Toronto HighPark Condominiums | ?m | 14s | Daniels | Diamond Schmitt

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DarnDirtyApe

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Hey guys,

I was walking along Bloor street between Keele and High Park when I noticed that all of the houses and low-rise apartment buildings on Bloor between Oakmount & Pacific were boarded up and appear to be slated for demolition. I didn't see any signs indicating a zoning change, so it seems a little odd that all of these buildings (maybe 10-12 in all) are going to be demolished. Does anyone know of any plans for this area?

Here's a map:

here
 
I'm not sure what the storey is but I'm pretty sure it was for some kinda condo with a huge NIMBY response. Not that I don't support this particular NIMBY response, some of those houses are just grand and to lose them would be really crappy. BTW, they've been boarded up for a while, a complete waste given how nice these buildings are and they seem to be in good condition.
 
and they seem to be in good condition.

Give it time until they no longer are in good condition. Having said that a good place for a condo considering how close they are to two subway stops.
 
I know it's a good place, it's just sad to see so many beautiful buildings marked for the wrecking ball... I'm also concerned that tearing them down would ruin the beauty of that little strip between Keele and High Park.
 
Bloor @ High Park

Let's hope something good goes here. This neighbourhood is too nice to spoil. I have been unable to find any references to a proposed development, or to the purchase of these properties by anyone. Does anyone have any info on this?
 
Bloor@High Park demolition

Hi - I once lived in one of the houses slated for demolition on Oakmount. What a shame - these buildings have really been let go and are in pretty rough shape - there has been no maintenance done for years so I guess someone knew that this would be the eventual fate. Does anyone know when these buildings are coming down? Will condos be built? These houses were once very beautiful - could have been a great heritage site, but condos make more $.
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

IMO "heritage site" is a far-fetched way of putting it; but that's more of a terminology issue. (And paradoxically, it's IMO the kind of terminology that'd more likely be invoked by the peevishly pro-development retention-unsympathetic, i.e. "if you want to freaking keep it, have the city declare it a freaking heritage site", etc. etc.).

If there'd a valid argument to retain, it's not so much on hoity-toity grounds of saving "heritage", as on grounds of not wasting that which needn't be wasted. (Heck, it isn't just that "these houses were once very beautiful"; they're *still* very beautiful.) And compounding the sense of waste is the edge-of-High Park location, which had spared the 60s high-rising hereabouts, but may now be under threat of something analogous.

Ideally, in that case, the best solution for here might have been a throwback to the Diamond/Myers 70s schemes like Dundas/Sherbourne and the Hydro Block; where it was more visceral matters of context, rather than "heritage" per se (even if the latter did exist), that justified the retention of existing street frontages.

Strangely enough, though you have to squint to notice it, something like that *does* exist within the neighbourhood, though more as a grudging bow to the 70s change in municipal mood; most if not all of the houses on the E side of Gothic (that crescent-like street where Mayor Miller lives) were condo-ized in tandem with 100 Quebec et al. The original, pre-Crombie-council scheme was for them to be swept away.

It isn't that those condo-ized houses on Gothic are particularly "heritage", if you want to be obtuse about it--they're like so much else around these parts, and not even as "interesting" as the cluster discussed in this thread; but in urbanistic terms, they were deemed sufficiently valuable, and the end result says it all--just ask the street's most famous current resident. (Indeed, all Mayor Miller has to do is to channel what makes his own street "work", and maybe he'll think twice about how a lot of Toronto's recent arbitrary condo-ization has come about.)

And, honestly, I'll take the 70s retention-at-gunpoint of those frankly, happily non-heritage houses on Gothic over the more recent grotesque condo-as-veg-e-matic-press "heritage retention" solution on the Christ Scientist site on High Park Ave. nearby...
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

^so basically,

-'heritage status' is not clear and concise and can be misinterpreted
-why not build inbehind the houses which has being quite successful with previous developments
-high park condominiums by Daniels is an abomination
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

The following FLickr page provides photos of the homes to be demolished. I received no reply from the Ward 13 couincillior.I've been stymied at every turn. One can make out the demolition number from one of the photos but that led me only to when the place are to be torn down, not what was to take there place. This is a significant area and I hope will be treated with some respect.

www.flickr.com/photos/209...097276232/
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

Welcome, Benc, and thanks for the photos. Holy moly, that's distressing.
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

You know, it was an abomination when the highrises were built in the first place and the subway was extended (back in the 60s) - and at that time, the houses that were demolished WERE in good repair. Progress ........ a necessary evil?
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

I forgot to ask - when are these to be taken down?
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

Wow, nothing is sacred in Toronto... except the almighty dollar, I guess.
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

I lived in one of those really ugly HPV highrises just behind that stretch for awhile. The houses fronting the park helped maintain a homey residential feeling. I can't envision this being a good idea for the area- it's a real shame.
 
Re: Bloor@High Park demolition

Whatever replaces these better be amazing...
 

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