Toronto The Well | 174.03m | 46s | RioCan | Hariri Pontarini

[Tuscani01]

I remember writing an exam in the convention centre (Ryerson, fun), and every couple minutes a deep rumble would go through the hall as a train went by.

By the time this development is done the GO network will be well on its way to being electrified though, so it won't be too bad.

Haha! I remember that too. It was pretty loud.

 

[ctimpy]

Does anyone know what type of retail they are planning, or whether any anchor tenants have been signed? Wondering if it is a Yorkdale, a Distillery, an Eaton Centre, or something entirely different ...

 

[bAuHaUs]

my guess is something entirely different.....take a look at King's Cross redevelopment in London, UK. I suspect something similar, albeit much smaller scale.

 

[AHK]

From today's Allied REIT Press Release, regarding lease up of space at 460 King Street West (Former Global Backpackers Building):

Allied has now leased approximately 3,000 square feet of space to The Well Joint Venture for use as a marketing centre with a commencement date in June, 2015.


Also - IIRC - The Well is scheduled to go for its initial review by the DRP on Tuesday, March 24th at 3:00 PM

 

[NBGtect]

Did the office building get redesigned? Couldn't attend today.

 

[ProjectEnd]

It did. Details tomorrow, hopefully.

 

[VadimM]

Yesterday afternoon I went to City Hall to attend the presentation of The Well development. The developer, architect and landscape designer addressed some concerns with the development raised at the previous meeting. Some areas of improvements include:
1. Redesigned office tower. According to architect the previous design was too ordinary and even boring (it was apparently the only building in the development initially designed by some US firm) and also would cast a stronger shadow on the Clarence square. The new building designed by Hariri Pontarini will delay the shadow by about 40 minutes in the afternoon. The panel loved the new building design that is comprised of three blocks that increase in height westward. It was mentioned that Whole Foods will be in that building.
2. Reduce shadow on north side of Wellington. This would be achieved by pushing the buildings on Wellington further south so the shadow would stop at the curb of the north side of Wellington.
3. Improve public realm. This includes more green spaces, a wide (12 meters/~40 feet) treed promenade running North-South inside The Well. Public art, light installations.
4. A wider angle to tall buildings on Front Street side allowing for wider gap between them. This gap apparently exceeds the city guidelines for distance between the buildings.
There was a number of other changes to the development, such as a one continues "spine" going East-West through The Well. It starts from Spadina/Front corner and runs across uninterrupted. Questions were raised mainly about retail - a suggestion was made that the development should attract more smaller, local retailers rather then big box stores. Also some concerns were raised about viability of second floor retail and easy access to it. At the end everyone at the Panel voted for accepting the changes with minor suggestions.
Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures of the new renderings. The only pictures I could take are of the scale model. If someone went there and took some pictures, please share.

 

[Hamiltonian]

Looks pretty amazing! But, it is sad to see Draper Street so overwhelmed still.

 

[VadimM]

Yes, and some members of the Panel also raised similar concern about Draper Street. The developer however was adamant that they moved and then angled the building to the east of it as far as they could, and that is pretty much it. Also there will be a small park with kids playground and some community place near Draper thus allowing for smoother transition.

 

[FMCS]

Looks good.... Anyone know what the building heights are now?

 

[modernizt]

Looks incredible... all of it!

And the new office tower design is worlds better than the last one. Really excited about this project, perhaps more than just about any other in the design phase right now.

 

[NBGtect]

Agreed 1000%. The buildings on Wellington never scared me as they looked completely at home here on Millionaires Row, but the ones on Front St did scare me. They look vastly improved now in this model and the office building appears to be a far better fit. Not so excited about Honest Ed's redevelopment but this one is exciting in so many ways.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Thank you for the photos and the commentary VadimM - greatly appreciated. It sounds more and more they're contemplating a new and improved Eaton Centre.

And the new office tower design is worlds better than the last one. Really excited about this project, perhaps more than just about any other in the design phase right now.

Indeed - looking at the model I thought they went international and hired Piano or someone along said lines. Impressive.

AoD

 

[interchange42]

Yesterday afternoon I went to City Hall to attend the presentation of The Well development. The developer, architect and landscape designer addressed some concerns with the development raised at the previous meeting. Some areas of improvements include:
1. Redesigned office tower. According to architect the previous design was too ordinary and even boring (it was apparently the only building in the development initially designed by some US firm) and also would cast a stronger shadow on the Clarence square. The new building designed by Hariri Pontarini will delay the shadow by about 40 minutes in the afternoon. The panel loved the new building design that is comprised of three blocks that increase in height westward. It was mentioned that Whole Foods will be in that building.

The architect did not say the previous design was "too ordinary and even boring". A professional at such a meeting would never say anything to that effect about a colleague's work, and in fact the Ontario Association of Architects forbids it. What was said by the developer was that in order to address shadowing concerns on Clarence Square they had to move the elevators for the building out of the typical central location in the tower to a spot further away from it. Pickard Chilton's redesign was not accomplishing what Diamondcorp and Allied wanted, so they held another design competition just for that tower. Coincidentally to Hariri Pontarini being the overall designer of the site, David Pontarini's design won the second competition as well. It moves all of the elevators to the northwest corner of the tower, and besides taking 37 minutes worth of noontime shadows off of Clarence Square (the City's intention between The Well and 400 Front West is to have Clarence Square fully in sunshine from about noon 'til 2 most days), it also moved the elevators out of the way of the curving east-west walkway axis through The Well's site, so now that resolves better at Front and Spadina too.

Whole Foods was not cited as a tenant. That company was only cited as the type of retailer that they would like to be in the complex.

2. Reduce shadow on north side of Wellington. This would be achieved by pushing the buildings on Wellington further south so the shadow would stop at the curb of the north side of Wellington.

Sorry, not quite right either. The tops of the shorter towers facing Wellington have been terraced so that shadows don't pass beyond the north curb. The buildings have not been pushed south.

3. Improve public realm. This includes more green spaces, a wide (12 meters/~40 feet) treed promenade running North-South inside The Well. Public art, light installations.
4. A wider angle to tall buildings on Front Street side allowing for wider gap between them. This gap apparently exceeds the city guidelines for distance between the buildings.
There was a number of other changes to the development, such as a one continues "spine" going East-West through The Well. It starts from Spadina/Front corner and runs across uninterrupted. Questions were raised mainly about retail - a suggestion was made that the development should attract more smaller, local retailers rather then big box stores. Also some concerns were raised about viability of second floor retail and easy access to it. At the end everyone at the Panel voted for accepting the changes with minor suggestions.

Points 3 and 4 mostly right. All but one on the panel voted to support the design (it's not coming back to the panel again - it's "done" - so the DRP members don't have the refine or redesign options, they can only vote support or non-support).

Renderings coming shortly.

42

 

[VadimM]

@interchange42
Thanks for the corrections. In many instances I expressed my impression from what I heard, from reading the tone with which things were said. There was a lot of information given at that meeting and I wasn't writing things down. For example I do recall David saying something to the extent of that the original office tower looked like a typical Bay street office building that didn't fit the area, and they felt that the new design better fits the area. I don't recall them talking about the elevators, I could have missed that. To my understanding the building was completely redesigned. Whole Foods was mentioned about three times during the meeting in relation to the building tenancy. They didn't make an official announcement about the tenancy, but it felt to me at least like this is almost certain.

Can't wait to see the renders.