Toronto 1 Yorkville | 183.18m | 58s | Bazis | Rosario Varacalli

The Kitchen and Glass place is not renewing its lease and will be closing down by March. Seems like the developer might be playing a game of attrition with the current tenants. I will be sad to see this store go after so many years.
 
Yonge should definitely not remain as is. It is no different in height than Danforth. We need to have larger podiums with a nice urban presence with 2-4 storey commercial and maybe another 1-2 storey office on top. Having more than 1 storey of commercial is a necessity IMO as it leads the way to larger retailers buying up more than 1 floor and having large window displays. Aside from this argument, I think we're diluting our heritage market by including everything built X years ago. If all projects are built like five, it will look really goofy. I think we should keep the focus on the real gems that we have and instead of placing so much emphasis on preserving everything, we should instead work on adding night lighting, and improving the side walks near mentioned gems. I'll be really disappointed if the city thinks that five is a good example for every single new building on Yonge. A lot of its appeal comes from uniqueness. Why can't this city embrace change instead of hanging on to 2 storey row houses in one of our downtown's major thoroughfares?
 
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Yonge should definitely not remain as is. It is no different in height than Danforth. We need to have larger podiums with a nice urban presence with 2-4 storey commercial and maybe another 1-2 storey office on top. Having more than 1 storey of commercial is a necessity IMO as it leads the way to larger retailers buying up more than 1 floor and having large window displays. Aside from this argument, I think we're diluting our heritage market by including everything built X years ago. If all projects are built like five, it will look really goofy. I think we should keep the focus on the real gems that we have and instead of placing so much emphasis on preserving everything, we should instead work on adding night lighting, and improving the side walks near mentioned gems. I'll be really disappointed if the city thinks that five is a good example for every single new building on Yonge. A lot of its appeal comes from uniqueness. Why can't this city embrace change instead of hanging on to 2 storey row houses in one of our downtown's major thoroughfares?

Uh, not with this particular row. In fact, this is one of *the* critical "save in toto" rows on Yonge...
 
To the vast majority of people, these look almost the same as the ones in five. That excuse is so overused, that it really has no significance. Apparently, every single building should be saved, and all development needs to be placed underground to protect vistas, heritage structures, sunlight, etc. As for "save in toto," I really have no idea what that means. Please enlighten me.
 
More restaurants and other business's about to be destroyed...lovely. Of course the Starbucks / convenience store / dry cleaner that will replace what is there are valid retail...Can't wait.
 
To the vast majority of people, these look almost the same as the ones in five. That excuse is so overused, that it really has no significance. Apparently, every single building should be saved, and all development needs to be placed underground to protect vistas, heritage structures, sunlight, etc. As for "save in toto," I really have no idea what that means. Please enlighten me.

"Save in toto" means save the whole row.

And you also have to realize that "the vast majority of people" aren't really all that versed in heritage in the first place, much as "the vast majority of people" have a grasp of medicine akin to Dr. Nick Riviera. There's a reason why people like you aren't (and shouldn't be) in charge of heritage inventories, heritage policy, etc...
 
^^While I agree that there should be professional in charge, it is also the case that the majority of people, if not the "vast" majority, in my experience, tend to be anti-development and these days especially anti-condo. You could get a random cross-section of people, across age, gender, political leanings, and find that they tend to be opposed to the average condo proposal, especially those that involve knocking old buildings down. Most people do not think of heritage as a "market" that can be "diluted" or "stimulated" by surplus or scarcity, but instead heritage buildings are worthy of protection to preserve both our history and the desirable neighbourhoods these heritage buildings create.
 
To the vast majority of people, these look almost the same as the ones in five. That excuse is so overused, that it really has no significance. Apparently, every single building should be saved, and all development needs to be placed underground to protect vistas, heritage structures, sunlight, etc.

So you took a poll did you? Saving these wonderful blocks is an overused expression because we are losing so many of them so I'd argue a majority cares for these buildings if you keep hearing this "excuse". Walk up Bay Street or through CityPlace and compare it to walking up Yonge, Bloor West, College W, Gerrard E, Spadina, Queen St, Danforth etc and consider which is more stimulating and enjoyable.
 
^^While I agree that there should be professional in charge, it is also the case that the majority of people, if not the "vast" majority, in my experience, tend to be anti-development and these days especially anti-condo. You could get a random cross-section of people, across age, gender, political leanings, and find that they tend to be opposed to the average condo proposal, especially those that involve knocking old buildings down. Most people do not think of heritage as a "market" that can be "diluted" or "stimulated" by surplus or scarcity, but instead heritage buildings are worthy of protection to preserve both our history and the desirable neighbourhoods these heritage buildings create.

And let's also remember that the real majority is, in fact, quite "it is what it is" indifferent to whether the persistence of 838-848 Yonge is a net plus or minus--the decisions in that light coming from beyond their personal realm, after all. And from their "untutored" standpoint, a good number of them may well already passively assume that the survival of this particular blockfront has something to do with "heritage status" of some kind or another. And not only assume, but accept the fact. And don't feel bad about it because, from all appearances, the block is active, functional, maybe a little well-worn but hardly fatally "slummy".

Once you scrape everything away, you'll find that those who hew to the dismissive DtTO standpoint are the marginal flotsam of supposedly-know-it-all Sunday Painter Urbanists and Glaeserry-eyed intensification astroturfers. Plus a few "this is old crap, get rid of it" McMansion-mentality mouthbreathers....
 
There's nothing worth saving here except for saving Toronto from another Bazis disaster. What exists currently could be easily replaced with something substantially better if the developer is forced to put the streetscape ahead of all vertical considerations. Human scale storefronts are consistent with high density development. Consider Madison Avenue in the 60's as an example.

Plus a few "this is old crap, get rid of it" McMansion-mentality mouthbreathers....

I'm in the camp of "this is entirely unexceptional & bland, get rid of it and replace it with something worthy of its prime location." No McMansion mentalities along Yonge Street one would surmise.
 
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In Paris much of their main shopping and cultural corridors have wide avenues and boulevards with much wider sidewalk space making their taller buildings that line the street feel more to scale. We don't have that luxury here hence cramping a 10' sidewalk that we share with garbage & newspaper bins, hydro/traffic light poles, TTC shelters, mail boxes, bike lockups and sandwich boards.

http://goo.gl/maps/b7yfN

I randomly selected a street in Paris, where there are 6-7 storey houses on either side of a narrow street, not wide boulevard as you implied
As you can see, it has residential, retail in each corner. The street is not big and it works quite well. Will you say it is not on human scale?

In an urban city, 6-7 storeys always make more sense than 1-3 storeys, which never make sense.
 
^Explain to me then many areas of NYC which have single storey buildings yet remain incredibly vibrant?

OTOH, care to explain why City Place is such a dull place to hang out on the weekend? I never say to people I know "Let's go to City Place it's so cool there!" No, I say let's go to (2s) Ossington, (1-2s) Kensington Market, (3s) Queen West.
 
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I do hope our avenues eventually look like the picture you just showed. It is possible for this to happen in Toronto. It is actually happening on Sheppard Avenue right now. I assume that its happening there since the developers are able to sell their units with the idea of future transit running underneath. Which is a good sign that Eglinton wont have a problem looking similar and selling units when the LRT arrives. Id prefer a midrise downtown as well. But now we have opened a can of worms with 60, 70, 80 floor condos I doubt we will ever see midrise downtown again.
 

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