New Developments

Saturday, December 16^th – 11am – 12pm

Winter came early to Riverdale Park East this week when the City announced that the rink and skating trail was completed a month earlier than expected!

Let’s lace up our skates, hit the fresh ice and enjoy a free hot chocolate together.

Please bring a non-perishable food donation for Eastview Neighbourhood Community Centre.

Architect Tye Farrow’s Living Bridges concept would build a condo community atop the Bloor Viaduct.  — Dave LeBlanc, The Globe and Mail

I wasn’t there, but when I hear architects speak of Toronto in the 1960s – and I try to listen as often as I can– it’s hard not to smile: There was unbridled optimism, a sense of adventure, a feeling that the city was ripe for remoulding and that the spirit of Expo 67 wasn’t confined to Montreal. It’s as if everyone was drinking the same Kool-Aid.

That generation, full of Kool-Aid and vinegar, went on to create Aeroquay One, Ontario Place, the Science Centre and the CN Tower. But, at some point in the 1980s, conservatism, design-by-committee, increased regulation, purse string tightening, and recurring recessions all put the kibosh on dreaming. This, one could argue, has lasted well into the 21st century.

But, says architect Tye Farrow, a fan of Ontario Place since it opened in 1971, the time to dream big has come again. And Mr. Farrow has set his sights on another Toronto icon: the Bloor Viaduct.

Working with GRIP Metal, a company that is readying a new type of metal-strengthened plywood for the marketplace, Mr. Farrow has envisioned “Living Bridges.” In an impressive 62-page booklet, he shows a transformed viaduct with new, diaphanous arches set atop the massive concrete piers that link the solid, black-steel arches that were riveted together from 1915 – 17. Set inside his new arches are hundreds of cylinders containing “individual housing suites” of about 350 square feet. Each contains a balcony, living room, kitchen, (relatively) large bathroom and a loft bedroom with a large desk.

The Living Bridges concept features two rows of housing units, with space for commercial development and a pedestrian path. Farrow Partners

 

“It came out of connecting the dots out of a few separate silos that are out there,” Mr. Farrow explains. “The first is the whole issue of affordable housing.” As Toronto becomes a more expensive city, the architect worries that the “massive brains” coming here to study at our universities won’t be able to stay once they graduate.

“We don’t have shovel-ready properties that are affordable, that are near public transportation, that are in a good location,” he continues. “And if you look at the product that’s out there, there are a bunch of these shoeboxes that are miserable.”

The units in Mr. Farrow’s Living Bridge, although small, are anything but miserable: sporting a barrel-vault roof clad in warm wood veneer, their structure allows for full-glass walls and a lack of bulkheads, since services and electrical are run through the “leftover” spaces generated between the curved shell and the flat walls and floor (these spaces also provide a handy place for kitchen cabinets and a sunken, Roman tub in the bathroom). And, since we’re dreaming here, there’s nothing to say a purchaser couldn’t gang two tubes together, as cube-buyers have done at Moshe Safdie’s Habitat. Unit access would be via elevators and stairs built into towers that extend from the bridge’s existing piers.

Underneath the double-row of housing units, there is ample room for soaring spaces containing restaurants, hotels or “social incubators.” Below the roadway, there would be market stalls, tailors, coin laundries, or anything, really, that is necessary for daily life, as well as a pedestrian and bicycle path.

The small residential units would sport barrel-vault roofs. Farrow Partners

 

As the city struggles with how to provide more parkland, Mr. Farrow’s roof structure would be vegetal manna from heaven: a linear park to rival New York’s High Line. And, where the angle of ascent and descent might prove a little steep, pathways would zig and zag at a gradient gentle enough for a wheelchair just as they do on San Francisco’s famous Lombard Street.

And about San Francisco: University of Toronto professor/architect Larry Richards’s wonderful quote, that Toronto is “San Francisco, upside down,” makes its way into Mr. Farrow’s booklet also. The reason? Our immense ravine system makes for dozens of bridges that connect established neighbourhoods together; in many cases, these are neighbourhoods that are no longer affordable for twentysomethings.

Units in the Living Bridge, however, would be inexpensive, Mr. Farrow explains, because the lightweight GRIP Metal material – which embeds thin sheets of metal with microhooks between the plies of wood – costs a fraction of concrete or stick-built, plus further savings could be achieved by building the units off site, trucking them to the bridge and then stacking them up.

The federal government is “pumping tons of money into bridges and pipes and into transit,” so why not create a new tax base to help? Of course, by creating new neighbourhoods out of thin air, there would be other benefits: Something that was once a single-use liability, a bridge, would become an asset with multiple uses, and Tourism Toronto would have a new attraction to trumpet to the world.

The green roof would be a linear park to rival New York’s High Line. Farrow Partners

 

The idea, although bold, is not new. Mr. Farrow acknowledges other “revenue-generating” bridges such as Florence’s Ponte Vecchio, the shops along Pulteney Bridge in Bath, England, and the Kraemerbruecke Bridge in Erfurt, Germany, which Atlas Obscura states has “an entire neighbourhood clinging to its sides.”

But can we dream that big again? Can we spike the water with 1960s Kool-Aid? Perhaps it’s already happened: The red tape around laneway housing is being untangled by a few dedicated souls; firms such as Partisans routinely push boundaries; the mayor is keen on Rail Deck Park; the Bentway is actually getting built; and rather than being laughed out of the room, Mr. Farrow is entertaining multiple offers to speak about Living Bridges at conferences around the globe.

I just hope we build it first.

 

Over the past 20 years, the shoulder areas of Toronto’s downtown have seen a tremendous amount of development. In the 2000s, the west side of downtown went from former rail lands to high density communities within the span of only a few years. In the 2010s, the east side of downtown has seen neighbourhoods like the West Don Lands transform empty brownfield lands into the Athletes Village for the 2015 Pan Am Games, and then a new neighbourhood for the city.

But just across the (hopefully soon-to-be naturalized) Don River, there is a proposed development that will radically transform the land use and the transit patterns of the area: East Harbour. According to developer First Gulf, East Harbour will feature 11 million square feet of office space, enough for 50,000 workers, on 60 acres. From a transit perspective, it will act as the major transit hub for the eastern edge of downtown, with at least 2 GO Train lines, a streetcar line, and the future Relief Line Subway all intersecting at this location.

The proposed transit hub is a remarkable structure, featuring a high ceilinged glass arch over both the GO Train platforms and the future extension of Broadview Ave, on which the streetcar is located. The soaring arches evoke a sense of grandness, emphasizing the space in a fashion common to many European central rail stations. Underneath the GO and streetcar interchange, the Relief Line subway platform would be located under Eastern Ave. The design of both the transit hub and the subway station are barely more than conceptual at this point, but as you can see in the drawing below, a direct connection between the three different rail modes is envisioned.

Sweeping Arches of the Transit Hub as seen from Broadview Ave, courtesy the Planning Rationale submission to the City of Toronto

 

This transit hub is valuable to the City on two different levels. On a neighbourhood level, this hub provides significantly improved transit access not only for the development site itself, but also for the surrounding South Riverdale neighbourhood. With express access to the Union Station area using GO, the CBD using the Relief Line, and local destinations using an extended Broadview streetcar, the East Harbour transit hub will make this area one of the best connected neighbourhoods in the entire GTA. The proposal also significantly improves the active transportation options in the area, including new cycling paths along the Don River. The transit hub itself also acts a bridge over the Don River, and includes a ramp on the southwest end of the station to access Corktown Common, as seen in the first image below.

Site Plan depicting the site’s integration with the surrounding neighbourhood, courtesy the Planning Rationale submission

Cross Section of the Transit Hub, courtesy the Planning Rationale submission to the City of Toronto

 

On a network level, the East Harbour transit hub represents a critical interchange location outside of the downtown. The different types of services that intersect there represent a transfer point for downtown-bound commuters that has the potential to relieve crowded or overcrowded existing transit infrastructure, most notably Union Station.

By offering a transfer point for inbound GO passengers before Union, East Harbour could siphon away transfers before they even reach the Union Station complex. For example, a commuter who lives in Pickering and works at Queen & Bay can take the Lakeshore East GO line to East Harbour, transfer to the Relief Line Subway, and exit at Queen Station. Currently, this trip pattern would involve getting off at Union and transferring to a crowded Yonge line, or making a fairly long walk up Bay St. The combination of East Harbour station and the Relief Line could impact thousands of similar trip patterns.

Rendering of East Harbour depicting the Transit Hub, courtesy the Planning Rationale submission to the City of Toronto

 

The lack of integration between land use and transportation planning has been one of the biggest laments with the plethora of development that has taken place in the west-of-downtown area in the past 20 years or so. Projects like the King Streetcar Priority pilot project and Queen’s Quay West reconstruction are two examples of the transit planning playing catch-up to the results of the land use planning. With East Harbour however, those two planning elements are proceeding in tandem, with the result hopefully being a new employment hub, anchored by a new transit hub, opening simultaneously.

Rendering of the transit and active transportation connections over the Don River, courtesy the Planning Rationale submissions

 

As the project makes its way through the approvals process, more details and plan refinements should emerge. In the meantime, the fact that transportation and development appear to be in sync at East Harbour is cause for optimism.

     

Ontario Place is getting a $100 million make-over from the province that will transform the former entertainment venue into a brand new waterfront park.

The Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Michael Coteau, said the first phases of the project–a waterfront promenade with shops and restaurants, expanded outdoor music facilities, and an large outdoor space named Celebration Common.

The famous Cinesphere and pods will be saved from demolition, he said, though it’s not clear when they will be re-opened.

The Molson Amphitheatre will continue to operate as a live music venue, though it the future is less certain for Echo Beach, which doesn’t appear in the latest renderings. The province said it is “exploring options to bring live music acts to the site year-round” in a news release.

Among the other features announced today is a landscaped pedestrian bridge that will connect the western part of Ontario Place with Lake Shore Blvd.

The plan does not include a residential component. The province said the park, which first opened in 1971, “should remain public.”

One of Toronto’s most interesting development projects is currently underway at Bathurst and Lake Shore as the former Loblaw Groceterias warehouse has been almost completely reduced to rubble to pave the way for a new grocery store and condo complex.

The historic former Loblaw warehouse at Bathurst and Lake Shore is going to become a massive retail, office, and residential complex, if a planned renovation and expansion project comes to fruition.Developers are planning to dismantle the historic brick building, which is protected under the Ontario Heritage Act and listed on the City of Toronto’s inventory of heritage properties, clean and reassemble it, brick-by-brick. A new structure will be added to the roof and some of the property developed for residential use.The 7-storey Art Deco warehouse opened in 1928 and served as Loblaw’s head office as well as its central manufacturing and distribution facility until the 1970s. The Daily Bread food bank used the building until 2000, after which it fell into disuse.

In 2004, Loblaw filed for permission to knock down its former headquarters to make way for a supermarket, but the proposal was rejected by the Ontario Municipal Board.

When the restoration is complete, Loblaw will finally get its long sought-after new store inside the protected portion of the building. It will be modelled after the company’s marquee Maple Leaf Gardens location, according to a press release. The new upper levels will be used as office space.

The entire project is due to be completed by 2019.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO.