Toronto 50 Bloor Street West | 230.11m | 70s | Morguard Corporation | Pellow + Associates

[maestro]

Morguard builds leaseable space that includes rental residential. It's possibly the best time to build rentals over the past 30 years and Morguard is taking advantage with 60 storey worth under construction in Forest Hill. I don't see this as just an exercise.

 

[gabe]

Why do our tallest towers get such mediocre architecture? Aura and Trump come to mind and now this project. In other cities, the tallest buildings get landmark architecture.

People don't want landmark architecture. Look at the backlash the Mirvish + Gehry Towers and the Oxford Place Development on front is getting. Had these projects been boring glass boxes you wouldn't hear a peep out of people.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

gabe:

I don't think about that - 1 Bloor hardly got a peep, nor did Oxford Place, which is hardly on anyone's radar I think the only reason why M+G got flak was the fact that it replaced a heritage warehouse row with plenty of history.

AoD

 

[buildup]

gabe:

I don't think about that - 1 Bloor hardly got a peep, nor did Oxford Place, which is hardly on anyone's radar I think the only reason why M+G got flak was the fact that it replaced a heritage warehouse row with plenty of history.

AoD

There isn't patch of ground on earth without 'plenty of history', sometimes recent history is more interesting.
Why not say 'piles' of history 'loads' of history. If I produced a doc movie on that history would you sit though it - no.

 

[Automation Gallery]

From today's National Post
Rising to new heights: Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood undergoing significant redevelopment
Yorkville is getting ready to grow up. Way up.

Four big development companies have snapped up the former home of the Cookbook Store on Yonge Street, the big Green P garage between Yorkville and Cumberland avenues, the Cumberland Terrace shopping mall, and Holt Renfrew on Bloor Street. Builders want to shoehorn six condo towers, five of them over 50 storeys tall, into two blocks between Bay and Yonge Streets, from Bloor Street to Yorkville Avenue. The tower beside Holt Renfrew would rise 83 floors, making it the tallest residential building in Canada.

“The largest urban redevelopment project in North America is underway,†says John Caliendo, co-chair of the ABC Residents Association.

The largest urban redevelopment project in North America
Typically, this is when outraged residents light torches, load muskets and march with bloodthirsty screams on Toronto and East York Community Council. “Crowds with pitchforks,†Councillor Adam Vaughan has called these citizen mobs.

But this time something more interesting is going on. Resident and business groups in Yorkville, learning of all these towers, teamed up with Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam and “forced†(Ms. Wong-Tam’s word) the developers to a meeting last year with those who have an interest in this sliver of land, to come up with a joint plan. Intensive meetings continue, including one this week.

“It’s not about saying no all the time,†said Mr. Caliendo, who lives on Berryman Street, just northeast of the development. “It’s about making it better. We know the towers are going in. We want really good building design.â€



Ms. Wong-Tam laughs as she recalls the four developers meeting each other at city hall.

“They all have height envy,†she says. “If my neighbour is proposing 80, then I want 80.â€

On Friday, Oren Tamir, a senior planner, and James Parakh, a manager of urban design, sits down with me at city hall. They spread out maps of Yorkville, Mr. Parakh’s sketches imagining walkways, and a white Styrofoam model crowded with tall rectangular spikes that represent the towers over which the developers are lusting.

I ask whether crowding in all these towers can improve Yorkville.
More......http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/0...ourhood-undergoing-significant-redevelopment/

 

[interchange42]

The heights indicated above have changed for the Minto project, and Morguard's itself are very likely coming down. We're currently looking at 75 storeys for this tower, not 83.

42

 

[taal]

The heights indicated above have changed for the Minto project, and Morguard's itself are very likely coming down. We're currently looking at 75 storeys for this tower, not 83.

42

Any news on Oxford's plan for the existing office tower ? Still planning on getting rid of that or have they reshaped their plans ?

 

[pw20]

Any news on Oxford's plan for the existing office tower ? Still planning on getting rid of that or have they reshaped their plans ?

They're doing rental units on top of two storey retail. Apparently the retail should be quite something.

 

[ThomasJ]

They're doing rental units on top of two storey retail. Apparently the retail should be quite something.

the CIBC building??

 

[Strange Advance]

Sounds relatively promising. Thanks for "Posting" the article, Automation G., but if interchange42 is right (I, too, recall something about a reduction for the Minto towers), I wonder why that isn't reflected in the article.

 

[interchange42]

It's not reflected in that article as Toronto Planning only ever talks about the current submission, even if there are talks under way to amend the application. They can only really comment on what is official for the time being.

42

 

[Strange Advance]

I see, thanks.

 

[67Cup]

The heights indicated above have changed for the Minto project, and Morguard's itself are very likely coming down. We're currently looking at 75 storeys for this tower, not 83.

42

Hmmm. It would be a little disappointing if this ends up as essentially the same height as 1 Bloor East. I would rather see the heights perceptibly staggered.

 

[fedplanner]

Hmmm. It would be a little disappointing if this ends up as essentially the same height as 1 Bloor East. I would rather see the heights perceptibly staggered.

It's a sad pathetic game. If you want to develop a 75 storey building, you propose 83 and "negotiate" down to the desired height. Additionally, under Keesmaat, the planning department has become stalworth against setting new height precedents. Supertall fans take note, there is no land within the city of Toronto where zoning would allow a 1000+ foot building and they're not winning support for zoning approvals, either, as if tall buildings are inherently bad or lower a neighbourhoods quality of life.

In New York, there are multiple sites that have as of right height and density zoning permissions to reach to the skies. My interest in planning and development in Toronto has long faded. It's not a fair process for developers nor does it result in desirable city building.

 

[buildup]

That is my sense as well, rather than owning her position and opening supertalls to debate she seems to be trying to impose her views by stealth, and red herrings.
Frankly I'm not sure whether we would've become aware of this personal bias had it not been for her unwelcoming response to M&G. The Aura's of the world support her case since they exemplify bad outcomes. But M&G 'threatended' to deliver an outstanding result, which is why she is not using her influence to remove obstacles. The only thing worse that idealogues are closet idealogues.
I have noproblems with 1% of the city's area going supertall. NYC has five 1,000 footers underway on 57th street alone.