joke that surface parking lots should be declared an endangered species before they all get redeveloped into highrise condominium complexes. But parking lots aren’t the only pieces of prime real estate beginning to disappear from downtown streetscapes. Spacious private lawns and gardens surrounding apartment towers built 30 to 50 years ago are also now being targetted by developers for lucrative apartment and condo infill construction projects.

On October 24 2011, Toronto City Council approved a developer’s proposal to build a 43-storey rental tower at Isabella and Sherbourne Streets, on the site of a 3-tower apartment and retail complex constructed on the western edge of the St James Town neighbourhood in the late 1970s. As I reported in an October 3 2011 post, the new tower will rise from the location of what is currently a No Frills grocery store as part of a major building overhaul that will redevelop the retail podium for the rental towers, as well as add townhouses to the east side of the complex along Bleecker Street. (The developer has not yet announced when construction will commence.)

Similar redevelopment plans are in the works just a few blocks west along Isabella, at the northwest corner of Church Street. On January 10 of this year, Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) approved a developer’s proposal to construct a 23-storey addition to a 40-year-old apartment building at 66 Isabella Street. The proposal will be considered by Toronto City Council on February 6; however, Councillors are expected to rubber-stamp the plan now that it has already been given the nod by TEYCC.

Developments increase city’s supply of rental housing

In a December 13 2011 report, city planners had recommended that the addition to the east side of the existing 26-floor highrise be approved because it was an “appropriate … mixed-use development on an underutilized site and adds to the supply of purpose-built rental housing.” Many neighbourhood residents, on the other hand, were upset that the redevelopment would eliminate a stand of mature shade trees as well as a large private lawn — a treasured green space in an urban neighbourhood that City politicians and planners admit is sorely lacking in public parks. As I reported in a January 5 2012 post, many residents of 66 Isabella were angry not only because that they would lose their popular yard, but also since dozens of their neighbour tenants would be displaced during construction of the highrise addition. Two Saturdays ago, they protested the development plan by organizing a “lawn occupation” that drew several dozen participants and attracted wide media attention (a photo and report on the event was published in the online edition of the Toronto Star on January 7).

Now, the bealeaguered residents and neighbours of 66 Isabella have yet another infill development proposal to deal with — right next door. In an application filed with the City on December 22 2011, a developer is seeking approval to build two 3-storey walk-up apartment buildings on green space surrounding the Town Inn Suites, a 26-storey hotel tower that is literally a twin to 66 Isabella, and stands only several dozen metres to its northeast. One of the rental buildings would wrap around the southeast corner of the hotel’s one-storey podium, which presently houses a swimming pool and outdoor sundeck. The second rental building would be constructed on the west side of the Town Inn Suites, currently the location of a tree-shaded side yard as well as the entrance/exit ramp to the hotel’s underground parking garage. The two apartment buildings would contain a total of 43 units.

Downtown residents fear loss of greenery

During conversations with a number of neighbourhood residents in recent days, people have told me they fear that the infill projects at Church & Isabella, along with the redevelopment proposal for Isabella & Sherbourne, could have a domino effect, encouraging more apartment building owners to seek to replace ground space on their properties with low- and high-rise additions. Lush gardens and tree-shaded lawns that presently beautify dozens of downtown rental buildings would be at risk if more property owners sense the potential for increased rental income and profits, and jump on the redevelopment bandwagon. “In just a few years, it might be rare to see trees and gardens downtown,” one worried neighbour told me. ” We could lose most of our greenery to look-a-like glass towers and building additions that extend right to the edge of the property line,” she said ruefully.

Below is a series of photos I shot this afternoon, showing the Town Inn Suites property that is proposed for redevelopment into low-rise apartments.

This private yard at the northwest corner of Church & Isabella Streets will disappear when construction starts on a 23-storey addition to the building at left

Looking toward the Town Inn Suites from the northwest corner of Church & Isabella Streets. The yard space and the 1-storey podium for the hotel are both slated for redevelopment into separate apartment housing projects.

Looking from the east side of Church Street toward the hotel podium that would be redeveloped into a 3-storey walk-up apartment building

The 46-storey Casa condominium tower soars skyward just half a block west of the proposed apartment development site, in this view from Church Street. Another condo skyscraper, Chaz.Yorkville, is currently under construction right next door to Casa, and will block much of this view of Casa once it is built. The City approved 39 storeys for Chaz.Yorkville; however, its developer subsequently sought zoning changes that would permit it to build 47 floors. It has since appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board because the city didn’t reach a decision on its request within the timeframe prescribed by provincial planning law.

The 1-storey podium is a hotel amenity space that includes a swimming pool as well as outdoor terraces and sundecks

A street-level view of the podium, from its southeast corner

A development proposal sign on the east side of the hotel podium

A view of the podium, looking southwest along the Church Street sidewalk. The apartment building at 66 Isabella Street rises in the background.

The Town Inn Suites main entrance at 620 Church Street. The hotel, which has 200 suites, will remain as part of the proposed new development.

The north side of the Town Inn Suites, looking west from the corner of Church and Charles Streets. Repairs to the building exterior are underway.

A development proposal sign at the southwest corner of Church & Charles

The north side of the Town Inn Suites along Charles Street. A city planner last summer said that the developer initially had been planning to build a row of townhouses along this side of the property. Now, two apartment buildings are being proposed on the south and west sides of the hotel instead.

This yard on the west side of the hotel is the proposed site for one of the new apartment buildings. That’s 66 Isabella in the background.

A view of the “back” of Town Inn Suites from Charles Street to the northwest

This ramp leads from Charles Street into the hotel’s underground parking garage. The ramp would be relocated and accessed from the laneway to the right once the new low-rise apartment building is constructed.

The underground garage has parking for 163 vehicles

The addition to 66 Isabella will block this view of the sky from Charles Street, while the proposed 3-storey apartment building will dominate the foreground

Church-Wellesley village loses some of its heritage with demolition of Odette mansion & coach house

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January 19 2012: Demolition commenced yesterday on Odette House, a 3-storey Victorian-era mansion at 81 Wellesley Street East …

… seen here on September 27 2010 after the property was sold for a reported $4.5 million by its former occupant Wellspring, the cancer support organization

Demolition has also started on the coach house at the rear of the property …

… the building in which Wellspring initially launched its programs in 1992. The north side of the 2-storey coach house is seen here on September 27 2010

Ignominious end: Residents of the Church-Wellesley Village area are dismayed that a stately Victorian-era mansion that has stood for approximately 100 years near the corner of Church and Wellesley Streets is being destroyed just 12 weeks after their city councillor requested that the “architecturally significant structure” be considered for heritage designation.

Yesterday afternoon, a wrecking crew began tearing apart the 3-storey Odette House and the 2-storey coach house behind it at 81 Wellesley Street East. As I reported in a September 27 2011 post, the two buildings had been owned by Wellspring, a non-profit organization that describes itself as “offering psychological, emotional, social, spiritual and informational support to individuals and families living with cancer.” Wellspring had decided to sell the property and relocate not only since it had outgrown the site, but also because maintenance and repair of the two old houses had become too expensive.

Wednesday’s demolition activity took neighbours by surprise, since no safety fencing or scaffolding had been installed around the property before the wrecking commenced, nor had any signs been posted to warn that demolition was imminent. Debris from the top floor fell to a heap in front of the mansion’s former main entrance, landing mere steps from the public sidewalk on the south side of Wellesley Street. The gate in the wrought iron fence next to the sidewalk had not even been closed.

Heritage review requested in November 2010

The demolition had not been completely unexpected. Area residents were aware that, on December 1 2011, the City had accepted an application to demolish the two buildings. However, many were holding out hope that City Hall might be able to designate Odette House as a heritage property before its new owner could take any steps to redevelop the site. Just one month earlier, on November 2 2011, Toronto and East York Community Council had adopted a motion in which Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam requested that city staff consider designating 81 Wellesley East under Ontario’s Heritage Act. In a letter to the council, Councillor Wong-Tam explained that Odette House “is an architecturally significant structure but is not currently protected by heritage designation. The building is clearly a surviving part of the early neighbourhood development of this area. In order to preserve the building as an important heritage resource, I am requesting City staff undertake a process to review it for designation under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.” However, the heritage designation process typically takes months, if not years, largely since the City’s understaffed and overworked Heritage Preservation Services team is swamped with an extensive caseload.

Outraged neighbours vent on Facebook group site

After crews started smashing apart the two buildings at 81 Wellesley yesterday, outraged area residents posted photos of the wrecking work on the members-only Facebook page for the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association (CWNA), decried what one man called “another major heritage preservation failure in Ward 27,” and speculated about the motive for what appears to some people to be a suspiciously hasty demolition. One CWNA Facebook group member, who reproduced details of the demolition application from the City’s website, said: “It looks like the developer wants to demolish these buildings pronto before any action can be taken to save them.” “Without doubt,” said another, “it was [Councillor Wong-Tam’s] motion to have the property designated which provoked the demolition on this site.” A third man, observing that the demolition had begun from the rear of Odette House, wondered if this was a tactic “to hide work till last possible moment?” Whatever the real reason, another huge disapppointment is likely in store for Church-Wellesley Village residents. As one of the CWNA Facebook group commentators pointed out, “Aside from the terrible loss here, now we’ll be staring at a gravel lot come Friday for the next few years” and quite possibly “a whole lot longer” if there is a “correction” in the Toronto real estate market. Just one block along Wellesley Street, he noted, an empty gravel lot occupies the property where a former St John Ambulance building was demolished several years ago to make way for a condo highrise project that hasn’t materialized. The lot is an eyesore that irks many neighbours, who would like to see the City acquire the property to establish a public park — something they realize is highly unlikely to happen.

Condo development proposal expected

So far, there has been no public word on what 81 Wellesley’s new owner plans to do with the property, though it’s widely expected that a condominium tower will be proposed for the site. A Colliers International real estate listing had described Odette House as a “rare boutique building” with “development potential,” while a September 26 2011 Twitter post by real estate research firm Urbanation announced that 81 Wellesley had been sold for $4.5 million with a “future high-rise condo site planned.” In a quick Google search this afternoon, I found one real estate website touting “luxury condominiums” for 81 Wellesley. The website for Milborne Real Estate Inc. Brokerage sales representative Nadine Robbins includes several photos of the property and says it “is sure to be developed into a modern, luxurious and extremely convenient residential condominium.” Since the website provides an email address and phone number so people can “find out more about this exclusive pre-construction condominium,” I emailed to ask if Ms. Robbins could provide any details about the development plans for 81 Wellesley. She replied promptly, saying: “Unfortunately, I have no new information on the project.” Similarly, the development application status page on the City of Toronto website does not yet list any proposals for the site.

However, two things do seem certain at this point. One is that the former Wellspring buildings will soon disappear forever from the Church-Wellesley Village landscape. The other is that neighbours are mad as hell about it — and worried about what will take their place.

Below are photos I snapped this afternoon of demolition progress on Odette House and the coach house. Wrecking crews were not working either of the two times I passed by 81 Wellesley, so snow from today’s light flurries was beginning to accumulate on the rubble.

Odette House front window and porch demolition

A huge heap of rubble lies outside the main entrance to Odette House, just inside the front gate. Demolition started without any scaffolding being put in place.

Debris and a destroyed tree at the northeast corner of Odette House

Looking up the brick wall on the east side of Odette House. The building’s roof, and much of the third floor, have been knocked down

A pile of demolition debris at the southeast corner of Odette House

The wrecking machines were idle, and no demolition workers in sight, when I took these photos of 81 Wellesley this afternoon

An idle wrecking machine behind partially-demolished Odette House

Demolition site viewed from the apartment building parking lot next door

Half of the coach house’s second floor has been knocked down

A closer view of the coach house roof demolition

A view of the coach house from a service laneway leading south from the property to Maitland Street. Area residents are dismayed that a condo tower might ultimately rise on the site.

The south-facing side of the coach house is still intact — but for how long?

Graffiti tags on the rear brick wall of the coach house

Maintenance and repair of the coach house and Odette House had become too expensive for the former owner, Wellspring

Another view of the coach house, from a laneway to its southeast

The 46-storey Casa condominium tower on Charles Street is slightly visible in the background. Area residents worry that a similar tall glass condo tower might be built at 81 Wellesley.

Snow day! Photos of some downtown construction sites after a light morning snowfall dusts Toronto

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The vast construction zone for the new West Don Lands Community is seen in this image taken by a Waterfront Toronto webcam this afternoon. The 80-acre site was blanketed with light snow this morning, less than 24 hours after Waterfront Toronto and Infrastructure Ontario announced that long-awaited construction is finally commencing on the new mixed-use residential community a short distance east of the downtown business district. The highrise under construction at upper left is the 40-storey Clear Spirit condo tower in the nearby Distillery District.

Construction progress on the 75-storey Aura at College Park condo tower is seen in this image captured from a webcam on the Aura website.

Excavation activity at the Nicholas Residences condo site near Yonge & Bloor

Shoring work continues on the FIVE Condos site at Yonge & St Joseph Streets

Snow-covered steel I-beams and construction equipment on the FIVE Condos site

A worker directs traffic past the ETFO office building site on Isabella Street

Another view of progress on the 4-storey ETFO office headquarters

Overlooking the long, rectangular excavation for the 49-storey X2 Condos tower under construction at the southwest corner of Jarvis & Charles Streets

Crews have nearly completed digging the deep excavaton for the X2 Condos tower. The construction crane is expected to be installed soon

Interior demolition work continues on the eight-storey office building at 45 Charles Street East, future site of the Chaz.Yorkville condo tower.

Despite the light snow cover, a drilling rig (rear right) was busy jackhammering a concrete pad at the northwest corner of the Chaz.Yorkville site

Two major construction projects at the southwest corner of Bay & Grosvenor Streets: Burano Condos, left, and the Women’s College Hospital redevelopment.

The new Women’s College Hospital building has risen five floors so far on what was formerly the site of the hospital’s multi-level parking garage

The soaring glass atrium on the north (Grosvenor Street) side of Burano Condos

A view of the atrium from the north side of Grosvenor Street

A publicly-accessible piazza, designed by landscape architects Janet Rosenberg + Associates, will be constructed next to the atrium

The sharply angled glass panels of the atrium provide a striking contrast to the condo tower that soars 50 storeys straight up above it

A Harbourfront Centre webcam image of progress on the new underground parking garage for York Quay Centre. Concrete floor slabs have been poured for the 3 below-grade levels, and work will start soon on the ground-level roof over the structure. New outdoor public spaces will be created on top.

Athletes’ view: Toronto’s Financial District towers

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January 7 2012: A midafternoon view of the Toronto Financial District skyline from Cherry Street, just outside the sprawling construction site for what will become the athletes’ village for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Earth moving at Yonge & Bloor as excavation crews keep digging deeper on One Bloor condo tower site

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January 11 2012: Excavation has progressed to roughly one level below grade at the One Bloor condo site, a dramatic change from exactly one year ago …

… when the property was still just a snow-covered empty lot. This is a view of the southern third of the One Bloor site, looking west from the Yonge-Bloor TTC subway entrance at the adjacent Xerox tower on January 10 2011 …

… while this is a view of the northern two-thirds of the property, also taken from the west side of the Xerox building on January 10 last year

Digging deeper: Exactly one year ago, the southeast corner of Yonge & Bloor Streets was just a large, empty, snow-covered lot, bisected by a pedestrian entrance to the Yonge-Bloor subway station. Now it’s a bustling construction site where an enormous excavation is taking shape for the 70-storey One Bloor condo tower. So far crews have dug deeper than one level below grade, making steady progress on moving earth out of what will ultimately become a five-level underground parking garage. One Bloor is a project of Great Gulf Homes. The tower was designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, with interior design by Cecconi Simone Inc. Below are photos I have shot of One Bloor’s excavation progress in the past two weeks. Renderings and illustrations of the tower can be viewed on the One Bloor East project page of the Hariri Pontarini website.

December 30 2011: Looking to the northwest across the construction site

December 30 2011: Digging still hasn’t started at the southwest corner

December 30 2011: Excavation at the north side of the site, along Bloor Street

December 30 2011: Construction equipment near the northwest corner

December 30 2011: Idle excavating machines on the south end of the lot

January 11 2012: An excavating machine digs near the southwest corner of the lot, as seen here from the west side of Yonge Street

January 11 2012: The One Bloor excavation, viewed from the southeast corner of Yonge & Hayden Streets

January 11 2012: Looking from Hayden Street toward The Bay’s 44 Bloor Street East department store at the Hudson’s Bay Centre

January 11 2012: Overlooking excavation activity from the southeast

January 11 2012: Two red dump trucks stand by for loads of dirt

January 11 2012: Excavation progress near the northeast corner along Bloor

January 11 2012: Excavation crews working near the northeast corner

January 11 2012: Construction entrance ramp off Bloor Street

January 11 2012: Excavation appears to be deepest at the northwest corner

January 11 2012: An excavating machine digs near the southwest corner

January 11 2012: In less than two weeks, several feet of soil has been excavated from virtually the entire site

Corner Glass: Casa condos catch the morning sun

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January 9 2012: Morning sunshine glints off windows on the southeast corner of the Casa Condominium near Yonge & Bloor Streets. The 46-storey tower at 33 Charles Street East was designed by architectsAlliance and built by Cresford.

TEYCC being asked to call public meeting to review proposal for 2 condo towers at Dundas & Jarvis

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January 6 2012: A developer wants to build two condo towers on the northeast corner of Dundas & Jarvis Streets, currently the site of a Hilton Garden Inn …

… but Toronto and East York Community Council will decide, this coming Tuesday, whether to schedule a community consultation meeting first

This illustration in a city planning department report shows the south elevation for the proposed 48- and 35-storey condo towers

Public input: City planning staff aren’t comfortable with a developer’s plan for a 2-tower condo development at the northeast corner of Dundas & Jarvis Streets, so they have recommended that Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) order a public meeting to get Toronto residents’ input into the proposal.

A numbered company, 1293446 Ontario Inc., owns a 3,223-square-meter property currently occupied by the 9-storey Hilton Garden Inn Toronto City Centre at 200 Dundas Street East. It wants to redevelop the site into a new mixed-use residential complex featuring two towers — 48 and 35 storeys, respectively — that would rise above a podium ranging from 2 to 10 floors in height. (The unsightly hotel building was originally built as an office complex sometime around the 1950s. Once home to a number of federal government offices, the drab building looked even uglier until it was renovated and repurposed as a hotel about a decade ago. A Comfort Suites hotel operated there until recently, when the Hilton chain acquired the property.)

The proposed condo complex would contain 693 residential units (condos as well as “purpose built student rental housing” for students at nearby Ryerson University), office space, street-level retail, underground parking for 352 vehicles, and 701 bicycle parking spaces. 450 of the residential units — 65% of the total — would be 1 bedroom, 35 would be bachelors, 139 would be 2 bedroom, while 69 would be configured as 3 or more bedrooms. The 48-storey skyscraper would soar 151.85 meters high — approximately the same height as the 250 Yonge Street office tower at the Toronto Eaton Centre six blocks west. City planning reports indicate the project’s architect of record is Page + Steele/IBI Group Architects of Toronto.

Proposal’s “current form” not acceptable to city planners

The developer met with city planning staff in May and October 2011 to discuss its proposal; however, on both occasions the planners said they couldn’t support the developer’s rezoning application “in its current form.”

“Staff indicated concern with the overall height of the project, the relationship with and transition to the adjacent Neighbourhoods Area, and the type of units being proposed for the student residence component,” the planners explain in a November 10 2011 preliminary report to TEYCC.

The planners add that the proposal raises at least a dozen different planning issues, including “built form concerns” about the “height and density of the proposal, the built form transition from this site into all surrounding neighbourhoods, shadow impacts on surrounding properties, open space, the public realm, and massing issues including, but not limited to: setbacks, stepbacks, views, sky view, light penetration, prvacy, wind mitigation and pedestrian realm weather protection.”

City planners have recommended that a community consultation be held for the project in February, and say they are aiming to complete their final report on the proposal later this year. The planners’ request for directions to hold a community consultation is on the agenda for the January 10 meeting of TEYCC.

Developers & buyers see positive side of gritty neighbourhood

The site for the proposed towers sits on the edge of a low-income and high-crime area of east downtown, a gritty neighbourhood that has been home for decades to dozens of boarding houses, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and facilities offering social services for the down-and-out and poor. Nevertheless, the Dundas-Jarvis area has recently commanded considerable attention from the condo development industry and prospective purchasers alike, who believe the rough-and-tumble area offers tremendous investment potential. The neighbourhood’s walking-distance proximity to downtown offices, educational institutions, shopping and entertainment is particularly appealing to condo buyers.

Last year, developer Great Gulf Homes made headlines when it announced plans to build the 42-storey Pace Condos tower at the southwest corner of Dundas & Jarvis, formerly the site of a small low-rise retail plaza. Buyers descended in droves, and already more than 10 of the tower’s 27 different condo suite floorplans have sold out. Construction of Pace Condos could start as early as spring. Meanwhile, word on the street is that one or possibly even two condo towers could be in the works for what is now a large surface parking lot on the northwest corner of Dundas & Jarvis. The lot sits next to the 222 Jarvis office building that once was headquarters for Sears Canada, but is presently undergoing a multimillion-dollar “green building retrofit” and conversion into offices for the Ontario government. It’s widely expected that the parking lot segment of the property eventually will be severed from the office building section and sold off for redevelopment.

Condo & hotel development expected nearby

Area residents say they suspect highrises are in the cards for the southeast corner of Dundas & Jarvis, too — currently a block of low-rise retail shops, including a Ho-Lee-Chow Chinese takeout restaurant. And on Shuter Street just one block south, two additional development projects could help spur more neighbourhood improvement. In August 2010, Toronto City Council approved zoning amendments that would permit construction of a 20-storey, 260-room hotel at 203 Jarvis, presently a surface parking lot at the northeast corner of Jarvis & Shuter Streets. However, construction has not commenced, and there has been no indication when work will begin. The property is owned by Manga Hotels (Downtown) Inc. Manga Hotels is a Mississauga, Ont.-based private company involved with “the acquisition, development and management of high quality hotels affiliated with prestigious brands such as Marriott, Hilton, InterContinental Hotel Group and Starwood Hotels.” The “new developments” page of its website shows that a Homewood Suites by Hilton is planned for 203 Jarvis. The webpage says the all-suites hotel, designed by Page + Steele/IBI Group Architects, “will be a major addition to the downtown Toronto core.” Clearly, the new Homewood Suites is slated to replace the Hilton Garden Inn up the street. Meanwhile, marketing and sales are in full swing for a 14-storey condo building, O2 Maisonettes on George, that will be constructed on the empty lot right next door at 102 Shuter Street — formerly the location of the Walnut Hall heritage building that was demolished after collapsing in May 2007.

Toronto East Downtown Planning Review underway

Developer interest in other nearby properties led to a July 6 2010 City Council decision calling on city planning staff to conduct a “full local area review” to determine “the possibility of permitting higher density residential development” in the Dundas-Jarvis area. The “Toronto East Downtown Planning Review” initially required planners to study Dundas Street East between George and Sherbourne Streets, as well as Sherbourne between Dundas and Shuter Streets; however, City Council decided on November 29 2011 to expand the study boundaries to encompass the wider district bounded by Jarvis, Carlton, Sherbourne and Queen Streets. City planners anticipate that they will be able to file a final report and “recommendations for the implementation of a revitalization strategy for the study area” sometime in the last quarter of this year.

A brighter future appears to be in store for east downtown; whether that includes a cluster of condo towers at Dundas & Jarvis plus a new hotel and condo at Jarvis & Shuter should become clear within the next year or two.

Below are more photos of 200 Dundas and its immediate vicinity, including the Homewood Suites and O2 Maisonettes development sites, along with illustrations and renderings of the various projects that appear in city planning documents and on project websites.

January 6 2012: The upper west (Jarvis Street) side of the Hilton Garden Inn Toronto City Centre at 200 Dundas Street East

January 6 2012: The Jarvis Street entrance to the Hilton Garden Inn

January 6 2012: The hotel viewed from the southeast corner of Dundas and George Streets. Chain restaurants and retail stores occupy the ground floor along Dundas.

January 6 2012: Toronto’s largest downtown mall, the Toronto Eaton Centre, is only a 10-minute walk away. The 250 Yonge Street office tower at the Eaton Centre is the tall building visible at rear left.

January 6 2012: The rear of the Hilton Garden Inn, viewed from George Street

January 6 2012: The upper east side of the Hilton Garden Inn

January 12 2012: The infamous Filmores Hotel and its notorious “Gentlemen’s Club” is the Hilton Garden Inn’s neighbour to the east at 212 Dundas

January 6 2012: Looking east along Dundas from George Street

January 6 2012: This laneway on the north side of the hotel runs between Jarvis and George Streets. At left is the 10-storey Jarvis-George Co-Op.

This 200 Dundas Street East site plan illustration appears in the city planning department’s November 10 2011 preliminary report on the condo tower proposal

This illustration from the November 10 2011 planning report shows the various stepbacks proposed for the 48-storey west tower

This illustration, also from the city planners’ preliminary report, shows the various setbacks proposed for the 35-storey east tower

January 6 2012: Area residents expect the strip of low-rise retail buildings on the southeast corner of Dundas and Jarvis will be redeveloped with condo towers

January 6 2012: The northwest corner of Dundas and Jarvis. The building at left is the Merchandise Lofts condo at 155 Dalhousie Street. At right is the Brutalist-style Ontario government office building at 222 Jarvis. A large parking lot behind the hoarding along the sidewalks may be sold for redevelopment as condo towers.

February 3 2011:Designed by Maxwell Miller as head office for Sears Canada, 222 Jarvis Street is undergoing a major “green” retrofit as it is renovated into offices for the Ontario government. The 9-storey building was constructed in 1971. WZMH Architects of Toronto designed the new Ontario Public Service workplace.

March 22 2011: A sign on hoarding lining the sidewalks around 222 Jarvis Street. Renovation and retrofitting of the 455,000 square foot edifice commenced in late 2009 and is expected to conclude sometime this fall. Government workers could begin moving into the building as early as December.

March 22 2011: Looking north from Dundas Street. This view could someday be dominated by condo towers if the parking lot in front of 222 Jarvis (blocked from view by the hoarding and construction trailers) is sold for redevelopment.

March 22 2011: Southwest view of 222 Jarvis from Mutual & Dundas Streets. Some neighbourhood residents call the building “the upside-down wedding cake” in reference to its distinctive inverted-pyramid shape.

January 6 2012: The southwest corner of Dundas and Jarvis Streets, looking west

January 6 2012: A small retail plaza once occupied this site, which has a municipal address of 155 Dundas East. The dingy, low-rise buildings were demolished last summer, as I reported in my July 1 2011 post.

January 6 2012: Looking to the northwest, from Jarvis Street, across the vacant 155 Dundas East property where Pace Condos will be constructed

Great Gulf Homes initially proposed a 46-storey condo tower for this site, as I reported in a March 22 2011 post. On November 29 2011, the City approved a 42-storey tower instead, and construction of Pace Condos could begin this spring.

A rendering of Pace Condos, designed by Toronto’s Diamond Schmitt Architects.

April 21 2011: The northeast corner of Jarvis and Shuter Streets. The City has approved construction of a 20-storey Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel on the site, currently occupied by a surface parking lot.

February 3 2011: A planning notice posted at the 203 Jarvis Street site for the proposed Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel

April 21 2011: Looking east across Jarvis Street toward the parking lot where the 260-unit all-suites hotel will be constructed.

February 3 2011: Looking north from Shuter Street at the site for the proposed all-suites hotel. The 13-storey Grand Hotel & Suites, half a block to the north, was originally the downtown Toronto headquarters for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The building was converted into a hotel in 1993.

This illustration, from a July 22 2010 city planning department report, depicts the south elevation of the proposed 20-storey hotel. The Homewood Suites by Hilton is being designed by Toronto’s Page + Steele/IBI Group Architects

This illustration, also from the July 22 2010 city planning report, depicts the west (Jarvis Street) elevation for the proposed all-suites hotel

May 8 2011: A view of the 102 Shuter Street site where the 14-storey O2 Maisonettes on George condo will be built.

May 8 2011: Looking north from Shuter Street toward the proposed O2 Maisonettes condo site. This is the former location of the historic Walnut Hall heritage townhouses, which collapsed and were demolished in 2007.

May 8 2011: The original proposal was for a 20-storey condo with 69 units. The O2 Maisonettes, currently in the sales phase, will be 14 floors with 50 units.

July 1 2011: The O2 Maisonettes site viewed from George Street, looking west

July 1 2011: Another George Street view of the O2 Maisonettes condo site, looking west toward the downtown Financial District

This illustration of the 02 Maisonettes on George midrise appears on the condo project website. Designed by Brian Sickle of Page + Steele/IBI Group Architects Inc., O2 is a project of Empire Communities, Identity Developments and Stal Inc.

Also from the O2 condo website, this illustration shows the layout for the building’s indoor and outdoor amenities

This illustration, depicting a rear view of 02 Maisonettes, also appears on the 02 project website. The building will boast 36 two-level units ranging from 1,100 to 1,417 square feet.

Drilling rig rumbles onto Theatre Park condo site

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January 2 2012: A Rumble Foundations drilling rig has little room to maneuver on the narrow 224 King Street West construction site for Theatre Park condos. Below is a photo of the property exactly one year ago, when it was still a parking lot.

Ready to Rumble: Construction activity has commenced on the Entertainment District’s much-anticipated Theatre Park condos, a slender 47-storey glass and steel point tower that will rise right next door to Toronto’s historic Royal Alexandra Theatre.

A Rumble Foundations drilling rig recently arrived on the construction site, which for decades had been occupied by a pay parking lot. The rig stands more than four storeys tall and is so big, it barely fits into the tight, narrow space from which the 234-unit condo skyscraper will eventually soar.

Lofty 10-foot ceilings

Designed by Toronto’s architectsAlliance, Theatre Park boasts a variety of condominium configurations with lofty 10-foot ceilings, including 1 bedroom, 1 bedroom + den, 2 bedroom, 2 bedroom + den, 3 bedroom and penthouse-level suites.

The Theatre Park project website shows that 1 bedrooms are available in four sizes from 530 to 920 square feet; the largest is a loft-style “Palace Theatre” unit on the tower’s fourth and fifth levels. Two of the 1 bedroom designs, the “Rudolfinum” and the “Musikverein,” have small (43 to 57 square foot) balconies. The 1 bedroom + den range from 625 to 920 square feet; the “Mariinsky Theatre” and “Festival Theatre” styles have balconies either 115 or 151 square feet.

The 2 bedroom units range from 815 to 1,145 square feet; the smallest, the “Teatro La Fenice,” has already sold out, but the other sizes are still available, including 7 of the 985-square-foot “Princes of Wales” model. The 2 bedroom + den “Moulin Rouge” offers a roomy 1,375 square feet, but no balcony, while the the 3 bedroom suites vary from 1,140 to 2,480 spacious square feet, and all come with generously-sized balconies. Two of the layouts, the “Radio City Music Hall” and the “Gershwin Theatre,” boast 397-square foot balconies.

Enormous penthouse already sold

The smallest unit in the “Penthouse Collection” is 850-square foot “Abbey Theatre” on floors 36 to 41, while the biggest is the 1,360-square-foot “Carnegie Hall” on the same floors. The “Sky Penthouse Collection” includes the aforementioned “Radio City Music Hall” at 1,990 square feet, and the “Gershwin” at 2,480 square feet. But the 47th-floor “Royal Alexandra” penthouse, with 3 bedrooms, a library and den in 3,270 square feet of interior space, plus a massive 2,026 square foot terrace, is already sold.

Theatre Park is a project of Lamb Development Corp, Niche Development and Harhay Construction Management Ltd.

Below is another photo of the Theatre Park construction site from this past Monday, along with a rendering of the tower from the project website. Additional photos and renderings can be viewed in my February 19 2011 post.

January 2 2011: The Theatre Park condo construction site, seen from the south side of King Street West. When complete, the 47-floor tower will block views of the 66-storey Living Shangri-La Toronto hotel + condo tower which is approaching the end of construction just one and a half blocks away, to the northeast.

From the Theatre Park website, a rendering of the sleek 47-storey glass and steel point tower designed by architectsAlliance of Toronto

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Monthly Archives: January 2012

The skyline and CityPlace on a sunny winter day

Work crews rushing to complete main floor as Trump Toronto Hotel prepares to open Tuesday

Pit stop: Crews dig deeper at FIVE Condos site

Airy and bright entrance cube welcomes visitors to freshly revitalized Toronto Reference Library

The ROM’s Crystal, after an overnight snowfall

Condos and cranes on the lower east side

Dream still alive for green space or new park on boarded-up block of Wellesley Street West

More development planned for Church-Isabella site where controversial highrise addition will be built

Church-Wellesley village loses some of its heritage with demolition of Odette mansion & coach house

Snow day! Photos of some downtown construction sites after a light morning snowfall dusts Toronto

Athletes’ view: Toronto’s Financial District towers

Earth moving at Yonge & Bloor as excavation crews keep digging deeper on One Bloor condo tower site

Corner Glass: Casa condos catch the morning sun

TEYCC being asked to call public meeting to review proposal for 2 condo towers at Dundas & Jarvis

Drilling rig rumbles onto Theatre Park condo site

Tracking Downtown Toronto's AmazingBuilding Boom.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.