Torontovibe
Senior Member
Which is further ahead in its development, Downtown Markham or Vaughan Metropolitan Centre? Which of the two will be more urban?
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Downtown Markham
- Thread starter Second_in_pie
- Start date
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Downtown Markham is significantly further along, and will probably be more urban. VCC will have a gigantic park cutting through it which will comprimise its urbanity IMO. Both will have large retail presences though as VCC is largely being built by Smart Centres and Markham by Remington. Markham is significantly further along, but also will have a crappier transit connection. (it has essentially 0 transit connection today, unionville while close has a really roundabout way of getting there making it too far to easily access)
canarob
Senior Member
I wonder who the office tenant with 2,000 staff is?
onni
New Member
Vaughan Metropolitan Center has subway terminal opening in late 2015, 2016 most likely. V.S. Downtown Markham only has Viva Purple and Pink.
bAuHaUs
Active Member
http://youtu.be/m3uO9eU8SwI
this looks pretty urban to me. Vaughan's plan for their downtown renewal is very ambitious, hope they pull it off.
this looks pretty urban to me. Vaughan's plan for their downtown renewal is very ambitious, hope they pull it off.
taal
Senior Member
+1 someone find out !
May not be 2000 staff btw, an anchor tenant doesn't need to fill up a lot of the building.
There's more details in the doc ... and a rendering ... it looks like a typical suburban office building ... all surface parking (for now ... later there will be an above ground parking garage).
It looks nearly identical to the new (well 10-15 years) complex right at the 407 Leslie area, ah forgot the name
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innsertnamehere
Superstar
2,000 staff seems like a bit of an overestimate, no way they are providing 2,000 spots there so I have a feeling it's probably closer to 800-1000.
taal
Senior Member
No its accurate for sure .. 350,000 / 150 or so (average square foot per employee).
canarob
Senior Member
The report made it seem like it was one tenant, but that might have just been the way it was worded. It does mention that the tenant plans to have a shuttle service to the nearest subway station (Kennedy?), so I'd imagine whoever it is will be taking up much of this new building.
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taal
Senior Member
Not a good sign for Toronto ... most likely a firm in the Scarborough area ...
RC8
Senior Member
Judging by the 'Mississauga experience', all of these developments will be a massive failure unless they stop relying on 'stroads' and megablocks to move people around.
The scale sought in the GTA's suburban developments is basically that of a noisy and polluted wind-tunnel factory. I'm a devoted pedestrian/cycling advocate, but I would probably choose to drive if I had to live in one of these 'downtowns'. If Vaughan's downtown looks anything like the promo, it will have none of the pedestrian activity depicted. Instead, it will look like this:
The scale sought in the GTA's suburban developments is basically that of a noisy and polluted wind-tunnel factory. I'm a devoted pedestrian/cycling advocate, but I would probably choose to drive if I had to live in one of these 'downtowns'. If Vaughan's downtown looks anything like the promo, it will have none of the pedestrian activity depicted. Instead, it will look like this:
MafaldaBoy
Senior Member
Downtown Markham does have a sort of "Central Park" similar to VCC (the white space in the centre - pic taken from GTA Centre presentation)
There's also the Rouge Valley just north of the development, which cuts off the Times Group, Village Parkway & Sheriden (new documents here & here) developments from the retail hub within Downtown Markham.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
I realize that, but it hasn't focused its main retail streets along the park. The park runs perpendicular to the main street, unlike VCC.
Dandy Horse
Active Member
@RC8: Obviously these two are downtowns that are meant to be driven through. the best of both worlds! high density with (literally) crippling isolation.
I kid, but at the same time these projects are the antithesis of what people who live in real downtowns consider urban. Its a pod, made up of smaller pods. In a city, you can walk for hours and the grid pattern allows for it. both of these are in weird little curlycues. Reminds me of the movie Pleasantville: " whats at the end of Main Street? The beginning of Main Street!".
Creating a walkable, happy environment is not their goal. their goal is making money. nothing has changed in the building of suburbia except for a few catch phrases and the epiphany that if you show pictures of woman eating salad in Italy you can charge MUCH more per sq/ft.
I kid, but at the same time these projects are the antithesis of what people who live in real downtowns consider urban. Its a pod, made up of smaller pods. In a city, you can walk for hours and the grid pattern allows for it. both of these are in weird little curlycues. Reminds me of the movie Pleasantville: " whats at the end of Main Street? The beginning of Main Street!".
Creating a walkable, happy environment is not their goal. their goal is making money. nothing has changed in the building of suburbia except for a few catch phrases and the epiphany that if you show pictures of woman eating salad in Italy you can charge MUCH more per sq/ft.
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canarob
Senior Member
Good call! Looks like Aviva Canada is moving from Birchmount and Eglinton to Birchmount and 407 and that they've leased the entire 350,000 square feet (see the end of the document):
http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/de...Research/2014/GTAOfficeMarketReportQ42013.pdf