Toronto 3000 Dufferin | 77.9m | 23s | Pinedale | IBI Group

So the plan is to leave the existing rental building? Curious to see what kind of construction plan they come up with. Imagine being a tenant there are having 3 buildings building built with your building righ in the middle of it all.
 
So the plan is to leave the existing rental building? Curious to see what kind of construction plan they come up with. Imagine being a tenant there are having 3 buildings building built with your building righ in the middle of it all.

Despite there being likely hundreds of people in this building, these people to the city do not matter — they're not single family home owners whose Neighbourhoods of million dollar homes are encased in glass by policy, no, far from influencing policy, the disruption in their likely already far more precarious lives will hardly get any attention, will be seen as just a given.
 
Not that I disagree with the overall sentiment, but what exactly would be the alternative with this site? Kick the tenants out during the construction period? I don't think that would be tenable either.

Better policy across the entire region which doesn't encourage and economically incentivize this type of development but instead allows and encourages reasonable density throughout the city. For what it's worth I'm not against tower in the park intensification in general — it too is a form of neighbourhood that hasn't worked out really well and could be improved by updates — but there are more and less thoughtful ways for it to be done.
 
Yeah again I don't necessarily disagree (the Yellowbelt should be opened to intensification) but as you said, the tower-in-the-park hasn't really worked out either and has resulted in a lot of underutilized land that is not particularly urban. This project will add density near a major intersection outside of downtown, introduce mixed-use (including retail to service the existing residents), and hopefully patch up the urban fabric a bit from the original tower-in-the-park inspired development.

I think this project would (and should) still be happening, even if Toronto got serious with our housing crisis and tackled the Yellowbelt.

Note that this is just a planning observation, not one on the architectural design of the project. From a design standpoint, I am kinda tired of seeing those townhomes (though these look nice) being proposed in major redevelopments. That to me is valuable street frontage being given away to low-intensity use (though here they seem to be fronting onto the adjacent driveway?). I would love to see someone begin experimenting with live-work units rather than townhomes.
 
Yeah again I don't necessarily disagree (the Yellowbelt should be opened to intensification) but as you said, the tower-in-the-park hasn't really worked out either and has resulted in a lot of underutilized land that is not particularly urban. This project will add density near a major intersection outside of downtown, introduce mixed-use (including retail to service the existing residents), and hopefully patch up the urban fabric a bit from the original tower-in-the-park inspired development.

I think this project would (and should) still be happening, even if Toronto got serious with our housing crisis and tackled the Yellowbelt.

Note that this is just a planning observation, not one on the architectural design of the project. From a design standpoint, I am kinda tired of seeing those townhomes (though these look nice) being proposed in major redevelopments. That to me is valuable street frontage being given away to low-intensity use (though here they seem to be fronting onto the adjacent driveway?). I would love to see someone begin experimenting with live-work units rather than townhomes.

You may be right about the specifics of this project. My initial reaction to this was that it seems claustrophobic with the existing building but perhaps in reality it wont be. I think these types of lots could in general definitely be filled in an urban but less claustrophobic way with some increased density, better interaction with the street and non-residential spaces.

Perhaps this one will meet that standard, I may be overreacting and this site when it comes down to it wont feel too bad, but imagining living and having towers grow around you, relentless construction for how long — years of your life — with no real ability to move (after all you're a renter in a housing crisis, everyone's locked into their rent now) in is an image that struck me and I think is still resonant to think about in contrast with the degree to which homeowner resistance to the slightest looming building near their neighbourhoods is given such a platform in policy and arms-crossed style media stories, etc. But I hope you're right and this particular situation works out well.
 
You may be right about the specifics of this project. My initial reaction to this was that it seems claustrophobic with the existing building but perhaps in reality it wont be. I think these types of lots could in general definitely be filled in an urban but less claustrophobic way with some increased density, better interaction with the street and non-residential spaces.

Perhaps this one will meet that standard, I may be overreacting and this site when it comes down to it wont feel too bad, but imagining living and having towers grow around you, relentless construction for how long — years of your life — with no real ability to move (after all you're a renter in a housing crisis, everyone's locked into their rent now) in is an image that struck me and I think is still resonant to think about in contrast with the degree to which homeowner resistance to the slightest looming building near their neighbourhoods is given such a platform in policy and arms-crossed style media stories, etc. But I hope you're right and this particular situation works out well.
Ah I see where you're coming from. Speaking from experience having grown up in one such apartment rental tower, while construction is always annoying, I feel like there was more pressing issues to worry about at the time than local development activity. Worrying about such things tends to lean towards the old and wealthy, as is often reflected in the demographics of community meetings.

Regarding whether the site will feel claustrophobic, it is possible. These type of tower-in-the-park lots are much larger than sites downtown, and I think the size sometimes is underestimated. To give a sense of what the final outcome might look/feel like, here is a recent example from the Yonge and Eglinton area of an infill development on a tower block:

 
IMG_2680.JPG
 
For comparison purposes, here's how the site plan of the original proposal looked:

upload_2017-7-26_10-17-39-png.116094


…so piles of changes.

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