Northern Light
Superstar
New to the AIC is this application for a partial redevelopment of the Morningside Crossing Plaza owned by First Capital, located at the intersection of Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue.
This application only seeks to redevelop a current KFC/Taco Bell and former Shoeless Joe's at the corner of Lawrence and Morningside at the extreme south-west of the property.
A Block Context Plan shows the possible course of future redevelopment of the entire site, but is not submitted as a Masterplan for consideration with this application.
Site as is:
The App:
app.toronto.ca
From the Docs:
Ground Floor Plan:
Block Context Plan: (note that this is mostly the applicant's property, but it is not being submitted as a Masterplan tied to this application, only a conceptual build-out:
Comments:
Very reasonable height ask, for a proposal which would redevelop a portion of a suburban, big-box format plaza with something much more urban.
Good!
Ground Floor Plan/Landscape Plan, very problematic. I would argue strongly for retail along both major roads (Lawrence and Morningside, pretty much in their entirety and reserving any at-grade residential to the site interior.
Instead, we have inordinate space devoted to at-grade residential, partially fronting Morningside, along indoor amenity space also fronting a major road. That's anti-urban, and terrible design, coming from firms that should know better with a client who should have no difficulty filling that retail space. Give me a break.
I'm somewhat concerned about the Block Context Plan for the site not, in fact, being a Masterplan submitted with the application. Whether this site layout and massing make sense, is partially dependent on where future public roads are built and where and how much parkland is created, amongst other things.
It makes little sense to me to decide this in isolation.
That said, the City can't really compel a Masterplan here.
I frankly take some issues w/the Block context plan (I would prefer public roads, where they see private, and would like to see the southern 1/2 of the site further divided by an additional street), but that's for another day.
The Landscape Plan/Site Plan also has some issues. The Morningside frontage is fine, but the Lawrence frontage places the landscaping next to the building, rather than buffering the sidewalk from the adjacent road. This creates a far less pleasant public realm and does not serve the interests of ground-floor animation well.
Finally, we need to talk architecture.............hey, at least there are warm tones, and brick...........but OMG, the towers are KirKor level busy..........from Diamond Schmitt. I like some of the architectural variation for the podium to break things up a bit, but the towers need some serious simplification/editing.
This application only seeks to redevelop a current KFC/Taco Bell and former Shoeless Joe's at the corner of Lawrence and Morningside at the extreme south-west of the property.
A Block Context Plan shows the possible course of future redevelopment of the entire site, but is not submitted as a Masterplan for consideration with this application.
Site as is:
The App:
Application Details
app.toronto.ca
From the Docs:
Ground Floor Plan:
Block Context Plan: (note that this is mostly the applicant's property, but it is not being submitted as a Masterplan tied to this application, only a conceptual build-out:
Comments:
Very reasonable height ask, for a proposal which would redevelop a portion of a suburban, big-box format plaza with something much more urban.
Good!
Ground Floor Plan/Landscape Plan, very problematic. I would argue strongly for retail along both major roads (Lawrence and Morningside, pretty much in their entirety and reserving any at-grade residential to the site interior.
Instead, we have inordinate space devoted to at-grade residential, partially fronting Morningside, along indoor amenity space also fronting a major road. That's anti-urban, and terrible design, coming from firms that should know better with a client who should have no difficulty filling that retail space. Give me a break.
I'm somewhat concerned about the Block Context Plan for the site not, in fact, being a Masterplan submitted with the application. Whether this site layout and massing make sense, is partially dependent on where future public roads are built and where and how much parkland is created, amongst other things.
It makes little sense to me to decide this in isolation.
That said, the City can't really compel a Masterplan here.
I frankly take some issues w/the Block context plan (I would prefer public roads, where they see private, and would like to see the southern 1/2 of the site further divided by an additional street), but that's for another day.
The Landscape Plan/Site Plan also has some issues. The Morningside frontage is fine, but the Lawrence frontage places the landscaping next to the building, rather than buffering the sidewalk from the adjacent road. This creates a far less pleasant public realm and does not serve the interests of ground-floor animation well.
Finally, we need to talk architecture.............hey, at least there are warm tones, and brick...........but OMG, the towers are KirKor level busy..........from Diamond Schmitt. I like some of the architectural variation for the podium to break things up a bit, but the towers need some serious simplification/editing.
