Annex Terraces & Muze Condo Towns (Bernard & Spadina, 3 +6s, Quadrangle)

[Hydrogen]

I hope it's just an infill and not resulting in the knocking down the exisiting houses shown.

 

[adma]

If it did involve knocking down, I'd expect to have heard a lot more about it in the papers--it's *that* kind of neighbourhood...

 

[urbandreamer]

From what I could tell walking by the other night it used to be the apartment building's underground parking lot. There's big chunks of concrete in the pit and the remains of some of the parking walls. Basically, replacing a tower-in-the-park(ing lot) with townhouses--sort of like they've done one block south with that midrise going up beside the slabs. Perhaps the developers didn't get the density they wanted so went with townhouses instead?

Not a total disaster imo. But the one thing that puzzles me: for all the moneyed sophisticated intellectuals that dwell in the Annex--why the lack of sophisticated modern aA-style architecture? Why the conservatism? Maybe Left Wing-ers are the new consevatives?

 

[adma]

Not a total disaster imo. But the one thing that puzzles me: for all the moneyed sophisticated intellectuals that dwell in the Annex--why the lack of sophisticated modern Aa-style architecture? Why the conservatism? Maybe Left Wing-ers are the new consevatives?

Maybe it's lack of opportunity (it isn't like the Annex has been building/infilling left/right/centre since Toronto School became "the thing"), as well as the investors doing the infill--it isn't like Annexers would be any more or less opposed to something modernist or traditionalist.

Is there a reason (structural etc) why all that vacant land on the E side of Spadina N of the subway station remains vacant 30 odd years after it was cleared for the Spadina subway?

 

[Urban Shocker]

Aw c'mon. The Annex is NIMBY central - the sainted old biddy herself ruled the roost there for decades - and everything that doesn't move has been given a historical designation, so is it any wonder that something like this is being proposed?

 

[ShonTron]

But the one thing that puzzles me: for all the moneyed sophisticated intellectuals that dwell in the Annex--why the lack of sophisticated modern Aa-style architecture? Why the conservatism? Maybe Left Wing-ers are the new consevatives?

It has more than its share of Uno Prii (included in the "everything that doesn't move is historic" category), however. Must every neighbourhood be subject to Clewes Condos?

 

[adma]

Aw c'mon. The Annex is NIMBY central - the sainted old biddy herself ruled the roost there for decades - and everything that doesn't move has been given a historical designation, so is it any wonder that something like this is being proposed?

But, again, the present day is an era when Prii is part of the "everything that doesn't move". Just because they're into "saving the old" doesn't mean they're to blame for anything that's new and "ye olde"--at least, not directly. (As opposed to indirectly, i.e. thru dumb/patronizing developers who blindly interpret Annex-y NIMBYism as a cue for "ye olde".)

I guess if there's neighbourhood approval here, it's because it's infill, roughly in scale, and doesn't involve demolition--and I reckon it's a routine and indifferent sort of approval. If they were Clewes-modern townhomes a la Radio City, I reckon they'd be approved as well--and maybe less routinely or indifferently. Indeed, such a solution could readily be defended as being in the truer "classic" spirit of Jane Jacobs.

It isn't as simple as ye-olde vs modern. After all, I'll betcha that Annexers would sooner approve Clewes-modern townhouse infill here than a Sternscraper condo wiping out the block to the north.

Remember: this is the Annex, not the Kingsway...

 

[adma]

And, an additional "don't blame the Annex" point: I'll betcha there's practically noplace in Toronto where this kind of faux infill would be any more actively, vocally attacked (or not) for being faux and "not of our time". Not even wherever the rest of you choose to live.

Which is also a way of saying: yes, Virginia, there are style-conscious Jacobite Annexers who'd find this (or at least the rendering thereof) offputtingly mawkish and suburban, just like a lot of us do. (Just like all that Greenwood-redevelopment New Urbanism is still a shunned blacksheep and alien-urban-lifeform relative to the Beach. Don't *over*estimate so-called NIMBY tolerance for hack retro.)

 

[urbandreamer]

Is this the site? It looks rather large and there's a new tower crane installed:

 

[ladyscraper]

is this the staff report for this project?

http://www.urbandb.com/canada/ontario/toronto/100_spadina_road-it007.pdf

if so it appears that people in the neighborhood complained and got the 8 story apartment lowered to 6 stories. which is strange since the building like 5 feet away from it (that i believe they are re-doing the parking for with this project) is 20 stories.

 

[urbandreamer]

25 July 2008 photo update

Project is at ground level, basically:

 

[urbandreamer]

10 November 2008 photo update

Driving by on my way to Aroma, I notice they're above ground and moving along nicely. (Hoarding is down on the other building nearby as well.)

Mods, perhaps change the title to reflect the development name? Annex Terraces. Rendering here: http://annexterraces.ca/

 

[interchange42]

The name has been changed to reflect the fact that both the Muze Condo townhomes and the Annex Terrace rentals are being built on this site - the townhomes on Walmer at Bernard, and the rental along Spadina south of Bernard.

42

 

[urbandreamer]

31 December 2008 photo update

Topped off, I think. Wonder if the cladding will look like poo?

 

[urbandreamer]

23 January 2009 photo update