Toronto 2180 Yonge | 247m | 65s | Oxford Properties | Hariri Pontarini

Some slides from last night's meeting...

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NOTE : That Police Station at Eglinton & Duplex really needs to get ModernTO'd...

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Searches the "Master Plan Priorities" for the words "AFFORDABLE HOSUING"...
 
'Tis a farther better thing they propose this time. No more Pelli Clarke Pelli, for one thing…

…and I'm very happy to see 2200 Yonge retained and the cul-de-sac sacked. Looking forward to the resubmission in coming days.

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Based on the above, my comments are thus:

- Significant Improvement.

- Park is larger and more usable in this configuration

- Less suburban, cul-de-sac is gone

- Design appears, through community use/institutional space to have potential to allow for an Elementary School. (this was not my preferred solution for schools in the area, but it may have to do)
though whether the size is adequate is an interesting question. The MOE benchmark is 10ft2 per student which suggests a 500 student school.

- Affordable housing; and purpose-built rental housing remain priorities, the details will matter here.

- Public Square on Yonge idea is dramatically improved, though we have to talk about the random blobs of green that have been placed in the space that seem to have too little thought for sightlines and for pedestrian/space user comfort.
(hint, you don't need a lot of shade trees where a tower provides perpetual shade most of the day; you do want trees where there may be intense sun for parts of the day)

Edit to add: Thanks to @HousingNowTO for thoroughly documenting last night's meeting!
 
Last edited:
UtakataNoAnnex said:
You know...no one is ever homeless, poor or marginalized in render world. It's the only part I wish would become a reality...

...oh right, on-topic!:


...er, so new architect for this?
Click to expand...
Hariri Pontarini was the architect for some of the pieces of the PCP-led puzzle earlier on, and now it's just Hariri Pontarini. David Pontarini was one of the presenters last night.

They did say not to get hung up on the architectural details at this point; it will take years to build this out, and some aspects will change.

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Northern Light said:
- Design appears, though community use/institutional space to have potential to allow for an Elementary School. (this was not my preferred solution for schools in the area, but it may have to do)
though whether the size is adequate is an interesting question. The MOE benchmark is 10ft2 per student which suggests a 500 student school.
Click to expand...
The Oxford rep was careful to say that the community space would not necessarily be used for a school, and that there are a lot of other school sites in the area where the TDSB may choose to rebuild larger instead, and that it would be up to them, not Oxford as to where the school would go. Basically, between the TDSB (and maybe also the TCDSB) and the City, Oxford are waiting to hear what is wanted of that space. As it is in the Phase two section, they do not expect a decision on that anytime in the next couple of years, but further out.

Phase one — up by Eglinton Avenue with the new Eglinton station bus terminal, podium office tower, and first residential tower above it — Oxford hopes to have under construction mid-2024. Without Oxford having committed to all rental at the site last night, my guess is that the first tower at least will be rental as they seem to be chomping at the bit to get phase one built so that the TTC bus requirements can be squared away ASAP, thereby giving Oxford time and flexibility with the rest of the site.

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Better, but I would have preferred to see an enlarged mid-block park instead of lumping the park space to the south west corner of the site. The placement of the towers still feel off and overly deferential the SFHs around the site.

Oh and that accessible route at the corner looks kind of ridiculously inconvenient.

AoD
 
Every problem I had with the initial plan has been addressed:

1) I was sad to lose the iconic 2200 Yonge Street building, both for embedded carbon and placemaking - it has been retained

2) I did not like how the streetwall and retail strip was broken up along Yonge Street - the break has been reduced with a more useable urban plaza for a continuous-feeling strip of retail along Yonge

3) Road through the site seemed unnecessary - it has been removed

4) Orienting east-west connection to the existing cul-de-sac seemed like a weird homage to some detached homes - this connection was reoriented

5) Park being north of towers had the potential to be darkly shadowed - it has been moved south and expanded

6) Southern towers surrounding an unneccessary new cul-de-sac - unneccessary new cul-de-sac eliminated

7) Breaking the street grid - new proposal largely follows orientation of street grid

8) Not much retail or animation along Eglinton - retail animating most of Eglinton frontage


Truly a huge, huge improvement in every way. My only complaint of the revised proposal is that the architecture is uninspiring, but I am sure still just a placeholder.
 
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