Proposed 26-storey Yorkville residential tower could bring curves to Bellair-Cumberland corner

Leave a reply

A 26-storey condo tower with three floors of restaurant & retail space might replace this drab office building at the corner of Bellair and Cumberland Streets.

Development proposal sign posted at 94 Cumberland Street

Arrivederci, Lettieri? Java junkies could lose one of their favourite Yorkville coffee shop hangouts if a developer gets the green light to redevelop a drab, non-descript office building at the northeast corner of Bellair and Cumberland Streets.

The Lettieri espresso bar and café at 94 Cumberland — directly across the street from Yorkville’s famous Sassafraz restaurant — is one of the most popular coffee joints in the neighbourhood, especially in summer when its sun-soaked corner patio is constantly packed with people-watching patrons. But the European-style café could disappear from that busy location if MintoUrban Development Services Inc. gets city approval to construct a condo tower in place of the 9-storey office building in which Lettieri is a ground-floor tenant.

MintoUrban wants to redevelop the site by constructing a mixed-use commercial and residential building that would stand 26 storeys tall. A 23-floor tower with 105 residential units (29 one-bedroom and 76 two-bedroom) would rise from a three-storey podium with restaurant and retail space; the podium roof would have space for an outdoor restaurant patio. There would be five levels of underground parking; access to the garage, service and loading docks would be from Genoa Street behind the building.

Site plans and drawings filed with the city planning department suggest that, unlike the boring, boxy office building it will replace, the condo tower’s design could include a curved wall above the Bellair-Cumberland corner. With an interesting design, along with three full floors for retail and restaurant space, the new building could enhance the corner considerably, and perhaps even help brighten the short block between Bellair and Bay Street which always looks and feels dark because it sits in the shade most of the day. So I’m not upset that 94 Cumberland could get a date with a wrecking ball in the future.

However, approval of the project isn’t in the cards just yet. Last month, the Toronto & East York Community Council requested that a consultation meeting be scheduled to gather community input about the proposal; there’s no word yet on when that meeting will take place, but it should be sometime soon.

Below are some pics of 94 Cumberland, along with a site plan drawing and south-view building elevation illustration that were presented in a city planning department report to the Community Council in January.

94 Cumberland viewed from the SW corner of Cumberland & Bellair

Bellair Street view of 94 Cumberland, looking east toward Bay Street

The popular Lettieri espresso bar and cafe at 94 Cumberland

The 100 Yorkville condo, left, and 94 Cumberland, right

West side of 94 Cumberland viewed from Bellair Street, looking SE

Bellair-Cumberland intersection viewed from the south at Bloor Street

Site plan illustration for the proposed residential tower

Illustration of the south elevation for the proposed building

Renovations will transform seedy budget motel into trendy boutique hotel at corner of Bay & Elm

4 Replies

650 Bay Street, seen Sunday, was previously a budget motor inn…

…but after extensive renovations will reopen as a boutique hotel

From sketchy to trendy: A dilapidated budget hotel at the southwest corner of Bay and Elm Streets is undergoing a top-to-bottom transformation, and will re-enter the city’s hospitality market as a trendy boutique hotel.

The former Bay Street Motel at 650 Bay Street had been looking down-at-the-heel in recent years, and most of the people I saw going in and out looked equally sketchy. I’ve never been inside and, given the seedy look of the hotel and its clientele, never considered recommending it to out-of-town visitors seeking bargain accommodations. Although it offered reasonable rates and an excellent location, the place looked like a dive, and not surprisingly received poor reviews on travel websites. I always assumed the run-down building would get demolished and replaced by a condo tower, and when it appeared that the hotel had closed in late 2010, I kept expecting to see a development proposal sign posted outside.

Instead, I saw renovation activity, and noticed that the windows had been replaced. On Sunday, the sounds of hammering and drilling on the premises echoed two blocks up Bay Street, and I could see several contractors working on the roof and carrying renovation debris to a dumpster at the south end of the building.

When I got home, I did a quick Internet search and discovered that the building is being completely refurbished and converted into a boutique hotel. As described in a featured listing on Toronto real estate agent Addy Saeed’s website, 650 Bay “is currently undergoing an exterior and interior renovation and will re-open as one of Toronto’s most trendy boutique style hotels.”

The website says “[p]remium ground floor space is currently available and suitable for entertainment, retail, hospitality and food services,” while plans to create “Toronto’s largest rooftop patio” are underway. Saeed told me that the building owner still hasn’t chosen a name for the new hotel. Meanwhile, the renovation completion date and hotel opening are up in the air pending the search for a commercial tenant to run the food services operation, which Saeed said “could be a nice take out or sit in restaurant as well.”

Once the weather improves, the building will start getting a new limestone facade; Saeed says that work should be finished by summer. I’m glad to see the old brick building being spruced up and given a new lease on life. If the renovations restore the small building’s charm and character, I’m sure the boutique hotel will do brisk business — especially since its prime location is just a short walk from downtown shopping, hospitals, universities and offices.

650 Bay is just one of many properties bustling with construction activity in the immediate vicinity. One major building going up right across Elm street is the 21-storey SickKids Research and Learning Tower, while condo, apartment, university, and other hospital construction projects are all in progress or launching soon within less than a five-minute walk.

Below is an artistic rendering that appears on Saeed’s website, illustrating how the hotel should look after the renovations, along with several more pics I have taken showing the 650 Bay exterior viewed from several different angles.

An artistic rendering, provided by the building owner, which suggests how the 650 Bay boutique hotel will look with a new limestone facade.

650 Bay viewed from northeast corner of Bay and Elm Streets

Building viewed from the southeast corner of Bay & Elm

A contractor carries a sheet of plywood past the building…

…to a dumpster in the parking lot at the building’s south end

New windows were installed in the building recently

This photo from November 9 2010 shows 650 Bay Street, left, and two cranes on the SickKids Research & Learning Tower construction site

SickKids Research & Learning Tower construction on February 20 2011

A tacky marketing tactic for X2 Condos

Leave a reply

A condo ad detracts from views of Shayne Dark’s bold red “Double Vision” sculpture outside X Condos

An affront to art?: I remember the first time I saw the Shayne Dark sculpture, “Double Vision,” outside the new X Condominium tower. The slender, long lipstick-red tubes rising from the sidewalk at the southeast corner of the tall coal-black condo tower caught my attention from more than two blocks away, so I hurried up Jarvis Street to take a closer look.

Because of its striking visual impact next to the building, Dark’s sculpture, which reminds me of bamboo shoots, instantly became one of my favourite pieces of public condominium art. But it didn’t take long before the eye-catching art unwittingly became a tacky marketing tool for X Condo’s sister project, X2 Condos. In next to no time, a garish black, white and hot pink billboard advertising the X2 condo sales centre was plunked in front of “Double Vision.”

Not only does the sign spoil views of the stunning sculpture, it also cheapens the artwork — which I’m certain cost the condo developer a pretty pile of cash. And speaking of cash, I’m willing to bet lawyers could make a good case demonstrating that the sign violates Dark’s moral rights … after all, remember what happened when the Eaton Centre tied Christmas bows on artist Michael Snow’s Canada geese sculpture, “Flight Stop?”

Memo to the clever marketing people at X2: Time to find a more appropriate place to park the sales office sign; perhaps on the south side of Charles Street, away from the sculpture. Please show some respect and class for the art, folks.

For readers who haven’t seen it, here is a photo from last August showing “Double Vision” when it wasn’t obscured by advertising. A pink sandwich board sign for the X2 sales office looks much less obnoxious placed away from the artwork.

This is what you see now when you view “Double Vision” from the south

City Scenes: Looking up at Maple Leaf Square

Leave a reply

Design details: The various design patterns in the glass walls and balconies of the Maple Leaf Square south condo tower become evident in this photograph of the 50-storey skyscraper, shot from the east sidewalk on York Street. A project of Lanterra Developments, Maple Leaf Square was designed by Page + Steele IBI Group Architects and KPMB Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects.

Five towers: From left are the CN Tower, Maple Leaf Square south tower, a construction crane atop the PWC 18 York office tower, Maple Leaf Square north tower, and the Telus office tower. Photo was taken from a parking lot next to the Toronto Harbour Commission building on Harbour Street on February 18 2011.

High road: The Maple Leaf Square towers viewed from a parking lot located off Harbour Street beneath the Gardiner Expressway.

High life: The two Maple Leaf Square condo towers viewed from Harbour Street. The towers rise from a nine-story podium housing a Le German boutique hotel, offices, shops, restaurants, a grocery store and a bank. The South Tower, left, stands 50 floors, while the North Tower soars a little higher: 54 storeys.

Above the awning: Another view of the Maple Leaf Square south condo tower, this time from beneath the unique artistic awning that extends above the sidewalk along the east side of York Street. More pics of the entire complex — from both indoors and out — can be viewed in the Maple Leaf Square album on the Photo Sets page of the blog.

Historic Addison on Bay building reconstruction partially revealed at Burano condo site

2 Replies

Part of the reconstructed Addison on Bay building was revealed this week when protective wrapping was removed from the facade on Grenville St.

This is how the building looked in September 2008 when it was being dismantled to make way for construction of the Burano condo complex

This artistic rendering from the Burano Condos website suggests how the reconstructed building will appear as part of the new condo complex

Addison’s back on Bay! The Addison on Bay Cadillac dealership closed four years ago, and the historic Addison building itself completely disappeared from the landscape during late 2008 and early 2009. But the building is right back where it had operated as a car dealership since 1925 — only now it’s going to have an entirely new life and function as part of the Burano luxury condo complex currently under construction.

The Addison showroom at 832 Bay Street was designated a historical property by the City in 1999. The dealership continued in business for another eight years after that, but finally shuttered its doors in the middle of March 2007. Despite its prominent, lengthy history downtown, the dealership was forced to close the Bay Street business because of “economic factors, including the increasing cost of maintaining a central downtown location,” dealership president Clarke Addison explained in a letter to customers. (Further details about the Addison site and the demise of the downtown dealership were reported in a Toronto Star story published on March 2, 2007.)

Though the downtown location ceased operations, the Addison car business continued — in Mississauga where, as Addison Chevrolet, it’s that city’s “youngest General Motors dealership.”

But the Bay Street property wouldn’t sit idle for long.

Addison had been operating not just the historically-designated showroom and a repair garage on the west side of Bay, between Grosvenor and Grenville Streets, but also a new and used car display lot on the east side of the street, also between Grosvenor and Grenville.

Lanterra Developments ultimately acquired the properties on both sides of Bay, and built the two-tower Murano condo complex on the east side. Since the summer of 2008, it has been building Burano on the west property. During the fall and winter of that year, the Addison showroom was dismantled so the site could be excavated for the condo tower. Once the foundation for the new complex had been built, reconstruction of the Addison building commenced.

Protective sheeting has blocked the facade from public view for the past three months, but a section of wrapping was removed from the Grenville Street wall of the structure late last week.

Below are some pics I took while the Addison building was being dismantled and then re-assembled. There’s also some pics of the newly revealed Addison facade on Grenville Street, along with other recent photos showing construction progress on the Burano condo tower. An album of Burano pics from the beginning of construction to this month can be viewed on the Photo Sets page of the blog.

October 13 2008: The Addison on Bay building gradually being dismantled

November 22 2009: Foundation work begins in the Burano condo excavation

May 2 2010: Addison building takes shape during reconstruction

May 2 2010: Another view of the Addison building reconstruction progress

July 26 2010: Grenville St. view of frame for new Addison building

November 9 2010: Rebuilding progress before the structure went under wraps

December 21 2010: Frame of building partly visible under wraps

February 9 2011: Murano tower, crane seen from College St. at University Ave.

February 9 2011: Burano viewed from Grosvenor Street near Surrey Place

February 20 2011: Burano construction progress viewed from College Street

February 20 2011: Burano viewed from southeast corner of Bay and Grenville

February 20 2011: The unwrapped Grenville Street facade viewed from Bay Street

February 20 2011: Reconstructed Grenville Street facade is exposed

Another view of the reconstructed Addison facade on Grenville

Foundation work reaches grade at southern half of SickKids Research & Learning Tower building site

Leave a reply

An aerial view from the SickKids Research and Learning Tower webcam shows the construction site under a light blanket of snow this afternoon

Making grade: Roughly half of the foundation for the SickKids Research and Learning Tower is virtually at street level on the southern half of the construction site at Bay and Elm Streets. The north half is taking shape quickly, and isn’t far behind. Shouldn’t be long before the 21-storey tower starts to rise above the bright blue and white hoarding that protects pedestrians passing the construction site on the west sidewalk along Bay Street. Below are some construction progress photos from yesterday morning.

Tower construction site viewed from Elm Street, east of Bay Street

Main floor construction forms have reached ground level

Looking north from a security fence at the Elm Street construction entrance

The gap should be closed early this week when work resumes

Looking north from corner of Elm & Bay Streets

Looking northwest from corner of Bay & Elm Streets

A glimpse of the first underground level, from the corner of Bay & Elm Street

Looking northwest from corner of Bay & Elm Street

Looking west through a window in the hoarding along Bay Street

More foundation work remains to be done at the north end of the site

Walton Street view of progress on the north half of the foundation

Columns for west wing of tower visible above the hoarding along Bay Street

Construction site viewed from southeast corner of Bay and Elm Streets

Keeping tabs on … M5V condos on King West

Leave a reply

M5V condo tower viewed from Clarence Square Park January 14 2011

Big Red Box: I have to be honest: I keep confusing the M5V Condominium tower on King Street West with Boutique Condo at the corner of Simcoe and Nelson Streets, a few blocks to the east. In fact, I have nearly mislabelled photos of the two towers while organizing my pictures. Though they’re products of completely different designers, builders and developers, they’re both tall glass boxes with what I consider quite similar designs — particularly up top.

What does distinguish them, however, are the splashes of colour on the north and west facades of M5V’s tower and podium. And I never mistake M5V when viewing the tower from the north or the west: there’s just no way to miss the distinctive big red box that sits nearly halfway up the 34-storey tower’s northwest corner. (It houses the building’s mechanical room and rainwater retrieval system.)

M5V is drawing closer to completion, and the project website says that building occupancy is scheduled for June. I’m anxious to see the hoarding come down from the front of the tower, so I can see and feel how the building contributes to the King West streetscape. Shouldn’t have to wait too much longer for that.

M5V is a project of Lifetime Developments and TAS DesignBuild. There’s more information and photos of M5V on the project website as well as on the M5V section of the TAS website.

Below are some photos I’ve taken of M5V at different stages of construction in recent months; there are more pics in the M5V album on the Photo Sets page of the blog.

The big red box that houses the M5V condo tower’s mechanical room

November 2 2010: CN Tower view of M5V Condominium building

November 2 2010: CN Tower view of M5V’s upper floors and roof

November 29 2010: Charlotte Street view of the CN Tower and M5V Condo tower

November 29 2010: Coloured window panels on north wall of M5V condo tower

November 29 2011: Another Charlotte Street view of M5V

November 29 2011: Looking up from corner of King & Charlotte Streets

November 29 2011: Tower viewed from the north side of King Street

November 29 2011: A view of the 8-storey podium above King Street

November 29 2011: Looking up at the big red box mechanical room

January 14 2011: M5V viewed through the bare trees at Clarence Square park

January 14 2011: The upper floors of the tower’s west side

January 14 2011: M5V condo tower viewed from the southwest on Front Street

February 17 2011: The street level hoarding I can’t wait to see dismantled

February 17 2011: Another view of M5V, this time looking west along King Street

February 17 2011: The M5V tower on a dull, overcast afternoon

Excavation getting deeper for Lofts 399 condos

2 Replies

Website rendering of Lofts 399 condo currently under construction

Lofts 399 excavation activity on February 17 2011

Digging away: Looks like a condo building is slowly but surely getting constructed, at last, at 399 Adelaide Street West.

A condo project called Mode Lofts originally had been planned and sold for the site west of Spadina Avenue, but never materialized. Mode ultimately got cancelled, but Cresford Developments resurrected plans for a loft project on the same location, and now there’s finally a big hole in the ground.

Now named Lofts 399, the 10-storey building will have 173 units. It will become a new neighbour to the two Quad Lofts buildings that will flank its east and west sides, as well as the Victory condos building which is nearing completion to its immediate south.

Once Lofts 399 has finished construction, it will enclose a landscaped contemporary square between the four condo buildings — the so-called “Hidden Garden” pictured on the Lofts 399 website.

Below are several photos I took Thursday of the ongoing excavation work at the project site.

The two Quad Lofts buildings bookend the Lofts 399 excavation while Victory Condos on King St., nearing the end of construction, sits to the southeast.

Quad Lofts, left, and Victory condos behind the excavation site

Lofts 399 excavation viewed from the east side of the property

The construction vehicle ramp from Adelaide Street into the pit

Only three or four construction workers were on site

Excavator digging at southwest corner of the pit

The pit is more than two levels deep so far

One worker watches the backhoe dig

Making the mucky earth move

Will City’s fear of heights trim plans for 39-storey condo tower at King & Spadina?

1 Reply

The LCBO store at the corner of King Street West and Spadina Avenue on Jan. 14 2011. A developer wants to build a 39-storey condo tower here.

Goldilocks planning principles?: The bizarre attitudes that City Hall sometimes displays toward building development proposals in the downtown core can be enough to drive a guy to drink. Thank God the big liquor store at the southeast corner of King & Spadina should be staying put for at least a few more years!

The one-storey LCBO outlet occupies part of a prime piece of property on which a developer has unveiled plans to build a 39-storey condo tower featuring high-tech windows that would harness solar energy. The proposed building would have fewer floors than the Theatre Park tower I wrote about yesterday — the condo building that Lamb Development Corp. got the go-ahead to build just three blocks east, next door to the Royal Alexandra Theatre, after initially getting double thumbs-down from city planners and politicians. (Lamb appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board; ultimately, the parties settled the case and the Theatre Park project is now being marketed to purchasers.)

Councillor advocates block-by-block development

Yesterday I mentioned a November 11, 2010 National Post story that described the Theatre Park planning ruckus. The article quoted Ward 20 City Councillor Adam Vaughan as saying Theatre Park “may be the last tall building on this block.” According to the National Post, Vaughan “wants to move away from site-by-site development, and toward block-by-block development, so that neighbourhoods retain a certain scale, and residents can count on keeping the view they purchased.”

Protecting precious views sounds like a great idea, but it’s totally unrealistic for a city that’s expecting its population to increase by hundreds of thousands of people in the decades ahead. Toronto certainly won’t be able to pack all those people into low-rise accommodations (which wouldn’t have views in any event). And while it seems completely reasonable for the city to oppose highrise construction in certain places, such as established, low-rise residential neighbourhoods, it doesn’t make sense to object when towers are proposed for downtown locations totally suitable for tall structures.

Is developer “aiming too high?”

That’s the case with the LCBO site, over which Vaughan is up in arms because the developer is aiming too high with its condo plans. “We’ve got a building there that’s too short. They’re coming in with a building that’s just a bit too tall,” Vaughan told The Globe and Mail earlier this week. He “would like to see the developers shave at least 50 metres off the proposed height — and throw in some community benefits like supportive housing or family-centred units,” the Globe reported in a story published on Tuesday.

Okay, so a one-storey building is “too short,” 39 storeys is “too tall,” but something 50 metres shorter would be just right? Sounds to me like the city is purporting to apply Goldilocks’ porridge and furniture preferences to city development planning! Given Vaughan’s strenuous objection, you’d think that the developer, Cabo Three Investments Inc., was proposing to plunk its tower smack in the middle of a historic residential district with streets of distinguished one- and two-storey houses. But that’s not the situation with the liquor store location.

Neighbourhood already has condo towers

Spadina is one of the city’s widest and busiest streets and there’s already several condo towers in the immediate vicinity, with more under construction and even more being marketed for sale. And just two blocks south, the mammoth Concord CityPlace condo development is a dense urban canyon of enormous tall towers, with even more on the way. I have walked around the King & Spadina area three times in the past six weeks, and think Cabo Three’s tower would suit the site perfectly. Heck, an even taller one would, too! To me, Vaughan’s height complaint seems ridiculous. Besides, the tower won’t be going up until the end of this decade at the earliest, because the LCBO’s lease runs until 2019. Moreover, the solar-energy gathering glass windows the developer would like to install in its tower are still in the development stage, but should be a viable technology by the time Cabo Three wants to sink its shovels into the ground.

Residential plus office and retail space

By the end of this decade, tens of thousands more people will be living downtown, and the King & Spadina area will be substantially more busy and dense than it is now. In those circumstances, building tall makes sense and is realistically the only way to go. So I’m hoping that this project, like Theatre Park, gets the green light and ultimately comes to fruition. By the way, as proposed, the tower would house 443 residential suites atop two floors of commercial office and retail space (the LCBO has said it would be interested in acquiring space in the new building, no doubt because the neighbourhood’s population is forecast to grow by nearly 11 per cent in the next five years). The tower would have five underground parking levels with 311 spaces, and the brick heritage building next to the LCBO on King Street would be incorporated into the complex. Below are photos I’ve taken recently of the project site and immediate vicinity.

Development proposal sign on the LCBO store at King & Spadina

The LCBO store at King & Spadina seen here on February 3 2011

This 6-storey heritage building at 401 -409 King St. W. would be incorporated into the 39-storey condo complex proposed for this prime corner location

Upper floors of 401 – 409 King St. W. seen February 17 2011

Street level view of 401 – 409 King St. W. on February 17 2011

Site viewed from the NW corner of King and Spadina on February 17 2011

Spadina Avenue view of the LCBO store, left, and some of condo skyscrapers at the massive Concord CityPlace development two blocks south on Spadina

Site viewed from west side of Spadina Avenue, just north of King Street

Site viewed from the NW corner of Spadina Ave. and Adelaide St. W.

LCBO store seen from west side of Spadina Avenue on Feb. 17 2011

Intersection of King and Spadina viewed from the west side of Spadina

Oh the horror! The proposed condo would completely dwarf the Winners store and the Petro Canada gas station to its south, seen here on February 17 2011

These townhouses on Clarence Square, one block south, are the nearest low-rise houses. Although highrises already overlook their back decks, including the M5V condo tower at center, they face charming tree-lined Clarence Square, so residents can’t complain about losing nice views.

City Scene: Wellington Street’s glass curtain wall

Leave a reply

Joined at the hip?: When viewed from certain angles to their north, the RBC Centre (left), Simcoe Place (center) and Ritz-Carlton Toronto towers (right) appear to form one huge H-shaped mass of glass and steel. When seen from some spots to their south (below), the Ritz-Carlton, Simcoe Place, RBC Centre and the Intercontinental Toronto Centre on Front Street West (foreground) all look fused together, too.

47-storey Theatre Park condo tower will bring architectural excitement to Entertainment District

1 Reply

Tower rendering from the Theatre Park condo project website

Planning drama: I suppose it was only fitting that high drama ensued when an application to built a condo tower next to the Royal Alexandra Theatre was filed with city hall back in early 2009. Especially since the rapid pace of condo development in Toronto’s popular Theatre/Entertainment District has become a hot-button topic with area businesses, residents and City Hall.

It just wouldn’t have seemed right if the city had simply told Lamb Development Corp. and its partner Niche Development to go ahead and “break a leg” with its plans to build a striking 45-storey point tower at 224 King Street West, a site which has been occupied by a parking lot for the past 40 years. Just as one might have expected, though, city planners balked at the Theatre Park proposal. They were concerned that the building would be far too tall for the neighbourhood, and they feared that approving the project could set a dangerous precedent that ultimately could encourage other developers to demolish historical low-rise buildings in the area and construct towers in their place.

It didn’t seem to matter that a handful of highrise buildings already were under construction within a two-block radius, including the 53-storey Ritz-Carlton and 65-storey Living Shangri-La hotel/condo towers, and the Boutique and Festival Tower condos (35 and 41 storeys tall, respectively).

When the city rejected the application, the developers decided to challenge the decision at the Ontario Municipal Board. However, the parties reached a settlement allowing construction of a tower that would be slightly shorter, but would have 47 floors instead of 45.

Background about the planning and political drama behind the project, as well as some details about the proposed tower, were outlined in a November 11 2010 story in the National Post. Less than two weeks later, the Theatre Park project received rather robust attention during an advance sales event for VIP agents and brokers.

The building design, by Toronto’s architectsAlliance, is destined to get plenty of attention, too, though it remains to be seen if it will receive rave reviews from the critics once it is finally constructed. The Theatre Park website heralds the tower design as “audacious” and “iconic,” and I think those descriptions are apt. The slender tower will have a dramatic, bold presence on the Entertainment District skyline, while its open street-level plaza next to the Royal Alex should enhance the King West streetscape (particularly since the sidewalk along the north side of King always feels too narrow, and gets claustrophobically crowded both before and after performances at the Royal Alex and the Princess of Wales Theatre a few doors west).

Below are several architectural renderings that appear on the Theatre Park website, along with some photos I snapped recently of the condo project site and its famous next-door neighbour. The website has additional renderings, floorplans, and a four-minute animated video that suggests how Theatre Park will look on the skyline.

Artistic rendering of the Theatre Park penthouse

A website rendering of the tower podium and plaza on King Street West

Artistic impression of how Theatre Park will appear at street level

Another website illustration of the condo plaza fronting on King Street

Promotional billboard at 224 King Street West last November

Theatre Park site viewed from the south side of King Street on January 3 2011

A billboard with a tower rendering, seen here January 3, replaced the first sign

The Theatre Park billboard was gone when I passed the site on Thursday

The Royal Alexandra Theatre, seen here on Thursday afternoon

View toward the Theatre Park condo tower site on February 18 2011. Only one block to the north are the Boutique condo tower, left, and the Living Shangri-La Toronto hotel/condo complex, with the pink signs and construction crane.

City Scene: Adelaide Street keeps growing taller

Leave a reply

Towers rising: This view of Toronto’s Financial District — seen yesterday from the intersection of Adelaide Street West and Widmer Street — will change considerably in the next few months as the Living Shangri-La Toronto hotel and condo tower and Trump International Hotel + Tower Toronto climb taller.

This particular block of Adelaide will look drastically different in a couple of years, too. The 43-storey Cinema Tower condo is under construction behind the red hoarding at right; another 43-storey condo, the Pinnacle on Adelaide, will be going up beside it, where the white billboard stands.

Meanwhile, a developer is seeking city approval to build a 37-storey condo and office tower where the building with the yellow awnings is situated at left. That’s currently the location of the Entertainment District’s ever-popular Alice Fazooli’s Italian Grill. Mamma Mia! Where’s poor Alice going to go?

Taking a peek at Pier 27’s construction progress

2 Replies

From The Residences at Pier 27 project website, an illustration of the condo complex under construction on Queen’s Quay Blvd. E.

This truck was pumping concrete into the Pier 27 excavation today

Crane coming?: Thanks to the spring-like thaw in the weather over the past couple of days, the excavation at the Pier 27 condo development on the waterfront has become one enormous muddy hole in the ground. But construction work continues nonetheless, and today I saw a concrete pumper truck at the northeastern end of the massive waterfront excavation. Since it looks to me — from the street and sales centre parking lot, at least — that the lion’s share of digging has been done, I suspect that concrete was being poured to build the base on which a construction crane will be installed sometime very soon.

I hope my assumption is correct, because I’m eager to see this development shake up the shape of the city’s lacklustre Lake Ontario shoreline. Right now, the waterfront is crowded with far too many tall buildings that share an unfortunate but common character trait: disappointing, dull designs. Whether they’re shiny glass and steel cylinders, or glass and concrete or brick boxes, most are boring, bland buildings that look like something you’ve seen somewhere else many times before. Some are downright ugly. What’s worse: they’re clustered in pairs and threesomes of lookalike towers. Most of the harbourside highrises would look drab enough individually, but as a long line of homely twins and triplets, they collectively give the city skyline a repetitive cookie-cutter appearance from the water.

Though they are basically just pairs of mid-rise glass and steel boxes themselves, it’s the dramatic rooftop “skybridges” linking the 12-storey Pier 27 condo buildings that will give this project an interesting flair and unique bold style that should finally break the decades-old pattern of architectural monotony along Queen’s Quay boulevard.

I also like the refreshing low scale of the development, which thankfully won’t create another wide, tall wall blocking the rest of the city from the water, like so many of the condos built in the last 30 years.

A project of Fernbrook Homes and Cityzen Developments, The Residences of Pier 27 were designed by Peter Clewes of Toronto’s architectsAlliance.

Below are photos I have taken of the condo sales office and excavation, along with several artistic building renderings that appear on the project’s website. (Some pics I’ve published previously can be viewed in this construction progress post from early January.)

Additional renderings and six construction photos, along with an animated project video, can be viewed at the Pier 27 website.

From the Pier 27 website, an aerial lake-view illustration of the condo complex

From the website, an artistic waterside view of one of the condo buildings

Side view rendering of one of the condo buildings and its rooftop “skybridge”

Pier 27 sales office next to the construction site

Another view of the Pier 27 sales centre

The southwest side of the Pier 27 excavation on February 18 2011

Another view of the west end of the giant excavation

Break time? Idle earth movers at the top of the excavation

Several huge mounds of dirt still must be removed

Pier 27 residents with east-facing units will get to enjoy this view of the Redpath sugar refinery (along with the peculiar, syrupy odour that permeates the air)

Concrete pumper working at the Pier 27 site February 18 2011

A solitary excavating machine digs away at the south side of the enormous hole

This is the east side of the excavation, next to the Redpath property

On the edge: the concrete truck pumps away

Another view of the concrete pumper truck

City Scene: Reflections of the CN Tower

Leave a reply

Two towers in one: The CN Tower reflects in the west wall of the RBC Centre office building on Wellington Street West, in these photos taken this afternoon.

From Days Inn to Holiday Inn: Popular Carlton St. hotel gets a main entrance facade makeover

Leave a reply

Workers install signs on the renovated hotel facade February 17 2011

This photo, posted on TripAdvisor.com by TA member Kloetzchen, shows the former building facade when the hotel was still a Days Inn

Happier holidays ahead?: The Days Inn on Carlton Street was a popular hotel, particularly with bus tour groups, but in recent years travellers regularly complained online that the place was tired, worn, and in sore need of major renovations. I never saw any of the rooms myself, but friends who stayed there said the the accommodations were only “okay” — not great. They liked the hotel’s convenience to Yonge Street, downtown shopping and attractions, and the nearby Church-Wellesley gay village area, but that was about it. I did walk through the Days Inn main floor lobby about two years ago, though, and thought it looked extremely dated.

I’ll be keen to see how much the interior has changed when the hotel re-opens next month as the Holiday Inn Downtown Centre. The Days Inn closed last year and the hotel has been getting a makeover inside and out in preparation for its launch as a Holiday Inn on March 15.

For months the building’s facade along Carlton Street was hidden behind scaffolding and hoarding while workers gave the exterior an entirely new look. The old facade sported sloping glass canopies above the two Carlton Street entrances, as well as above the hotel restaurant, sports bar and coffee shop that used to occupy main floor. The recessed areas above the canopies always gave the front of the hotel a brooding, dark appearance, even on sunny days, while the glass was usually streaked with dirt, dust and city grime.

The hoarding was taken down several weeks ago, but the entrances remain boarded up. The new facade is sleek glass and steel; the canopies have been removed and replaced with vertical panes of glass that sit flush against the building wall. The result is a crisp, clean and neat front face, but the new look hasn’t grown on me yet. I used to walk past the Days Inn several times a week, and preferred how the old facade related to the street — it had a pleasant street presence that was friendly to pedestrians. By comparison, the slick Holiday Inn facade has a cold office-building-like feel that isn’t as comfortable to walk past. Maybe that will change once restaurants and coffee shops or hotel facilities have been set up inside, and there is actually something to see through the big front windows. So I’ll reserve final judgment on the renovations until then.

Below are some pics I snapped yesterday; when I walked past, workers were installing two Holiday Inn signs above the entrances.

Holiday Inn signage installation on the new facade

Finishing touches to the new facade February 17 2011

The new Holiday Inn’s next-door neighbour, Maple Leaf Gardens, is getting a massive makeover of its own. It is being converted into a multi-purpose facility featuring a Ryerson University Sports centre and a Loblaws grocery store.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.

www.TheTorontoBlog.com

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing Building Boom.

Proposed 26-storey Yorkville residential tower could bring curves to Bellair-Cumberland corner

Renovations will transform seedy budget motel into trendy boutique hotel at corner of Bay & Elm

A tacky marketing tactic for X2 Condos

City Scenes: Looking up at Maple Leaf Square

Historic Addison on Bay building reconstruction partially revealed at Burano condo site

Foundation work reaches grade at southern half of SickKids Research & Learning Tower building site

Keeping tabs on … M5V condos on King West

Excavation getting deeper for Lofts 399 condos

Will City’s fear of heights trim plans for 39-storey condo tower at King & Spadina?

City Scene: Wellington Street’s glass curtain wall

47-storey Theatre Park condo tower will bring architectural excitement to Entertainment District

City Scene: Adelaide Street keeps growing taller

Taking a peek at Pier 27’s construction progress

City Scene: Reflections of the CN Tower

From Days Inn to Holiday Inn: Popular Carlton St. hotel gets a main entrance facade makeover

Tracking Downtown Toronto's AmazingBuilding Boom.

Tracking Downtown Toronto's Amazing
Building Boom.