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Ryerson: Business Building (Zeidler)

Re: Canadian Tire

I was at Canadian Tire around 3pm yesterday (Friday) and it wasn't very busy, perhaps 60-80 people in the store. Mark's Work Warehouse (east, lower level off Canadian Tire) had no shoppers except me.
A friend tells me Best Buy was open last night but it wasn't when I was there mid-afternoon. Perhaps a dry-run to their Grand Opening next Friday?
More on topic, lots of trees (perhaps 15-18) were being planted yesterday along Dundas st. in front of Ryerson. They really complete the streetscape well.
 
Re: Canadian Tire

^
Great to hear. I wonder if September is really the best time to be planting trees, though. The ground will be frozen before the trees can even adapt.
 
Re: Canadian Tire

Fall is a very good time to plant trees.
 
^Trees concentrate their energies on building roots in the fall so it's the best time to plant. If you plant in the spring the tree is so busy making leaves and flowers etc. that it won't make much progress until the next year anyway.
 
Best Buy was positively bustling this evening. Canadian Tire, not looking too shabby. (Roof: conspicuously terrible.) Mark's, totally desolate, which worries me, because I'm very excited about its arrival downtown.

I didn't realise the direct connection to the Eaton Centre foyer (subway level) until my return. You can access the parkade from the basement corridor, and from the parkade, you can access the Ryerson business part of the building. The place makes for some interesting poking around. I climbed up the main staircase to the 9th floor (or "level 9", if that's the same thing), and discovered that the stairwell door was unlocked. This was also when I discovered that opening it set off a wailing security alarm that echoed through the building. I beetled off back the way I came.
 
No doubt you were caught on security cameras and we'll see you on the front page of The Sun on Monday.
 
Dundas St between Yonge and Bay feels like a real street now with a purpose and a sense of place. There was plenty of pedestrian traffic along the street today and the newly planted trees made the area feel like a whole new welcoming neighbourhood. Both Canadian Tire and Best Buy were large, impressive and packed with people. And with the new signage and video screen, the exterior of the building is almost tolerable. All in all, a very important addition to the neighbourhood.
 
No doubt you were caught on security cameras and we'll see you on the front page of The Sun on Monday.
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I can think of no better way to be outed. Maybe they'll work me into their series of covers about people who see ghosts in downtown buildings. (Anyone see that last week?) Lord knows I'm pasty enough.
 
Dundas St between Yonge and Bay feels like a real street now with a purpose and a sense of place. There was plenty of pedestrian traffic along the street today and the newly planted trees made the area feel like a whole new welcoming neighbourhood. Both Canadian Tire and Best Buy were large, impressive and packed with people. And with the new signage and video screen, the exterior of the building is almost tolerable. All in all, a very important addition to the neighbourhood.
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Very well stated and I'm very pleased someone else feels the same as I do.
Now I can't wait to be a good consumer, go to Best Buy tomorrow and spend all kinds of money on gadgets I don't need!
 
What I find most interesting is that Best Buy and Future Shop have set up shop in such close quarters - they're the same company. Presumably their prices will be identical between the two (though perhaps with differing sales and promotions?). Is twice the retail presence really going to mean twice the sales? And, of course, the new flagship Future Shop will be going in at Metropolis...

All that said, I agree with the above - what's going on here is great. Among other things, bringing this stretch to life - combined with the rising Metropolis wall - basically gives Dundas Square a second axis. It used to be an adjunct to Yonge, something that hung off of it.

But now that Dundas doesn't feel like a side street, the square feels like it marks a major intersection, with life teeming off in all directions. Looking east along Dundas at Bay, you see bustling commerce and sidewalks in the foreground, and in the background, the curving wall of Metropolis defining the square's edge. It's a vista of the square that's as worthy as the view along Yonge.

Two more things:

1) the real problem right now is the still-incomplete One City Hall, which isn't set back the way Ryerson is; instead it terminates the view along the sidewalk with a blank precast wall. Phase II might change this, but given the fact that they've choked on the balconies, I'm not holding my breath for new construction.

2) if I were a rich man, how much would I love to buy up the 1 Bloor East lands to create a complementary Bloor Square?
 
If Heartland Town Centre in Mississauga can support a Best Buy and Future Shop directly across from one another, then I'm sure downtown Toronto can too. They know what they're doing.
 
What I find most interesting is that Best Buy and Future Shop have set up shop in such close quarters
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It's not uncommon for the big box centres in the 'burbs to have a FS at one end, and a BB at the other. I'm looking at replacing my 3 yr. old plasma with a new one, FS sells the Panasonic I like for $2499, BB at Bay/Dundas for $2999 so prices between the two vary. I ended up finding it at Telecity today (Yonge & Grenville) for $1999. So much for "Best Buy"!
 
"if I were a rich man, how much would I love to buy up the 1 Bloor East lands to create a complementary Bloor Square?"

I've dreamt of something very similar many times, as well, but regarding the north-east corner: If what I refer to as the Royal Bank 'bungalow' was demolished, I feel there'd be just enough space for a cool lil' mini-square. Go take a look and tell me if you think I'm full of it or not. Even better, of course, would be the complete annihilation of the entire HBC horror show, replaced with both a square and, say, a 900-foot Foster tower.

Yeah, I'm jerkin' off. But what the hell - let's at least dream big.
 
^ Has that Royal Bank bungalow always been there? I thought it was tacked on to the HBC, unless renovations have given it this appearance.
 
It's sorta-always been there--though technically, it was built about a year after the rest of the complex. (That is, the HBC construction was staged--you can see c1974 photos where the old Edwardian Royal Bank is nestled by its new gargantuan neighbours. Similar to those decade-older photos of the former Registry Office next to New City Hall...)
 
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