Entertainment District : Development News

Nominations opened this week for the 2012 Green Toronto Awards, though the most interesting category from the 2011 edition has been dropped.

Last year, the awards expanded to include a green homes category, aimed at individuals who had done something remarkable to or with their own homes.

"It wasn't our strongest category," says Jessica Chow, co-ordinator for the city-sponsored awards. "We don’t know why. We noticed a lot of them were, 'Oh, I recycle in my home.' It wasn't really what we were after."

So this year, it's been folded into the more general green design category, where individual homes will now compete with eco clothing, green roofs and other design innovations.

Nominations can be submitted here until midnight on Feb. 6. Winners will be announced in March.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jessica Chow

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A week ago, residents in the King-Spadina area got a chance to take a peek at an idiosyncratic new approach to the development of their idiosyncratically zoned neighbourhood.

"We're looking at a couple of blocks that have properties that are landlocked," says ward councillor Adam Vaughan. "They don't constitute development sites in and of themselves, but parcels of land and adjoining developers are proposing a way of building in the interior of a rather large block while protecting heritage buildings on King and on Wellington."

In addition to these developments having no effect on any street-facing buildings, they will also have to contend with rights-of-way that date back to the 1820s. These were put in place to assure property owners' access to fresh water, a real concern in the early 19th century. "It's almost impossible to strip a property of water access," Vaughan says.

As a result, the developments, which won't be much higher than 35 metres, or 10 storeys, are likely to include pedestrian walkways along the old water-access routes. Vaughan compares the idea to the courtyards of Berlin, or a series of apartment buildings in Paris' Marais district that have carriageways cut through  them.

About 40 local residents got an introduction to the basic concepts on Wednesday, as visualized by architects David Pontarini, Les Klein and Core Architects for the Wellington site. A fuller workshop is being held on Dec. 12 to go into more detail. (You can call or email Vaughan’s office for details.)

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Adam Vaughan

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The Adelaide Club is getting s $500,000 makeover.

"We're looking to do a total renovation," says general manager Blair Lyon. In addition to renovating the two existing studios, contractors will be creating a third for group exercise.

"There are waiting lists of 18 people per class," Lyons says.

The health club, founded in 1978, is part of the Cambridge Group, which includes the Cambridge Club and the Toronto Athletic Club. Clive Caldwell is the majority owner.

The architect behind the renovation is David Peters, who will be incorporating designs by Steffanie Gareau.

Work will commence in December and be completed in January. The club will remain open, with studios and the squash court going into rotating closures.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Blair Lyon

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One of the city's most iconic buildings is getting a facelift and a new purpose.

Known to a generation of Torontonians as the seat of our Second City troupe, the Old Fire Hall is now undergoing a renovation to become the new home of Complections, a college of make-up art and design.

The building at 110 Lombard Street was originally constructed in 1886, and then rebuilt after the great fire of 1904. It was most recently the home of Gilda's Club (now known somewhat less memorably as the Cancer Support Community), which provides what they refer to as "psychosocial" care for cancer patients.

"They made many little living rooms in the house," says Complections president and co-owner Pamela Earle. "We've taken the walls out and created eight classrooms, and one large classroom for the graduation days."

The renovation will also remove the drywall from the old windows, and undo the dropped ceiling, revealing the original five-metre-high first-floor ceiling.

The building's a big move up for the school, which currently occupies about 8,500 square feet on St. Nicholas Street. Earle figures they'll be able to take about 30 more students a year, increasing the annual enrolment to 200.

The schedule calls for an early 2012 opening.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Pamela Earle

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The people who brought us LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification are bringing their trade show to Toronto.

The 10th anniversary of the Greenbuild expo and conference runs Oct. 4-7 at the Metro Convention Centre. It's the first time the show has been held outside the United States.

"We focused on Toronto not only because it is a modern global hub for green building and development," says Jennifer Easton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Green Building Council, "but also because of our strong relationship with the Canadian Green Building Council."

The show will feature exhibits from about 1,000 companies related to green building, as well as talks by Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, Thomas Friedman and Cokie Roberts. The opening plenary session will be entertained by Maroon 5.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jennifer Easton

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A new tower's worth of condos just went on sale in a building its architects hope will help create a new hub of street life in the core.

The second phase of Quadrangle's Studio towers--a 41-storey complement to the first, 31-storey tower--will begin construction next month.

"The discussions with the city with respect to the massing on this site were very interesting," says Quadrangle principal Les Klein. "It took a long time for us to uncover that their main concern had to do with the shadowing that might occur on the north side of Queen Street. When we established that this was their concern, we were able to nail down an approach… to eliminate those shadows."

The building, developed by Aspen Ridge Homes, will include what Klein refers to as a linear park, a quarter-acre green roof five storeys above the street, for tenants' use.

The tower's five-storey podium will, Klein hopes, also create some vibrancy-inducing streetscape.

"I like that Phase 2 is at the corner of Duncan and Nelson," he says, "Nelson being an emerging street leading from the Shangri-La on the east end to the John Street corridor on the west end. We see this as a major anchor to creating this new public amenity of this upgraded Nelson Street."

If sales go well, Klein expects the tower to follow close on the first tower's heels, and be completed by the beginning of 2015.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Les Klein

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The men behind The Social and Parts & Labour are opening an event space tonight at King and Bathurst.

The 8,000 square foot Hoxton will be a general entertainment space, the first of which will be a DJ show on Sept 3.

The building itself, once a printing factory, according to Hoxton principal Jesse Girard, was most recently the State Theatre night club.

"We completely gutted it," Girard says., "We changed the entranceway, we built a stage at the end of it. It used to be a very dark, cluttered space. We moved all the washrooms."

The design was conceived by Castor, the same people behind Parts & Labour. The renovation cost $750,000.

Girard and his partner, Richard Lambert, handled the contracting themselves on the project, which they started in February. "That's something I'll never do again," Girard says. "It's too much hands-on work. We tried to save some money. But it was an interesting experience."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jesse Girard

Photos courtesy of Notable.ca, Canada's digital publication for young professionals.

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"We're not digging anymore, thankfully," says Jim Ritchie of the Three Hundred, a long-planned condo at Front and John.

As of last week, the foundations were being poured on the 683-suite condo by Tridel, which according to Ritchie, who is Tridel's senior vice president for marketing and communications, is about 90 per cent sold.

The complex consists of one 49-storey tower and one 13-storey building next to it.

Designed by Rudy Wallman and Wallman Architects, Three Hundred is scheduled to be ready for occupancy by April of 2013.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Jim Ritchie

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Reve, the almost completed condo at Front and Bathurst, may be the first building to bear its architect's name after a recent by-law was passed making it mandatory.

"I don't know if the law is going to take effect in time," says Tridel's senior vice president of sales and marketing Jim Ritchie, "but we already put plaques that say Tridel on every one of our buildings, so it would be easy to do and we'd be happy to accommodate it."

The architect of the 305-unit building is Rudy Wallman.

The building started taking its first occupants, mostly singles and couples according to Ritchie, at the beginning of the month, and it will be complete by the end of the year.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jim Ritchie

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The next step in the ongoing process to give John Street its due, the city is holding an open house tomorrow to discuss the cultural corridor's future.

The city will be presenting printed display panels, large scale plans of short-listed alternative to the street's current state, along with illustrations and comments from the previous public consultation held on June 17, 2010. There will be staff to answer questions and gather further comment.

"Following the open house, the city and the consultant team will continue to meet to decide on and finalize a technically preferred alternative for John Street," says Stephen Schijns, manager of the city's transportation division's infrastructure planning department. The consultant will prepare a draft Environmental Study Report that documents the whole study process and its conclusions. It is intended that staff will report to Public Works and Infrastructure Committee at its meeting of September 13, 2011 with the study recommendations, and seek endorsement of the plan at Committee and subsequently at council. If endorsed, the city would proceed to file the Environmental Study Report with the Ministry of the Environment for a thirty-day public review period, in accordance with the requirements of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process. This filing would occur in the fall."

If this seems like an extraordinarily long process for some street furniture and a possible pedestrian zone on a six-block-long street, well, you can ask the staff about that, too.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Stephen Schijns

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There will be a public meeting tomorrow to discuss the future of John Street, which the city, the local BIA and The Planning Partnership have all decided should be a cultural centre of some sort.

"It's not a new idea," says Harold Madi, partner at TPP, which is spearheading the planning and design aspects of the process. "It's been germinating for 20 years so."

The first official mention of what now looks almost certain to be the 3/4km street's future came in the 2001 Waterfront plan, followed up two years later with a similar reference in the city's cultural plan. Both thought John Street should be a sort of cultural corridor, linking, as it does, the AGO, the CBC, the convention centre and the CN Tower.

Though it's been percolating for years, there is now, according to Madi, a sense of urgency about the project, spurred, he says, by two things. "One, there are a lot of developments proposals along John Street, some already under construction, like Bell Lightbox, and when those developments take place, they re-streetscape the block, and this was an opportunity to create a vision for John Street that would inform those developments, so they could streetscape with a common vision."

The other was the Pan Am Games. "The opening and closing ceremonies are right smack dab in the middle of John Street at the Rogers Centre," he says.

To hurry the process along, TPP has put together a presentation, including background research for the various things that could happen to John Street, which they'll be presenting at the public meeting which will be at Metro Hall tomorrow in room 309 at 6pm. They'll also be unveiling their own suggestion of what they figure, all things considered, would be best for the street.

Though no work is expected to start any time soon, Madi says he hopes the entire project will be finished in time for the Pan Am Games in five years.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Harold Madi

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The Entertainment District is getting a new condo.

To be launched in June, 8 Mercer at the northwest corner of Mercer and John and designed by BBB Architects, will be 33 storeys and house 337 units ranging in size from 519 square feet to 1,786 square feet for a total of 265,000 extra square feet of residential space for the area. Prices will range from the mid-$300s to about $1.8 million.

"They've used a lot of brick in the fa�ade," says Richmond Hill-based developer Beaverhall Homes spokesman Nestor Repetski of the BBB design. "It has very large terraces and substantial balconies, so it looks absolutely residential; some buildings, because of the balance of glass, you can't tell, Is it residential? Is it commercial?"

Beaverhall expects to begin construction on the building � the site is currently a parking lot � in the fall or early winter for a November, 2013 completion.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nestor Repetski

CORRECTION: Graywood Developments Ltd. is a development partner for 8 Mercer. They were omitted in the first edition of this story.

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or renovating, even a cool new house in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to [email protected].

It's been an odd project, a housing assessment and referral centre for the homeless in the middle of the city's entertainment district. And it's been made even odder by the fact that it's been on the build for more than three years. According to city staff, there have been some structural problems with the planned smoking space on the roof. According to Councillor Adam Vaughan, whose ward it's in, the problem is with the city's ability to manage its capital projects.

Vaughan says the official word is that it will be completed soon. "Officially, it's a matter of weeks, which is usually code for a matter of months." But he says he expects it will be finished before summer, complete with the rooftop terrace, which he refers to approvingly as "a private amenity space, like the condominiums in the area have," and a small public parkette in front.

The building will also house a 40-bed shelter for single men who, according to the city's manager of partnership development and support Patricia Anderson, "for whatever reason are reluctant to use the emergency shelter system."

According to Vaughan, the project has cost a little under the $10 million the federal government advanced for it, with a little under $5 million to purchase the building and property, and about $4 million so far for its extensive renovation.

The assessment and referral service is currently being run out of 67 Adelaide Street East while the city waits for the completion of Peter Street.

 

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Patricia Anderson, Adam Vaughan

300 Front, the latest project by architectsAlliance co-founder Rudy Wallman, begins construction this month.

Consisting of a 49-storey tower and a 15-storey loft building, the project at the corner of John Street will have a total of 683 units, with gardens on street level at the southeast corner of the property, which has been a parking lot for some time.

"Its main selling feature is that it's at the heart of the entertainment district," says Tridel spokesman Samson Fung,"and it's one of the highest in the area, so we expect it to appeal to affluent, younger buyers." The building is approximately 70 per cent sold, according to Fung.

The gardens were designed by Montreal landscape architect Claude Cormier. "To give the building a signature presence, we inscribed its address � 300 � directly into the design," he says of the design on his website. "The roadways and sidewalks of the site make up the digits, clearly visible from the high vantage points in the nearby surroundings.

"Like the logo on a Fendi purse, the site-integrated icon is woven through with an intricate network of paving."

Wallman, who was also a principal behind the new Four Seasons and Lumiere on Bay, is one of the city's homegrown starchitects, who along with Peter Clewes (with whom he's worked at Architectsalliance), Quadrangle's Brian Curtner and David Pontarini of Hariri Pontarini have put a lasting stamp on the city during the recent condo boom.
 
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Tridel, Claude Cormier

The long-rumoured, long-delayed Festival Tower is finally up to its 39^th floor, close to its final height and slightly higher than its original planned 37 storeys, and is set for a fall occupancy.

The tower is part of the Reitman Square project, named for a $22-million donation from the family of Canadian movie producer and director Ivan Reitman, that also includes the Toronto International Film Festival's future headquarters, Bell Lightbox at the corner of King and John streets.

The project takes up an entire city block. Bell Lightbox has been at the centre of TIFF's $196-million fundraising campaign, of which 82 per cent had been raised by the end of 2009.

The condos, of which there are "five or six left," according to Heather Lloyd of development partner Daniels Corporation, have been selling for between $400,000 and over $2 million.

Restaurateurs Oliver & Bonacini have announced they will be occupying part of the ground-floor retail space.

The complex was designed by Bruce Kuwabara of KPMB Architects, in association with Kirkor Architects and Planners.

 

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Daniels Corporation