Tag Archives: Rawlinson Cartage building

3 big digs on Yonge Street (Part 2: FIVE Condos)

Shoring continues at FIVE Condos site as developer seeks city’s approval to add 5 more floors to tower

December 11 2011: The tower for FIVE Condos will rise up to 50 storeys from this location near the southwest corner of Yonge Street and St Joseph Street …

… where earth moving and drilling machines have been preparing the site for full-scale excavation, expected to commence early in the New Year

An enormous steel frame extends halfway across St Joseph Street to support the four-storey brick facade of the former Rawlinson Cartage Company warehouses at 5 St Joseph Street. The facade will be incorporated into the base of the tall glass condominium tower, with minor alterations to some of its ground floor openings.

The frame looms above the arched main entrance to 5 St Joseph Street …

… seen here, from the northwest corner of St Joseph and St Nicholas Streets …

… and here, from the public sidewalk at the west side of the structures

This row of designated heritage buildings from 606 to 618 Yonge Street …

… also will be incorporated into the FIVE Condos development. The buildings will be restored with retail shops at street level and condo suites on the upper floors.

The historic Henry Turner Building at the corner of Yonge and St Joseph Streets is presently home to the FIVE Condos presentation centre

The west (rear) side of the Yonge Street heritage buildings that will be restored and revitalized as part of the FIVE condo complex

Higher FIVE?: One of the most talked-about condo projects in downtown Toronto, FIVE Condos at 5 St Joseph, could wind up slightly taller than was originally envisioned if a city committee gives the developers approval to boost the tower’s total height.

Back in the fall of 2008, the owner of a .267-hectare site at the southwest corner of Yonge and St Joseph Streets applied to the city for zoning bylaw changes that would permit redevelopment of several historic buildings on the property into residential and retail uses, along with construction of a 49-storey condominium point tower. In August 2009, the developer revised its application after receiving preliminary feedback from city planners and Toronto’s Heritage Preservation Services. It trimmed the tower to 45 floors, and also reduced the height and size of the tower podium. On October 22 2009 the Toronto Preservation Board gave the nod to the heritage components of the proposal, while five weeks later Toronto City Council approved the project.

Graywood Developments Ltd. and Mod Developments Inc. subsequently launched sales for FIVE Condos in 2010, and the project proved immensely successful: suites sold swiftly, and FIVE Condos emerged a big winner at the 2011 BILD Awards in April, claiming honours for High-Rise Project of the Year, Best High-Rise Building Design, Best High-Rise Sales Office, and Best Model Suite. (Hariri Pontarini Architects designed the condo project, while E.R.A. Architects Inc. is overseeing the restoration of the heritage building component.) Now the developers are seeking approval to add 5 more floors to the tower, for a total of 50 storeys. They have submitted a minor variance application to the Committee of Adjustment, and anticipate that their application will be heard at the committee’s February 2012 meeting, Graywood’s development manager, Gabriel DiMartino, told me this week.

Yonge Street condo development trend?

Despite all the accolades and strong sales, some area residents are disappointed that the developers are seeking to add more floors to the tower. They worry that city approval for the extra height will set what they consider to be a disturbing trend for skyscraper development along the stretch of Yonge Street between College and Bloor Streets, where several condo tower projects have already been proposed and more are in the works. Last year, for instance, the developer of the Nicholas Residences condominium on St Nicholas Street two blocks north of FIVE Condos appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board after the city’s Committee of Adjustment denied its application for a “minor variance” permitting it to add six storeys to its popular tower project. (The city had approved a 29-floor tower, but the developer wanted to increase that to 35.) A residents’ group called Save St. Nick opposed the extra floors; they were concerned about the potential detrimental impact the tower could have on the livability of their quiet downtown neighbourhood and the quaint tree-lined and cobblestoned St Nicholas Street in particular. The case settled when the developer agreed to pay $750,000 towards projects intended to benefit the local community. (Construction of the 35-storey tower is now underway.)

Biggest heritage protection project in Canada

Although the extra height proposed for FIVE Condos irks some people, most neighbourhood residents seem pleased — and relieved — that the project will save a significant stretch of heritage buildings along Yonge Street while retaining the historic Rawlinson Cartage Company warehouse facade on St Joseph Street. Staff with the city’s planning and heritage departments are happy, too. At one public meeting I attended, for example, City of Toronto senior planner Michael Hynes praised FIVE Condos as “the largest heritage building protection project in the country,” and pointed out that part of the project will include substantial streetscape improvements to Yonge, St Joseph and St Nicholas Streets. Indeed, facades for two recently-demolished heritage buildings on the west (St Nicholas Street) side of the FIVE Condos site will be recreated from new brick matching the size and colour of brick on the original structures. Incorporated into the condo tower base, the rebuilt facades will maintain much of the unique look of the pre-construction St Nicholas streetscape. And at several public consultation meetings I attended this fall, members of local neighbourhood associations cited the FIVE Condos treatment of heritage properties and the placement of the tower 30 meters back from Yonge Street as an example of appropriate condo development that could complement and perhaps even enhance Yonge without destroying the street’s historic look and character.

Project praised in local newspaper reports

Meanwhile, FIVE Condos continues to attract positive public attention in local newspaper reports. In an October 27 2011 Globe and Mail article entitled “Yonge Street’s oldsters make room for a glitzy neighbour,” columnist Dave LeBlanc describes the “metamorphosis” the Yonge-St Joseph-St Nicholas block will undergo, and provides a brief history of the heritage buildings on the FIVE Condos site. In the November 9 2011 Metro newspaper article “Toronto’s old buildings get a second life as condos,” writer Duncan McAllister describes FIVE Condos as a project “heavy on the conservation,” and a development that “promises to transform this forgotten corner into a renewed urban zone.” And in the November 11 2011 National Post article “Follow the cobblestoned street to the city’s best new-but-old condos,” writer Suzanne Wintrob examines how the FIVE Condos project is retaining the historic integrity of the late 19th Century buildings on its site. She quotes Mary MacDonald, acting manager of the city’s Heritage Preservation Services, as saying that the FIVE Condos developers are “keeping all the exterior elements of the heritage property, adding their own tower, and they’re going the extra mile to make sure that the commercial character of Yonge Street as a main street — with a certain 19th-century character that we’ve kind of lost sight of these days — is restored. We’re hoping that will trigger a conservation movement and a restoration movement up the street.”

(Extensive information about the heritage properties and how they will be restored and incorporated into the condo complex can be reviewed in an October 1 2009 background report that the city’s planning department prepared for the Toronto Preservation Board and the Toronto and East York Community Council.)

Although the FIVE Condos application to the Committee of Adjustment won’t be decided until February at the earliest, preliminary construction activity continues. Shoring work has been underway for several months, and excavation has commenced. Full-scale excavation will begin in the new year once the shoring is finished, Mr. DiMartino said.

Below are several illustrations of the FIVE Condos project, provided courtesy of Hariri Pontarini Architects. The post previous to this one features photos of site demolition and pre-construction activity on the FIVE Condos site between April and today. (If some of the images seem familiar, it’s because they have appeared in my previous blog posts about FIVE Condos, including June 2 2011, May 12 2011, and April 28 2011).

This illustration suggests how the 19th Century heritage buildings at 606 to 618 Yonge Street will look once the project has been completed

This illustration shows the facade of the Rawlinson Cartage Company warehouse building at 5 St Joseph Street incorporated into the condo complex

This rendering shows how the west side of the FIVE Condos complex will appear along St Nicholas Street once the heritage building facades have been rebuilt

This drawing depicts a view of the FIVE Condos complex from the northeast

Going …

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May 31 2011: Demolition is underway at the FIVE Condos site on St Joseph Street…

… where this unsightly rear addition to a late 1880s-era Yonge Street heritage building is being destroyed…

… as part of the extensive FIVE Condos block redevelopment and condo tower building project at Yonge & St Joseph Streets, depicted in this illustration provided courtesy of Hariri Pontarini Architects in Toronto

Falling for FIVE: Wrecking crews have been busy on St Joseph Street, where this week they began knocking down parts of buildings that presently occupy a site where the 45-storey FIVE condo tower will ultimately rise. The structures being demolished sit to the rear of several 1880s-era historical buildings at the southwest corner of Yonge and St Joseph Streets, which will be preserved and restored as part of the FIVE Condos at 5 St Joseph redevelopment project.

First to go was a tacky two-storey rear addition to the charming building right at the corner of Yonge & St Joseph; a sports bar once occupied the upper level, while the ground floor was part of a Timothy’s coffee shop during the late 1990s and early 2000s and, most recently, a shawarma shop. Just to the immediate south, a boxy three-storey brick structure is also being pulled down. The good news is that six old brick buildings with storefronts along Yonge Street will be restored and incorporated into the FIVE Condos development, as will be the case with the facade of the former Rawlinson Cartage warehouse building on the corner of St Joseph and St Nicholas Streets. A senior city planner, Michael Hynes, has publicly described the FIVE Condos development as “the largest heritage building protection project in the country.”

FIVE is a team project by MOD Developments Inc., Graywood Developments Ltd., Tricon and Diamondcorp, along with Hariri Pontarini Architects, Cecconi Simone Inc. interior design, and Janet Rosenberg & Associates landscape architects. FIVE was a bigger winner at the 2011 BILD Awards, presented in late April by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). It won four major awards, including High-Rise Project of the Year, Best High-Rise Building Design, Best High-Rise Sales Office, and Best Model Suite.

Below are several photos showing demolition activity at the FIVE Condos project site this week. Additional information, photos and architectural renderings of the project are provided in my April 28 2011 post, while there are a few more pics of demolition equipment at the site in my May 12 2011 post.

May 31 2011: Hoarding extends along Yonge Street outside the old buildings that will be incorporated into the FIVE Condos development

May 31 2011: Construction and demolition equipment outside the former Rawlinson Cartage warehouse building on St Joseph Street

May 31 2011: Demolition activity at the FIVE Condos site on St Joseph Street

May 31 2011: The structures being demolished sit at the rear of the historic buildings being preserved on the Yonge Street flank of the FIVE Condos site

May 31 2011: This former warehouse is quickly being reduced to rubble

Work gets underway preparing Yonge-St Joseph site for construction of 45-storey FIVE condo tower

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FIVE Condos, depicted at dusk in this illustration provided courtesy of Toronto’s Hariri Pontarini Architects, will become a landmark for the Yonge-Wellesley area.

April 22 2011: A St Joseph Street view of the FIVE Condos development site

April 27 2011: Soil testing and utility service locating activity on St Nicholas Street, the western flank of the FIVE Condos construction site

High FIVE: The block to the northwest of Yonge and Wellesley Streets is set to become downtown’s newest condo construction zone, as crews begin preparing the site for FIVE Condos at 5 St Joseph. For the past two weeks, contractors have been conducting soil tests on the project site perimeter, while on Tuesday workers began locating and marking utility service entry points to the property, including gas, sewer and power lines. Yesterday and again today, St Nicholas Street was closed to traffic between St Joseph Street and Phipps Street as crews conducted more preliminary work along the northwest flank of the FIVE Condos location and continued demolishing the interior of some of the buildings on site. That section of St Nicholas Street could remain closed to vehicles and foot traffic for up to four years — the time it’s expected to take to construct FIVE’s 45-storey tower, heritage lofts and street-level retail spaces.

I wish construction wasn’t going to take so long, because I’m anxious to see not just how the FIVE tower will appear on the city skyline, but also to see if I’m right in predicting that this significant mixed-use development project could kick-start a much-needed renewal of the worn and weary Yonge Street strip between Wellesley and Bloor Streets.

FIVE is an intriguing project that will transform a large L-shaped piece of property fronting on St Nicholas Street to the west, St Joseph Street to the north, and Yonge Street to the east. There are three heritage buildings on the site — the Rawlinson Cartage buildings at 610 and 612 Yonge Street, and the William Doherty building at 614 Yonge street — along with other historically noteworthy structures including Rawlinson warehouse buildings at 5 St Joseph and along the east side of St Nicholas Street.

I must admit I felt dismayed when the FIVE project was publicly proposed three years ago, and not just because it meant my favourite gym would eventually be closed (I used to work out at a fitness club that occupied three floors of the Rawlinson building on St Joseph; it was a wonderful, incomparable space for a gym, and I was sorry to learn it was going to become loft condos). Word on the street at the time suggested that most of the heritage buildings between Yonge and St Nicholas would have to be razed to make way for a modern glass and steel tower. I dreaded the thought that the wonderful brick buildings might be demolished, since that would totally destroy the neighbourhood’s charm, ruin the look and feel of the narrow brick-paved St Nicholas laneway, and sadly eliminate some charming old buildings from the streetscape along Yonge. But I was hugely relieved once I saw that Hariri Pontarini Architects had sensitively designed the condo development around the heritage buildings, and wasn’t going to take away the things I love most about this particular area. Now I’m actually looking forward to the construction. I think that FIVE will not only breathe new life into a big block of historic buildings, but could also reinvigorate the surrounding neighbourhood, and perhaps even exert a positive influence on further thoughtful development along the Yonge Street strip.

With distinctive curving glass balconies, the 45-storey FIVE condo tower will establish a visual landmark and focal point for the Yonge & Wellesley area. The refurbished facades for the re-purposed historic buildings will become landmarks in their own right, preserving and enhancing the neighbourhood’s charm and character while demonstrating that development doesn’t always require the destruction of old buildings. FIVE could be a trailblazing project, showing the city and developers how to blend new residential highrises into older, low-rise buildings along a major commercial thoroughfare without spoiling the unique look and feel of the streetscape. My key hope is that the city will ultimately pedestrianize St Nicholas to complement the cafés and boutiques envisioned for FIVE’s street level; a European-style promenade with outdoor café seating would be a perfect enhancement to the neighbourhood. (5ive, a gay dance bar that formerly occupied the ground floor of 9 St Joseph,operated a café and bar on the tree-shaded boulevard in front of the building for a few summers in the early 2000s. It would be great to see the northwest streetcorner at the FIVE complex come alive with something like that once again.)

For the next several years, though, I’ll have to wait and watch while FIVE goes up. That should be equally interesting to follow. While crews dig a 19-meter-deep excavation on the construction site, the five-story facade of the Rawlinson building on St Joseph Street will have to be preserved and maintained. That means a steel support structure must be erected on the street to hold the wall in place. Although the five-storey west wall of the historical building on St Nicholas Street will be dismantled to allow for construction of the FIVE tower, it will be rebuilt. Since the developer needs construction staging areas, on-street parking spaces must be removed from the south side of St Joseph; meanwhile, the narrow (5.5-meter wide) stretch of St Nicholas between St Joseph and Phipps Street must be closed altogether for the duration of construction. The street closures and parking space removals could cost the developer $216,000 in fees payable to the city, full details of which are outlined in a March 30 2011 city report.

Below are recent photos I’ve taken of buildings on and around the FIVE development site, along with renderings provided courtesy of Hariri Pontarini Architects that suggest how the Yonge, St Joseph and St Nicholas streetscapes will appear once the heritage buildings and facades have been restored and rebuilt into the condo complex. Additional renderings, including images of the FIVE tower from four different perspectives, can be viewed on the St Joseph + Yonge project description page of the Hariri Pontarini website.

From a background file on the City of Toronto website, a Transportation Services diagram shows street closures required for the construction of FIVE Condos

The development proposal sign that was posted outside 5 St Joseph Street, seen here in December 2008. The original plan proposed a 49-storey tower, but a 45-floor tower will be built instead.

December 19 2008: The former Rawlinson Cartage building at 5 St Joseph Street

The FIVE Condos site at the southwest corner of Yonge and St Joseph Streets seen during a snowstorm on December 19 2008

March 1 2009: Neighbourhood opposition failed to stop the development

April 19 2010: A view of the southwest corner of Yonge and St Joseph Streets. A long advertising banner indicates the Yonge Street properties that are part of the FIVE Condos development site

April 19 2010: The FIVE Condos site on the south side of St Joseph Street just west of Yonge Street

April 19 2010: Banners advertising FIVE Condos on the facade of the former Rawlinson Cartage building at 5 St Joseph Street

April 19 2010: Street-level view of the former Rawlinson Cartage building

April 19 2010: Looking west on Dundonald Street toward the FIVE Condos site

December 4 2010: Looking south on St Nicholas Street at the west side of the FIVE Condos site. This brick facade will be dismantled and rebuilt.

December 4 2010: The west side of the FIVE Condos site viewed from the southwest corner of St Nicholas Street and Phipps Street

December 4 2010: The west side of the FIVE Condos site viewed from Phipps Street looking north along St Nicholas Street

December 4 2010: The west side of the FIVE Condos site, looking north along St Nicholas Street from the corner of Phipps Street. This part of the project site will be transformed into street-level retail space (see below).

This rendering, provided courtesy of Hariri Pontarini Architects, suggests how dramatically St Nicholas Street will be transformed with the addition of street-level retail space in the FIVE Condos development

December 4 2010: This passageway through one of the buildings on the FIVE Condos site leads from St Nicholas Street to a laneway behind Yonge Street

March 12 2011: A view of what’s at the east end of the passageway, looking toward the back of several buildings that front onto Yonge Street.

March 12 2011: Looking north from the laneway behind St Nicholas and Yonge Streets. The FIVE Condo tower will rise 45 floors from this location.

December 21 2010: Looking east on Phipps Street (behind the Sutton Place Hotel) toward the FIVE Condos development site

December 21 2010: A view from Phipps Street of one of the St Nicholas Street buildings on the FIVE Condos development site

December 21 2010: The Shred Central skate park at 19 St Nicholas Street was the city’s last indoor skateboard facility. It closed in January to make way for the FIVE Condos construction. The park’s closure, after 13 years of operations, made the news in the December 3 2010 issue of the Globe and Mail.

December 21 2010: St Nicholas Street view of the three-storey building at the south end of the FIVE Condos development site. The five-storey brick building at far right is not part of the FIVE project.

December 21 2010: Street-level view of the west wall of the FIVE Condos site on St Nicholas Street, just below St Joseph Street

December 21 2010: Looking up at the St Nicholas Street facade

December 21 2010: Fire stairs on the St Nicholas Street facade of the Rawlinson Cartage building at 5 St Joseph Street

April 9 2011: The southwest corner of Yonge & St Joseph Streets

April 9 2011: Three of the Yonge Street properties included in the FIVE project

April 9 2011: More of the Yonge Street properties that are part of the FIVE project

This rendering, provided courtesy of Hariri Pontarini Architects, illustrates how the Yonge Street buildings and storefronts will be incorporated into the FIVE Condos project

April 19 2011: The Eleven Residences condominium building at 11 St Joseph Street was originally another historic Rawlinson Cartage building. When the building was redeveloped into a residential highrise in the early 2000s, its facade was dismantled and reassembled — as will be the case with the facades for the buildings where FIVE Condos will rise.

April 22 2011: A St Joseph Street view of the Five Condos site

April 22 2011: Southeasterly view of the 5 St Joseph Street building and the development site along the east side of St Nicholas Street

This rendering, provided courtesy of Hariri Pontarini Architects, offers a St Joseph Street view of the FIVE Condos development

April 22 2011: The entrance to the FIVE Condos presentation and sales centre at 5 St Joseph Street. The street level premises of this former Rawlinson Cartage building have been home to at least three gay bars: Katrina’s during the 1980s, Colby’s in the 1990s, and 5ive in the early 2000s.

April 22 2011: Buildings on the north side of St Joseph Street, directly across from the Five Condos site

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