VANDYK group of companies' President and CEO John Vandyk was joined by friends, family, and purchasers for The Craftsman Condominium Residences today, to celebrate the official ground breaking of the new Mississauga residential development. Located in the quiet Clarkson Village community, the four-storey, SMV Architects-designed project takes cues from the organic architecture of legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, in materials that will harmonize with the natural elements of the adjacent Birchwood Park. This same style is reflected in the exterior of the development's presentation centre, the site of today's event.

Red carpet rolled out at The Craftsman's presentation centre, image by Jack Landau

Guests at the event were treated to an array of finger foods and beverages. Many of the attendees of today's ground breaking were purchasers, who were identified by name tags with their future unit numbers listed at the bottom, spurring introductions of the future neighbours to each other. 

Guests at The Craftsman's presentation centre, image by Jack Landau

The largely empty-nester demographic was given ample time to socialize and share their excitement over seeing the first step towards the realization of their future home.

Guests crowd around The Craftsman's scale model, image by Jack Landau

Attention soon turned towards the podium for remarks from VANDYK group's Domenic Zita and John Vandyk, as well as City of Mississauga Ward 2 councillor, Karen Ras, who expressed her gratitude for VANDYK's redevelopment of the site. The property had previously been the location of the partially built steel skeleton which had blighted the community since 2010, the unsightly remnant of an ill-fated project by a since defunct developer.

John Vandyk at The Craftsman groundbreaking, image by Jack Landau

City of Mississauga Ward 2 councillor, Karen Ras at The Craftsman groundbreaking, image by Jack Landau

After brief remarks, the crowd moved outside for the official ground breaking ceremony. The ceremonial mound of earth had been stenciled with the VANDYK group logo, cleverly differentiating the photo-op from the many ground breakings occurring around the GTA this year. In the image below, from left to right are James Cameron, Sherman Chan, Domenic Zita, Karen Ras, John Vandyk, his wife Jurate Jankauskaite, his daughter and son Vanessa and John, and Gerard Caverson on the far right.

Ceremonial groundbreaking for The Craftsman, image by Jack Landau

For additional information about the project, visit our dataBase file for The Craftsman, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.