40-storey condo proposed for Yonge & Isabella

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625 Yonge Street

A development application has been filed with the City for this 625 Yonge Street property at the southeast corner of Yonge & Isabella Streets. The proposal calls for a 40-storey residential tower with retail shops and offices to take its place.

 

625 Yonge Street

October 10 2012: The 625 Yonge building, viewed from the southwest

 

looking north on Yonge Street from Irwin Street

October 10 2012: Looking north on Yonge from Irwin Street. The 625 Yonge development site (white building with the yellow and black YSFC banners) has the cachet of being situated only three blocks south of the prime Yonge & Bloor intersection.

 

Condos on the corner: News that a rezoning application had been filed with the city for a commercial property on the corner of Yonge and Isabella Streets left the nearby neighbourhood rife with rumours and speculation yesterday about what is in store for the site. Not surprisingly, most people expected an announcement would be forthcoming that a condo  tower project is being proposed.

Word spread quickly that an entry for 625 Yonge Street had been added to the development projects page in the planning department section of the City of Toronto website. For most of the day, the website entry listed only the municipal address for the development application, its file number, and contact details for the city planner responsible for the file. It did not provide any specifics about how big or how tall the development would be, or whether it would be condos, offices, retail or a mix of all three. The absence of further information led to considerable conjecture about the owner’s plans for the property. (When I checked the entry late yesterday afternoon, it still lacked details; this morning, someone called my attention to additional information that finally had been added sometime during the evening.)

 

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Topping-off time for The L Tower

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The L Tower October 4 2012

The L Tower viewed from the west on Front Street near University Avenue

 

The L Tower

A construction crew pours concrete on the top level of The L Tower, 58 storeys above Yonge Street & The Esplanade. Click on the picture to view a larger image.

 

The L Tower October 4 2012

 The upper levels appear to recede in this view of The L Tower ‘s north side

 

The L Tower October 4 2012

Looking up The L Tower’s northwest corner, from Yonge Street

 

Top-off time:  The L Tower marks a construction milestone this afternoon with a topping-off ceremony that will include an exciting aerial performance by a 5-member troupe from Vancouver’s Aeriosa Dance Society on the skyscraper’s north side.

Word is that the building’s internationally renowned architect, Daniel Libeskind, will be in the city to participate in the celebrations. The L Tower is Libeskind’s second major building design in Toronto in the past decade; his previous landmark, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), opened during the summer of 2007.

 

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Former Alice Fazooli restaurant razed to make way for construction of The Bond condo tower

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294 Adelaide Street West

October 4 2012: Hoarding protects the sidewalk alongside the former Entertainment District location of an Alice Fazooli’s restaurant at 294 Adelaide Street West …

 

Alice Fazooli's Italian Grill

… seen here on February 17 2011 before part of the restaurant building was converted into a presentation centre for The Bond Condominiums tower, which will be built on the site

 

Alice Fazooli restaurant building demolition

 October 1 2012: Demolition of the one-time restaurant building as seen from a parking lot next to the northwest side of the site …

 

Alice Fazooli restaurant building

… and through one of the building`s front windows, before the installation of protective hoarding blocked views of demolition work from the street

 

 The Bond Condominiums

This building illustration appears on The Bond Condominiums website. Click on the image to view the rendering in a larger format.

 

The Bond Condominiums

This illustration, also from the project website, depicts a street-level view of The Bond’s podium. The building was designed by Toronto’s Core Architects Inc. Click on the illustration to view a larger-size image.

 

Adieu, Alice: I still recall fun times with family and friends at the former Alice Fazooli’s restaurant in the Entertainment District nearly a decade ago, so I wasn`t surprised to feel a tad nostalgic when I saw the building being smashed to smithereens this week, clearing the space for construction of a yet another condominium tower.

The once-popular restaurant site at 294 Adelaide Street West is being razed as preliminary construction work kicks off for The Bond Condominiums, a 40-storey condo tower that will take its place. Designed by Toronto’s Core Architects, The Bond is a project of Lifetime Developments. It will have 369 condos in studio plus  1-, 2- and 3-bedroom configurations, along with a collection of penthouse suites, an outdoor private terrace, and extensive indoor amenity spaces.

 

 

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TEYCC expected to request public meeting on 49-storey condo proposed for 587-599 Yonge

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587-599 Yonge Street

This large sign, one of three posted around the site, outlines a proposal filed with the City to redevelop the 587-599 block of Yonge Street between Gloucester & Dundonald Streets. (Click on photo to view a larger image and read the details.)

 

587-599 Yonge Street

A developer’s plan to build a 49-storey condo tower with 513 units and 2 floors of retail space would completely transform this block of Yonge Street, viewed here from the northwest …

 

587-599 Yonge Street

… and here, from the southwest. The development would include two townhouses on Gloucester Street as well as a restaurant building on Dundonald Street.

 

Tower talk: City planners are asking Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) to convene a community consultation meeting so they can get public feedback on a condo tower development plan that would transform an entire block on the east side of Yonge Street, between Dundonald and Gloucester Streets.

The planners’ request, a routine step in the city’s development review process, is an agenda item for tomorrow’s (October 10) monthly meeting of the TEYCC.

As I reported in my August 28 2012 post, an application has been filed with the City for zoning amendments that would allow construction of a 49-storey condo tower on the 587-599 block of Yonge Street. At that time, few details about the proposal were available. More information is now in the public domain, thanks to a September 17 2012 preliminary report that city planners have prepared for TEYCC’s consideration.

 

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Planners ask city to oppose developer’s bid to build 37-storey condo tower at 40 Wellesley East

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40 Wellesley Street East Toronto

40 Wellesley East presently is occupied by this 5-storey office and retail complex, formerly known as the Orthopedic and Arthritic Sciences building

 

40 Wellesley Street East

This illustration, from a September 17 2012 city planning department report, depicts the south elevation for a 37-storey condo tower proposed for the 40 Wellesley site …

 

40 Wellesley Street East

… while this illustration depicts the tower`s north elevation. City planning documents say the building`s architect is Sweeney Sterling Finlayson & Co. Architects of Toronto

 

 

Wall on Wellesley: City planners are urging Toronto City Council to oppose an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) appeal in which developer 862015 Ontario Inc. is seeking approval to build a 37-storey condo tower at 40 Wellesley Street East.

Although a 44-storey tower originally had been proposed for the site seven years ago, planners object to the revised plan for a highrise with seven fewer floors on the ground it still represents “overdevelopment of the site,” does not “provide adequate transition” to the low-rise residential neighbourhood to its north, and “creates significant issues regarding shadow impact, overlook and privacy for the mid-rise and low-rise buildings in the area.” Those and other formal objections are explained in full detail in a September 17 2012 “request for direction report” the planners prepared for Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC).

 

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Ryerson Image Centre opens tonight

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Ryerson Image Centre

September 25 2012: The entrance to the new Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) at 33 Gould Street on the Ryerson University campus. The RIC opens to the public tonight.

 

Ryerson Image Centre night photo by Tom Arban

The RIC occupies the west side of the Ryerson University School of Image Arts building, the northwest corner of which is seen in this Tom Arban night photo provided courtesy of Diamond Schmitt Architects. Click on both photos to view larger-size images of each.

 

Open doors: Arts aficionados finally get to visit the newest destination on the city’s ever-expanding cultural landscape tonight when the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) leaves its doors open all night long as part of the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche festival.

The RIC is situated in the School of Image Arts building, which recently won the 2012 AL Light & Architecture Design Award for Best Use of Colour. Originally a brewery with few exterior windows, the brick building was expanded and totally transformed into a showcase faculty and gallery facility designed by Toronto’s Diamond Schmitt Architects. In sharp contrast to the original structure, transparent glazing lets people see in and out  three sides of the redesigned building while an LED system concealed in the exterior double-glass cladding lights up the university campus at night with a regularly-changing array of colours. (See my September 10 2012 post for full details and photos of the building and its lighting system.)

 

 

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Through another lens: Looking north from FCP

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This photo by Colin Gruchy captures the great view from an office on the 41st floor of First Canadian Place on September 20 2012. Click on the photo to view a larger-size image.

 

Great view: It’s a good thing I don’t work on a high floor in an office tower in the downtown core — I would probably spend practically all of my time looking at buildings and watching construction activity. Especially if I sat near a window with a north view like the one in the photo above that Colin Gruchy shot two days ago.

It’s a great vantage point for keeping track of at least four major construction projects currently underway in the downtown core: the Nathan Phillips Square revitalization at City Hall; the MaRS Centre Phase 2 tower at College Street and University Avenue (slightly visible to the upper left of City Hall’s west tower); the Motion on Bay Street apartment highrise directly behind City Hall’s east tower; and the Aura condo skyscraper to the northeast of that, at Yonge & Gerrard. And in just a couple of years’ time, construction of the 54-storey INDX condominium tower, which will be built on a site bounded by Richmond, Sheppard and Temperance Streets, will dominate the foreground of this particular view.

Got a good Toronto construction or building photo you’d like to share? Drop me a line at: [email protected]

 

Halfway there: Aura climbs to 39 storeys

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Aura condos at College Park

September 19 2012: Looking up the north side of the Aura condo tower. Construction reached the milestone halfway mark this week when work commenced on the 39th floor of the 78-storey skyscraper. (Click on the photo to view a larger-size image.)

 

Aura condos at College Park

September 22 2012: My balcony view of the Aura condo tower this afternoon. Construction forms for supporting walls are in place on the north side of the 39th floor.

 

 Aura condos at College Park

September 22 2012: Cladding and window installation has started on the 30th floor

 

 Midpoint milestone: The Aura condo tower at College Park has reached the halfway point — 39 floors — where building activity including concrete floor pours and construction of supporting walls has been underway the past two days.

When it tops off at 78 storeys, Aura will become Canada’s tallest residential building.

I can’t help but watch Aura’s construction progress — the window next to my computer looks straight at it. Even though I’m more than five blocks away to the northeast, I can feel the strong presence of the big rectangular slab of concrete and glass looming over my left shoulder. I’m not impressed by the building’s appearance so far, but I am looking forward to the point at which Aura reaches the 59th floor and construction commences on 16 levels of “executive suites” and five floors of penthouse and sub-penthouse residences. The oval shape for that top section of the tower will give Aura a unique silhouette on the city skyline, and be considerably more interesting and appealing to look at.

 

 

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Regent Park’s Daniels Spectrum provides bright, inspiring space for creativity, culture & innovation

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Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre

The Daniels Spectrum at 585 Dundas Street East, seen last Friday …

 

Daniels Spectrum

… and again today, sporting its new signage. The Spectrum officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning, and will be hosting a public open house on Saturday.

 

Daniels Spectrum photo provided courtesy Diamond Schmitt Architects

Another Dundas Street view of Daniels Spectrum, this time in a photo provided courtesy of Elizabeth Gyde/Diamond Schmitt Architects

 ~

 

Great space:  I’ve been absolutely amazed by the incredible neighbourhood transformation that has been taking place the past several years in Regent Park, where a 15-year revitalization project is gradually rebuilding the east downtown area’s 60-year-old social housing development into a completely new mixed-income and mixed-use community.

Though still in early stages of the multi-phase project, the makeover has already given the heart of Regent Park a remarkable look and feel with modern new townhouses, apartment buildings and condo highrises, attractive landscaped streets and public spaces, and bustling retail shops and services. But the official opening today of the impressive new Daniels Spectrum (formerly known as the Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre, as it was called up until this morning’s ribbon-cutting ceremony) is about to add an entirely new dimension of energy and excitement to the neighbourhood.

 

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Pit stop: X2 Condos parking floors filling in

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X2 Condos

September 9 2012: Another underground parking level takes shape at the X2 Condos construction site at the southwest corner of Jarvis & Charles Streets. Nearly three of the building’s six below-grade levels have been constructed so far.

 

X2 Condos

September 9 2012: A closer view of an underground floor taking form

 

X2 Condos

September 9 2012: Rebar is being put in place to prepare for a concrete pour

 

X2 Condos

September 9 201: Jarvis Street view of construction progress on the 49-storey tower.

 

X2 condos rendering

A project of Great Gulf and Lifetime Developments, X2 Condos was designed by Toronto’s Rudy Wallman Architects Ltd. The tower will have 470 suites.

 

X2 Condos tower rendering

This artistic rendering, which appears on the project website, depicts a view of the 49-storey tower from the northeast.

 

 X Condominium

X2 Condos will be a sister to the X Condominium tower on the north side of Charles Street (seen here in a view from the southeast on August 30 2011).  The 44-storey X Condos, which opened for occupancy two years ago, was designed by architectsAlliance.  Together, the developers say, X and X2 will stand as an eastern “gateway to Yorkville/Bloor.”

 

Condo tower building sites squeezing traffic on construction-weary Charles Street East

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Construction hoarding outside 42 & 45 Charles Street East Toronto

September 1 2012 : One-way Charles Street squeezes into a single narrow lane while hoarding and security fences cramp the already-narrow sidewalks along the facing condo construction sites for ChazYorkville, left, and Casa 2 right

 

45 Charles Street East Toronto

September 1 2012: Hoarding has surrounded the ChazYorkville site at 45 Charles East since last fall, when demolition started on a 45-year-old, 8-storey Modernist-style office building that formerly occupied the property  …

 

ChazYorkville condo tower excavation

… now the site of a large excavation that gets deeper each day

 

 42 Charles Street East Toronto

August 31 2012: Hoarding was installed on the north sidewalk, along the front of the office building at 42 Charles, in late August …

 

42 Charles Street East Toronto

… where the 9-storey brick building, once administrative offices for the YMCA, will be demolished to make room for the 56-storey Casa 2 Condominiums

 

Near 42 and 45 Charles Street East Toronto

August 31 2012: Cars try to squeeze past a dump truck waiting its turn to enter the ChazYorkville site and pick up a load of soil from the excavation

 

Charles Street East Toronto

August 31 2012: Motorists and pedestrians alike will face disruption and traffic congestion on this block of Charles Street for at least the next three to four years …

 

Charles Street postal station February 26 2012

… and possibly much longer, if Canada Post sells Postal Station F at 50 Charles East, right next door to the Casa 2 site, for residential highrise redevelopment

 

Tight squeeze: Residents on and near the block of Charles Street between Church & Yonge Streets have reluctantly resigned themselves to at least four more years of dirt, dust, noise and traffic congestion, courtesy of two condo tower construction sites practically within whispering distance of each other on opposite sides of the street.

Construction of the 47-storey ChazYorkville condo tower commenced last fall when demolition crews destroyed a Modernist-style office building that had occupied 45 Charles for more than four decades. Foundation shoring and drilling work started in the spring, and excavation activity has been underway since May. 

The same process is set to repeat itself directly across the street where hoarding was installed in late August along the public sidewalk in front of 42 Charles. Demolition of the 9-storey brick office building that presently stands on the site will start this fall, followed by shoring and excavation for the 56-floor Casa 2 Condominiums tower.

 

 

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First SkyBridge taking shape at Pier 27 condos

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Pier 27 condos

September 11 2012: Iron framework for the SkyBridge span has been installed atop the two condo highrises on the eastern half of the Residences of Pier 27 construction site

 

Pier 27 condos

This artistic rendering, which appears on a marketing billboard outside the Pier 27 condo construction site, shows how the SkyBridge will appear when complete

 

Pier 27 condos

September 11 201: SkyBridge construction viewed from the public sidewalk along Queen’s Quay Blvd. on the north side of the building site

 

Bridge building: Construction activity at The Residences of Pier 27 has become considerably more fascinating to passersby now that a signature SkyBridge span is fast taking form atop the B1 and B2 buildings on the east half of the condo site.

The first time I noticed that SkyBridge construction had commenced was when I passed the site on August 22, and saw several beams jutting into the air from the west wall of one of the buildings. I couldn’t get back down to the area to take another look until September 3, by which point it appeared that work on the frame was complete.

 

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Exterior lighting system at Ryerson Image Centre wins architecture design award for use of colour

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Ryerson Image Centre photograph by Tom Arban

The LED system in the cladding of the new Ryerson Image Centre and School of Image Arts building on Gould Street glows red in this photograph by Tom Arban …

 

Ryerson Image Centre multi-colour lighting photograph by Tom Arban

… and offers a bold multicoloured pattern as seen in this Tom Arban photo

 

Light fantastic: One of my favourite new downtown buildings — the Ryerson Image Centre and School of Image Arts on the Ryerson University campus — has won an architecture industry award for the colourful impact of an LED lighting system built into its exterior.

The faculty and gallery building, designed by the team of Donald Schmitt, Peggy Theodore, Steven Bondar, Liviu Budur, Zvonimir Cicvaric and Tara Plett at Toronto’s Diamond Schmitt Architects, recently received the 2012 AL Light & Architecture Design Award for Best Use of Colour. The annual award is sponsored by Architectural Lighting Magazine whose editor, Elizabeth Donoff, said of the new Ryerson facility: “The work shows moments of articulated restraint as well as moments of exuberant celebration.”

 

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Milan Condo construction climbs to 5th floor

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The Milan Condominium

September 6 2012: Podium and tower construction progress at The Milan Condominium

 

Photo update: Construction of the podium for The Milan Condominium has climbed to five floors, giving an early indication of how drastically the 37-storey tower will dominate the Yonge-Church-Davenport intersection once it’s finished.

Below are several photos I snapped while walking past the construction site on Thursday. Pictures from earlier in the summer and spring can be viewed in my August 12 2012 post and my May 9 2012 report.

 

The Milan Condominium

September 6 2012: The Milan Condominium construction progress viewed from the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Davenport Road, looking east

 

The Milan Condominium

September 6 2012

 

The Milan Condominium

September 6 2012

 

The Milan Condominium

September 6 2012

 

The Milan Condominium

September 6 2012: Construction viewed from the southeast, along upper Church Street

 

The Milan Condominium

September 6 2012

 

 

Motion on Bay construction rises past 20 floors

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Motion on Bay apartments

September 7 2012: A view of the Motion on Bay Street rental apartment highrise from atop the podium green roof at Toronto City Hall to the south

 

Motion on Bay apartment highrise

September 7 2012: A look  up the tower’s east side, from Bay Street…

 

Motion on Bay apartment highrise

… and a view of Motion from the northwest, along Dundas Street

 

Photo update: Construction of the Motion on Bay Street rental apartment highrise has passed 20 storeys, on its way to a final floor count of 29.

A project of Concert Properties, the 463-unit building is scheduled for completion next spring.

 

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