Toronto 2 Cawthra Square | 206.97m | 63s | BV Realty Partners | ZAS Architects

[Northern Light]

This is an outrageous application, but nothing truly surprises me anymore. The building will at best only briefly shadow the north/east corner at the back of Barbara Hall Park at sunrise. The 100 Wellesley low rise additions got chopped back as an overbuild of the site (its a “tower in the park” high rise), so accordingly, this should get chopped to 20 or 25 levels. It’s heartbreaking to lose those homes and trees on that short, calm, dead end street.

If you feel strongly about it, oppose it. Not just at UT; get your comments in to the Planner.

FWIW, @ProjectEnd 's comments above should probably give you some solace; but don't take any outcome for granted.

Also have a fallback position, arguably mine perhaps?

It saves some trees and enlarges Barbara Hall Park.

PS, the City could always expropriate the 2 houses closest to the park for park expansion (they have the $$$ available to spend in this ward), and if they did, they would kill the app.

 

[ProjectEnd]

I'd say the risk is still too great for most, but if you're willing to throw the dice, we are definitely in a very different planning regime to the one when I was assessing the property. BV are a startup with the principal actor coming from a decently long stint at Trollybus. They're likely able to gamble a bit more than folks with tighter purse strings who need to deliver confident returns to their investors.

 

[Northern Light]

Interesting...........I thought this one might see a Refusal Report.............but it has not.

Community Consultation was held in January.

The proponents just had a meeting w/the Councillor on February 29th.

 

[Northern Light]

The City is moving to designate 2 of the houses that were proposed to be demo'ed in this proposal.

6 and 8 Cawtha Square; that report goes to next week's meeting of the Preservation Board:

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/pb/bgrd/backgroundfile-243396.pdf

 

[Paclo]

The City is moving to designate 2 of the houses that were proposed to be demo'ed in this proposal.

6 and 8 Cawtha Square; that report goes to next week's meeting of the Preservation Board:

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/pb/bgrd/backgroundfile-243396.pdf

Both 6 & 8 Cawthra Square were designated (Part IV designation) by council in June. We now have a resubmission incorporating the heritage structures as well as a height boost:

Application Details

www.toronto.ca

Additional stat changes are as follows:

• Storeys increased from 45 to 63
• Height increased from 145.4 to 206.97m
• Total residential units increased from 488 to 590 (incl. 14 rental replacement)
• Below grade levels reduced from 4 to 2
• Total vehicular parking decreased from 119 to 26
• Total bicycle parking increased from 548 to 650
• Primary architect changed from Arcadis/IBI to ZAS Architects

Updated renderings:

 

[Northern Light]

Look at @Paclo scooping me............ I thought it would be someone else on this one........but he shall remain nameless, LOL

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The Block Context Plan suggests the ask isn't out of reach....

More interesting is what's intimated:

Do you wonder how hypothetical those are? ...............

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Now...turning our attention to @ProjectEnd 's elevator ratio:

He'll like this bit................six elevators to 590 units....... or 1.01 elevators to 100 units.

What else do we want to look at:

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Comments, better, preservation/restoration of heritage facades, retention of many mature trees. Would still benefit from further refinement.

Despite falling within tall building design guidelines........the tower reads a very bulky relative to the heritage facades, there's a need to do better there. It may require smaller floor plates, but I'm not settled on that.

I still don't see a clear plan to shift a portion of the Cawthra ROW not required for vehicle access into the park. To be clear, that's not on the applicant, but makes incredibly good sense, and getting the applicant to do that work in lieu of on-site parkland dedication would simply be a judicious win-win here.

 

[rdaner]

Interesting. Just some numbers if the idea of four towers materializes: units - 2,360 and assuming 2 peeps/unit - 4,720.

And this is on top of whatever happens from Earl down to Wellesley on the east side. Would this trigger a new library/community centre/school? I wonder if a subway under either Jarvis or Sherbourne has ever been contemplated?!