Toronto 540 King West | 50.66m | 15s | Allied | Hariri Pontarini

maestro said:
I think that's a boring resolution to hack the facade off and move it closer to the street. The current use for parking is atrocious but, it could be a quirky space even as a generic restuarant patio. Those are the spaces that separate these neighbourhoods from the master planned, one generation neighborhoods.
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If pretty much the whole of the face of the new building were kept that far back from the sidewalk, sure, leave this one where it is, but if the rest of the new building were to be built out to the same frontage as the Belfast Love building, I think you'd end up with a cold little pocket. The Hive already suffers from neither being close enough to form the street wall, nor far enough back to garden. So chop it up I say, and make it work better one way or another.

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Not the biggest fan of this project as it stands. The heritage building is handsome and is definitely worth saving. The north-south expanse connecting the two primary parcels is long and awkward. It risks visually overwhelming the block, creating a massive wall of window and balcony. The design would improve immensely if they visually separated those chunks of the building by lowering the height of the north-south "bridge" between them.
 
Yeah I'd say this is a pretty big miss considering the architect and developer. The heritage building is absolutely worth preserving in some capacity, it could frame a public courtyard beautifully.
 
Request for Interim Directions Report: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2018/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-117188.pdf
This report responds to an application where staff are currently not in a position to provide a Final Report to Council, but which could be appealed to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal due to a lack of decision during the break in Council's meeting schedule (July to December 2018).

[...]

In its current form, the proposed development is not consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement (2014), does not conform with the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (2017) and does not conform with the policies of the Official Plan. In addition to the proposed demolition of a heritage resources, the proposal also does not fit harmoniously into its existing and/or planned context contrary to the Official Plan and King-Spadina Secondary Plan.
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Updated Rendering from September 2018 Investor Presentation:

2018-10-02 11_23_38-InvestorsPresentation-Digital_AP_180918-Reduced-Size.pdf.png


Allied Development Pipeline w/ estimated completion:
2018-10-02 11_23_27-InvestorsPresentation-Digital_AP_180918-Reduced-Size.pdf.png
 

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That looks vastly better than the last iteration. But is the heritage building being preserved?

Also, off topic but 650k sq ft at King and Spadina for 2022? What project is that? Infill above 460 King St W?
 
What's that 650,000 sf office building due for completion in 2022 at King & Spadina I wonder? The northwest corner of the intersection maybe? I don't believe that matches any existing proposals. If it's a new proposal, we are going to have to see something soon if they want a 650,000sf building done by 2022..

Or is that King West Condos? If so, why are they including the residential GFA?
 
innsertnamehere said:
What's that 650,000 sf office building due for completion in 2022 at King & Spadina I wonder? The northwest corner of the intersection maybe? I don't believe that matches any existing proposals. If it's a new proposal, we are going to have to see something soon if they want a 650,000sf building done by 2022..

Or is that King West Condos? If so, why are they including the residential GFA?
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As i recall that office tower has been in the plans for the past 5 years and believe it has even been approved by city planning
 

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Ah, the mysterious King and Spadina project comes up again in the investor presentation on page 40, aaaaand... it's KING Toronto / BIG King West.

Going back on topic, the renders in that presentation for The Well and KING Toronto are both out of date relative to the latest SPA submissions, so I wonder whether Allied may have accidentally used an old render for 544 King as well. (As in, maybe the database version is actually more recent.)

I hope I'm wrong about that because I love the spiky residential design, but based on the feedback from neighbours at the community consultation + comments from the city, I think the latest design iteration will have the heritage building on King preserved + loading moved from Morrison to Brant as Allied got an earful about adding more traffic on Morrison. I'd be surprised if they had significantly redesigned the upper portion without addressing either of those issues.
 
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I wonder if the saw tooth balconies are in response to the BIG development across the street or perhaps David Pontarini is passionate about crinkle cut fries.

Is the heritage building really worth preserving? There is nothing particularly striking about it.
 
For me it is the lack of inclusion of the Jacobs & Co. Steakhouse building that results in an odd built form ... is there any chance of that building being redeveloped once this one fills the area around it?
 
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