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Progress has been swift on the latest phase of a multi-block, multi-use Mississauga City Centre development which UrbanToronto once referred to as having produced one of the "best-looking condos" in the GTA. The current phases of Amacon's Parkside Village, known as PSV1+2, along with the low-rise Towns at Parkside Village, have grown dramatically since we last visited in September 2014, the latter having nearly reached completion.
Recent images of the build site reveal not only the progress that has been made over the last 12 months, but tell a larger story as well, that of the continuing densification of the Mississauga City Centre as development has at long last reached its west edge, leaving only one direction to build - upwards.
As seen in the south-facing image above, taken a year ago, work at the Parkside Village build site had begun at the west edge of the Mississauga City Centre, the Towns in particular, to back onto a large swath of low-rise residential housing typical of the wider suburban landscape. Compared to the east-facing image below, taken this June, it is perhaps even clearer just how quickly the urban/suburban context will change once this development is complete.
Mitigating the sharp contrast between low and high-rise living, the Richmond Architects-designed Towns, now in place on Parkside Village's west edge as seen above, allows the development to step-down sensitively to its neighbouring context, allowing for a much gentler transition than would be have been afforded had the site been dominated solely by towers.
Back at street-level (below), the Towns have been finished in a two-tone brick cladding, complete with minimalist 'Juliet' balconies, black metal-framed glazing, and frosted-glass patio dividers. While modern in style, the use of these traditional materials along with the much lower height places the most westerly portion of the Parkside Village development in line with the traditional low-rise housing stock that exists across the park to the west.
Two short blocks to the east, progress at the much denser Turner Fleischer Architects-designed PSV1+2 complex has been moving along well, the most recent photos revealing the dramatic street presence that the eventual 42 and 48-storey condos—rising at either end of an 8-storey podium—will bring to the corner of Burnamthorpe and Confederation Parkway. The images below showcase an impressive urban streetscape that could easily be confused with central Toronto, more akin to CityPlace than the images that might be conjured up by what many people perceive as a fully suburban Mississauga: it is clear that this city wants an urban context for its civic square, City Hall, and nearby Square One.
While it is yet to be revealed which retail tenants will take over the ground level of this newest phase of development, the footprint of PSV1+2 is ample enough to house a plethora of large-and-small-scale shops. Whatever retailers and restauranteurs go in, the design of the podium has clearly been carried out with the urban context very much in mind, with broad sidewalks and multiple pedestrian openings in place. The next image, seen below, taken last week, reveals the overall massing, while also providing an early glimpse of the glazing of the structure at podium and tower level.
There is still much more of Parkside Village to be built over the coming years, including more high-rises and several mid-rise towers. Amacon's next offering at the site is another two-tower and podium combination with the prosaic name 'Block Nine'. The north-east facing rendering below gives an indication of of how the whole multi-block Parkside Village site will look once complete many years from now.
If you'd like to know more about Parkside Village, UrbanToronto's dataBase files for some of the phases are linked below. Want to talk about it? You can click on the associated Forum thread links to get in on the conversations there, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
