PMT
Senior Member
From i2 Developments' Current Projects page:
Link: http://i2developmentsinc.com/current-projects.html
Current site:
Link: http://i2developmentsinc.com/current-projects.html
Current site:
Toronto 290 Old Weston Road | 98.55m | 29s | i-Squared | TACT Architecture
- Thread starter PMT
- Start date
ShonTron
Moderator
Member Bio
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2007
- Messages
- 12,403
- Reaction score
- 9,058
- Location
- Ward 13 - Toronto Centre
The developer is pitching "SmartTrack" as a selling feature? And calling the St. Clair Streetcar LRT? That's hilarious.
Froggy
Active Member
innsertnamehere
Superstar
I thought the city was thinking of running a road through this site?
W. K. Lis
Superstar
Widen the St. Clair underpass at the railway first.
junctionist
Senior Member
Old Weston Road really needs the investment. The existing built form from Davenport to St. Clair is generally ugly and looks inappropriate for a major street. One factor is that the toxic emissions from the National Rubber Technologies plant makes the area less attractive for development. That plant may provide employment, but it limits investment in the area. No one wants to build factories in the area anymore.
nrb
Active Member
Hmmm once upon a time this whole area was major industrial. Considering the city wants to keep employment lands not turn them into condos it seems your opinion here is a bit backwards.
Personally I like Old Weston road. I think the old workers cottage rowhouses are historically significant to the area and provide needed cheap housing stock for people that is also very dense. This development would be basically hidden from the street, and would have little to no impact on the streetscape.
Personally I like Old Weston road. I think the old workers cottage rowhouses are historically significant to the area and provide needed cheap housing stock for people that is also very dense. This development would be basically hidden from the street, and would have little to no impact on the streetscape.
junctionist
Senior Member
I disagree. Land use patterns have changed significantly since the time that National Rubber Technology's factory was built in the late 19th century. Industrial users want locations next to highways and major shipping ports, not railway junctions like 100 years ago. It would be unacceptable to build a factory like that one literally next to residential houses today on account of pollution and noise concerns. Even in an era with renewed respect for mixed-use communities, the plant is an anachronism.
The city has done little to make the area more attractive for the traditional industrial uses like building more highways, widening city roads, restricting and eliminating residential uses, upgrading utilities, and encouraging big land assemblies for large modern factories and warehouses. The city hasn't even repaved many of the local side streets in decades. I bet that most people wouldn't even want to see more highways and truck-oriented roads cut through the city so close to downtown. At best, it would be extremely controversial in the post-Spadina Expressway political reality of transportation planning. This area isn't very attractive for modern large-scale industry and warehouse uses. To insist on that is backwards.
To make it attractive for anything beyond big box retail requires investment in rapid transit to get some office space built, as well as a better public realm to increase the area's attractiveness to customers. It should be a place where a craft brewer and a coffee bean roasting company can operate in a converted old factory next to an internet startup in a office building and a small cheese company and boutique meatpacker, but also a place where a young person or immigrant can buy an affordable condo or townhouse. To large extent, it's already that way. And that's a good thing. What I want to see is for the heavy industry to relocate to modern industrial areas and be replaced with a mix of commercial and residential uses like what happened in the King West area, Niagara, and Liberty Village. A lot of people work in those areas and they're also thriving neighbourhoods now. They were once dusty and dilapidated districts when they became unattractive for heavy industry and warehouse uses. But we didn't insist on keeping them that way.
The status quo is an area with more vacant lots and empty space than what you generally see in the city, with roads that are in bad shape, no rapid transit, and unattractive parks. It could be so much better than it is today, but it takes a realistic appraisal of what's possible, rather than believing that heavy industry will just appear one day at this location for thousands of jobs. It's not going to happen. Nor is there much political support for the kinds of investments needed to make it happen. It's better to transition to a different kind of planning to encourage land uses that provide employment--a mixed use model without noxious industries.
ferusian
Active Member
AlbertC
Superstar
Curious to watch this unfurl as more details get released. 29 storeys here is on the more aggressive side, but the site does go quite deep on the interior. And something of this scale would certainly act as a boon to further revitalizing the area. Good to see a fair amount of employment space being planned.
Northern Light
Superstar
The lot in question, as Google says it was in May 2019.
Note that the Old Weston Road is off to the left of this shot (east), and the railway corridor is to the right (west).
The picture is taken from the parking lot of a gaming/bingo place next door at 296 Old Weston Rd.
Curiously, over on ToMaps, I see that 290 doesn't actually occupy the entire lot, it shares it with 294, I assume these are being parceled together.
This is a curious height to see behind SFH fronting the road.
Note that the Old Weston Road is off to the left of this shot (east), and the railway corridor is to the right (west).
The picture is taken from the parking lot of a gaming/bingo place next door at 296 Old Weston Rd.
Curiously, over on ToMaps, I see that 290 doesn't actually occupy the entire lot, it shares it with 294, I assume these are being parceled together.
This is a curious height to see behind SFH fronting the road.
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Amare
Senior Member
29 Stories is far too aggressive here, and it would easily tower over everything in the area by miles.
Doesnt help that the traffic flow in the area is a complete mess as well.
Doesnt help that the traffic flow in the area is a complete mess as well.
JasonParis
Moderator
It's too bad the rebuilding of the Old Weston Road bridge over the Diamond isn't considered. It would probably help rationalize some traffic flow in a complicated part of town.
W. K. Lis
Superstar
Maybe there's someone in the MTO dungeons working on the 400 south extension? From link. Wouldn't the extension replace the Old Weston Road bridge? Thankfully it didn't happen. Then again...
AlbertC
Superstar
The site is currently partially used for truck storage:
