Toronto One Thirty Eight | 144.05m | 31s | Cityzen | BBB

That's an awfully small property. I wonder what else they acquired along with it. If they've also got Avenue Rd. frontage I could see a 38s tower working, but if it's midblock on Yorkville they're going to have a real battle for that kind of height
 
Looks like it's the small commercial building next to the Hazelton. It's actually an interesting building with the split staircase and all, only ruined by the fact that one of those staircases leads to a Subway restaurant (using the term rather loosely). Something tells me this won't go up without a big fight.
 
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Therion said:
Looks like it's the small commercial building next to the Hazelton. It's actually an interesting building with the split staircase and all, only ruined by the fact that one of those staircases leads to a Subway restaurant (using the term rather loosely). Something tells me this won't go up without a big fight.
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Gee, that just across the street and a couple feet east of the Four Seasons hotel (future Yorkville residence tower)...i cant see a big fight when just south, the city has approved the 2nd phase of Yorkdale Plaza, (39 storey)
 
Why do ppl continually confuse Yorkville with Yorkdale? Yorkdale is a low class boring shopping mall.
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Ok, you don't like malls, but you do realize Yorkdale has something like the highest sales per square foot of any mall in North America.
 
truthfully id rather shop outdoors as well but the mall can be convienent in the winter. BTW YRKDALE is getting a Cartier store.

yorkdale
cartier
tiffanys
birks
pandora
holts
harry rosen
burburry
hugo boss
michale korrs

seems pretty high end to me.

now if only it could get a lucky lanes bowling alley and a dave and busters it would be the perfect winter getaway.
 
sixrings said:
truthfully id rather shop outdoors as well but the mall can be convienent in the winter. BTW YRKDALE is getting a Cartier store.

yorkdale
cartier
tiffanys
birks
pandora
holts
harry rosen
burburry
hugo boss
michale korrs

seems pretty high end to me.

now if only it could get a lucky lanes bowling alley and a dave and busters it would be the perfect winter getaway.
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But they carry a lower end merchandise of all those brands. They're not the same.
 
They must also be acquiring 136 Yorkville to make this work IMO.

2ag26o2.jpg
 
140 Yorkville Avenue and its neighbour to the east at 136 Yorkville are distinctive and interesting buildings. Here's what they look like on Google street view. 140 Yorkville is a streamlined late modern building that evokes that "ultramodern" aesthetic, while its larger neighbour at 136 Yorkville with the Subway restaurant is bolder and verges on Postmodernism with angular windows that look like oriels, a monumental central pier, good terracing, and prominent mouldings around the windows. We shouldn't be losing such attractive and sophisticated buildings. It would be best to incorporate the buildings as a whole into a new development. The tacky Indiva store at 144 Yorkville, on the other hand, looks much simpler and more expendable.
 
junctionist said:
140 Yorkville Avenue and its neighbour to the east at 136 Yorkville are distinctive and interesting buildings. Here's what they look like on Google street view. 140 Yorkville is a streamlined late modern building that evokes that "ultramodern" aesthetic, while its larger neighbour at 136 Yorkville with the Subway restaurant is bolder and verges on Postmodernism with angular windows that look like oriels, a monumental central pier, good terracing, and prominent mouldings around the windows. We shouldn't be losing such attractive and sophisticated buildings. It would be best to incorporate the buildings as a whole into a new development. The tacky Indiva store at 144 Yorkville, on the other hand, looks much simpler and more expendable.
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To each their own - the poor form of how 136 and 140 meets the street is a turn off for me - but actually York Square, which includes the "disposable" InDiva, was one of the original retail developments that started to turn Yorkville into a retail destination :)

This is from an artcile on Jack Diamond who designed the complex with Barton Myers:
Left: York Square Toronto, Ontario, Diamond and Myers, Photo: Ian Samson.
It’s hard to imagine, but not that long ago the Yorkville area of downtown
Toronto was a run-down neighbourhood.York Square was the first major
commercial renovation in what has since become one of the most prestigious
and successful retail areas in the city. The project set an important precedent
in the Toronto of 1968, where development generally started with the
demolition of everything on the building site. In York Square, a retail/restaurant
courtyard was created through renovation of the existing seven Victorian
buildings and utilization of unused backyard space. Pedestrian movement was
directed to the interior courtyard to capitalize on the protected space away
from the heavy traffic on Avenue Road.York Square set a standard of design
quality and retail success that led the way for subsequent development in the
Yorkville area.
 
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Thanks for posting that. Evidently, 144 Yorkville isn't as disposable as the facade suggests because it was part of a project that maintained a fine urban grain with the retention of several heritage buildings and the housing of a group of businesses. The project then put backyard space to better use, and also included some quality contemporary architecture. Such forward-thinking projects by Barton Myers and Jack Diamond are inspiring to this day. To start dismantling such quality architecture for a single large high-rise would seem to be a step backwards, though we should reserve judgment until a proposal surfaces.

I don't consider the way that 136 and 140 meet the street to be poor. I think it's very urban, allowing for intensification of commercial activity by turning the basement into a separate storefront which is accessible from the street, with the ground floor still accessible via an attractive staircase. Bloor Street and St. Clair Avenue have a few similar commercial buildings roughly from the same era, though not with such distinctive architecture. I wonder where the idea came from; it doesn't seem to be traditional in Toronto, though it fits in well with traditional pedestrian-oriented buildings along retail streets. The only caveat is that it doesn't look accessible for the disabled, but a lift is conceivable. (I wonder what the architects thought about this issue as accessibility had to be an emerging concern back then.)
 
http://app.toronto.ca/DevelopmentApplications/searchPlanningAppSetup.do?action=init

140 YORKVILLE AVE

OPA / Rezoning 12 113502 STE 27 OZ Ward 27
- Tor & E.York Jan 27, 2012 Application Submitted Jan 27, 2012 Residential Apartments Tamir, Oren
(416) 392-7349
The application proposes to construct a 38 storey (120 metres, plus 6-metre mechanical penthouse, and an addition 5-metre elevator overrun and architectural element - total 131 metres) mixed-use building with 342 residential units and retail in the first two storeys. A total of 247 parking spaces (203 residential and 44 visitors/commercial) in a five level underground parking facility accessed via Avenue Road.
 
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