July 25 2013: A man walks past a wall taking shape at the Ryerson University Student Learning Centre construction site at the northeast corner of Yonge & Gould Streets. The circle on the architectural rendering below shows this particular wall’s location along the east side of Yonge.
Click on the image to view a full-size version. The rendering, by project architects Zeidler Partnership Architects of Toronto and Snøhetta of Oslo and New York City, is one of several on the Ryerson University website.
Above grade: Now that construction has climbed into view above street level, people passing by the intersection of Yonge & Gould Streets are getting a glimpse of some key design elements of the Ryerson University Student Learning Centre.
From Gould Street as well as from Yonge Street just south of Gould, passersby can now clearly see construction crews working on the steps that will lead to an elevated entrance plaza on the south side of the university building. Meanwhile, construction forms for the Centre’s west wall along Yonge Street have started to become visible above the Urban Umbrella scaffold protecting the sidewalk on the east side of Yonge.
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Anyone know if there will be an underground connection to the north end of the Dundas TTC Station?
The proposal that was accepted by Toronto City Council on November 29 2011 did not include a direct underground TTC connection. A City planning department report indicated that a subway entrance/exit at the Student Learning Centre was not “practical or cost effective” because the Dundas subway station platform didn’t extend far enough north. A more appropriate additional entrance/exit to the subway station would be on the southeast corner of Yonge & Gould, the site of the former Empress Hotel that was destroyed by fire set by an arsonist. The building proposal accepted by City Council does, however, indicate “a knockout panel in the basement of the Student Learning Centre on the south wall for a potential subway station connection, via a potential PATH route under Gould Street, and the construction of both an above grade and below grade connection across the City of Toronto right of way at O’Keefe Lane into Ryerson Student Library.” Hopefully someday in the near future this second subway station access point will materialize.
Thanks for the comprehensive and concise response. Hoping something with a TTC entrance will go up soon on that southeast corner. There is a signboard on the site but it seems to be soliciting investor interest rather than announcing a specific project.
Investor wants a huge development permit in exchange of south east subway connection to ryerson.
Kris: thanks for asking THE question right off the bat… unfortunately, just like many other developmental problems that Toronto has (public transit for example) it seems that when it comes to planning things, logic takes a back seat to special interests.