Toronto The Uptown Residences | ?m | 48s | Pemberton | Burka

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

^ Regrettably, the Uptown is now less.

 

[Greg29Toronto]

it is interesting that the theatre had that long extension just to have the narrow entrance on Yonge. Can you imagine a theatre doing such a thing today? It would be interesting to hear the history of that. Yes it is too bad the Uptown is now more. :-(

This was not uncommon of the period. In downtown areas where property was expensive on main streets or avenues, small parcels of land were purchased and entrances such as this were built to lead to the theatre which was built on cheaper property. I managed the Uptown for 4 years in the early 90's so being interested in old theatres I did some research on the architect, history of the theatre and style of the theatre.

Here's a piece of history most won't know about. Thomas Lamb opened Lowe's Uptown in 1920. Leon Leonidoff, the dance designer at Lowe's Uptown pioneered a dance number along with Jack Arthur. The idea was a "kick-line" composed of girls all of the same height doing a precision dance number with the "kick-line" as the finish. In about 1930 Leonidoff and Arthur were both invited to what was billed as the world's largest theatre - the Roxy in NYC to try their dance number there. They formed a larger group of girls on it's huge stage and named them them the Roxyettes. Later, along with Russell Markert, they took the dance team over to the Radio City Music Hall where they formed the now famous Rockettes.

Cool eh?

 

[interchange42]

Thanks for that Greg - it's always fun to learn things like the Rockettes story.

I would add to the Main-Street-Frontage-with-Long-Passage-to-the-Back-Street-Auditorium story that the Canon and Elgin-Winter Garden Theatres are set up the same way. Many others followed this model that have since been torn down too.

Even without long passageways, it was extrememly rare to have a theatre take up any more sidewalk space than a box office and doors required. The Bloor is a good example of a street front with a short passageway, allowing for a couple of small stores facing the street out front. The Eglinton (now and event space) hides behind several retail outlets, as its rarer layout turns the length of the auditorium 90 degrees from this passageway, causing it to run along behind more storefronts. Now there's a cinema I miss...

nostalgic 42

 

[Suicidal Gingerbread Man]

518 ft. Wow. I forgot just how tall this one will be. A fair bit taller than Spire.

 

[gbelan]

nothing really happening yet

 

[RezBoy]

Start Date coming up

Did they say May 1 2007 is the start date? It is just around the corner. I guess this thread will cease to exist once they start digging .

 

[maestro]

Uptown Update

parking lot is closed and new hoarding going up

 

[DaninToronto]

Perhaps the title can be modified?

I really though this project would either get scalled back or more likely cancelled. Sales were so slow there for a while, but I guess things truned around.

 

[Edward Skira]

Done

 

[DaninToronto]

Thanks Ed.

 

[RezBoy]

DaninToronto

I was surprised with regards to the speed of the sales to bring it right up to 70% sold in late March07 from the 45% back in Dec06 (or even in Feb07). I am suspicious if these are actually sales from real outside buyers (or is it the developer or their friends).

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I guess they have not started construction yet...hmmm...have they? Can anyone confirm.

I was looking at the St Thomas condo and I wonder if Uptown Rez will be using a similar precast concrete.

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Thanks Mike In Toronto for the $$/sqrft figures (from the other thread Uptown and Crystal Blue). It looks like once it is completed the average price would be around 650/sqrft.

 

[RezBoy]

Whoa

I took this with my cameral phone...so pardon me for the quality.

 

[alklay]

Thanks for the pic.

That top concerns me. The lack of detailing on the big blank walls could look terrible (or worse, the walls will contain badly hidden vents and other utilities).

 

[salvius]

Something tells me this is going to be horrid (especially since this is Pemberton), but I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Dan416]

I hope you're wrong too. But I do like that model of it.