Toronto DUKE Condos | 25.91m | 7s | TAS | BDP Quadrangle

[junctionist]

This building will help revitalize the stretch of Dundas east of Keele St. Right now, there's a women's shelter and subsidized housing in the surrounding blocks. It will be good to bring in more affluent residents to help keep businesses viable.

 

[GeneralGrievance]

Passed by this morning, lots going on:

 

[urbandreamer]

 

[urbandreamer]

 

[WayneBrady]

I like this project and the neighbourhood is on the rise. Nice to see this coming along, I remember the floor plans in here were great - Was this development well received by community?

 

[urbandreamer]

It was stupidly overpriced but then what do I know? I'm just a cheap renter.

 

[urbandreamer]

The duke is flying high

high up into the sky

the dreamer's shooting

the uber's tooting

time to ride goodbye

 

[drum118]

Feb 1

 

[salsa]

What a cool neighbourhood. I have to come back in the spring to explore it more .

 

[interchange42]

Yup, the Junction is great. In particular, I love the older storefronts that's time has forgotten—the ones with the deep vitrine display windows stand out—there a number of those left here, and so few remaining across the rest of Toronto. Good restaurants, funky shops. I hope it doesn't change too quickly: where once this area was forgotten, I think it now merits a Heritage Conservation District to protect its best assets.

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[WayneBrady]

Yup, the Junction is great. In particular, I love the older storefronts that's time has forgotten—the ones with the deep vitrine display windows stand out—there a number of those left here, and so few remaining across the rest of Toronto. Good restaurants, funky shops. I hope it doesn't change too quickly: where once this area was forgotten, I think it now merits a Heritage Conservation District to protect its best assets.

42

Agreed, I think it's going to change quick though. With "Brewery District" plans, and younger people looking for affordable places to live, I think it's going to liven up rather quickly. I always come through to eat at the Indie Ale House just down the street.

 

[Armour]

Yup, the Junction is great. In particular, I love the older storefronts that's time has forgotten—the ones with the deep vitrine display windows stand out—there a number of those left here, and so few remaining across the rest of Toronto. Good restaurants, funky shops. I hope it doesn't change too quickly: where once this area was forgotten, I think it now merits a Heritage Conservation District to protect its best assets.

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Would you mind posting a Google street view link of one of these vitrine display windows, please? Not sure exactly what that looks like.

How busy is The Junction? It's so far out of the way (unless one lives in the west end). I can't imagine many tourists would know about it, given its periphery location to downtown.

 

[interchange42]

The Junction is not full of tourists, but it is starting to be thronged by locals. It may get a few more tourists in the coming years with gentrification and brewery creep, and more power to it, but I'm not concerned with the tourists really. It's us locals who are seeking out more character-filled areas of town for whom I hope we can save them. Nothing much built post 1960 has done all that well at street level, so here's for identifying the good stuff and trying to save it.

I have done some work on Google Street View, and have a bunch of photos to show, probably more than you need, but there are a bunch of interesting examples.

First, here's the comparison with a flat front (which I am not interested in) from the 60s or 70s on the north side of Dundas:

And then, starting on the south side, here are a hole pile of them, some very old, some only moderately old.

Below, it's the one more hidden by the tree I find interesting:

Gerhard is intersting in that the ground floor lines up with "Toronto north" whereas Dundas runs on a slant to the grid, and the upper story and rest of the building hugs Dundas.

Deep, deep vitrines at Pekota:

1930s or 40s here?

Quite a bit older again, beside something brand new:

On the north side, there's this. 40s or 50s?

Another incredibly deep one at Safe-Guard. 1920s?

Anyway, you get the idea. They aren't everywhere here, but there are lot of them here, from many different decades.

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[Armour]

Thanks for posting those. That's what I figured vitrines were, but wasn't sure. They're definitely more interesting than storefronts that are flush with the sidewalk. Is there a specific reason why vitrines were used in the past?

 

[interchange42]

Display more wares in an age when there was less advertising (and advance knowledge of what was in the store). The very oldest of these might even have been set up as the ask-the-shopkeeper-to-hand-it-to-you-from-behind-the-counter type of shopping, so window space was a way of presenting the goods while keeping people's grubby fingers off of them.

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