Toronto 245 Marlee Avenue | 124.43m | 37s | Chestnut Hill | Kirkor

[Northern Light]

New to the AIC is yet another MTSA-inspired application for this neighbourhood.

This one covers the lands at 245-251 Marlee, 1-7 Romar Crescent and 16 Stayner.

Site as it is: (per streetview)

Marlee Frontage:

Stayner Frontage:

Romar Crescent Frontage:

The App:

Application Details

www.toronto.ca

The proposal here is two towers of 35s and 37s.

Site Plan:

Ground Floor Plan:

Stats:

Elevator Ratio:

8 elevators to 886 units, or 1 elevator to every 110.75 units (reasonable)

Parking Ratio: 328 spaces to 886 units or 0.37 (high for an MTSA)

Description:

Note, this is proposed to be built as 2 phases.

There is no mention of parkland.

There is no mention of affordable housing for @HousingNowTO

Comments:

OMG.........How many things can you do wrong in architecture and landscape design.......when I teach a class on this................this site as currently proposed will have a place of dis-honour on my list of examples........

I'm fine w/the overall height.........but the podium massing and expression is terrible. (too tall, the site organization w/the giant lobby/lounge in the middle and the differential cladding.......just ugh........ )

The Ground Floor Plan, the waste space is extraordinary and the awful retail layouts....eeesh.........and you could make the retail more functional by by ditching the lofts and the super-sized lobby.......

The Landscape Plan for the Marlee streetscape is also incorrect. You want to buffer pedestrians from the road, placing any landscape zone closer to the curb. Consolidating sidewalk width the interior size also improves room for accessibility and/or patios.

 

[Johnny Au]

It would be unfortunate if Chalkers were to disappear. After all, it serves delicious spicy chicken tenders and poutine and it’s located extremely close to where I live. It is by far the main drinking hole for those in the neighbourhood (despite the fact I am teetotal for health reasons).

Oh, and Chalkers operated as a ghost kitchen during the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

[jmi22]

The Landscape Plan for the Marlee streetscape is also incorrect. You want to buffer pedestrians from the road, placing any landscape zone closer to the curb. Consolidating sidewalk width the interior size also improves room for accessibility and/or patios.

This immediately stood out, so easy to not mess this up and yet it pops up in developments across the city. Very frustrating as there is no reason, at least on the arterial, to not do the right thing. On side street frontages with townhouses I get wanting be able to sell the 'front yard' and buffer from sidewalk. If only the city spent a fraction of the time it spends slashing affordable housing counts due to shadows maintaining some semblance of the public realm guidelines they claim to love.

 

[jmi22]

Otherwise good project, just wish all this new density didn't have to be wedged next to the Allen. The 70's towers next to the contemporary ones still being used as buffers against air and noise pollution a whole 50 years later is quite condemning of all the "progress" we have made.

 

[Northern Light]

This immediately stood out, so easy to not mess this up and yet it pops up in developments across the city. Very frustrating as there is no reason, at least on the arterial, to not do the right thing. On side street frontages with townhouses I get wanting be able to sell the 'front yard' and buffer from sidewalk. If only the city spent a fraction of the time it spends slashing affordable housing counts due to shadows maintaining some semblance of the public realm guidelines they claim to love.

In fairness to the City, the streetscape issues often get fixed at the Site Plan Approval stage; and usually do if I intervene, LOL......... that said........this type of layout is too dumb for words and should never make it onto or off the drawing board of any Landscape Architect.

 

[drum118]

In fairness to the City, the streetscape issues often get fixed at the Site Plan Approval stage; and usually do if I intervene, LOL......... that said........this type of layout is too dumb for words and should never make it onto or off the drawing board of any Landscape Architect.

Its a good thing this is not on my radar or travel areas as I would have to add it to my list of designs that fail the look test, Will not add to my list of projects in case I may want to follow down the road as its a waste of space and time.

 

[Downtown Toronto]

The 8 assembled lots for this application all closed in May 2024 for $19,170,000 pre land transfer tax