Toronto Auto BLDG | 54.86m | 10s | Castlepoint Numa | a—A

I live two blocks from the Cadbury factory on Gladstone. That building is tucked away, I wasn't even aware of it until I was looking for apartments in the neighbourhood early this year. It's been there forever, surrounded entirely by houses. It certainly doesn't seem to be a detriment to the neighbourhood.

So I can see Nestle (formerly Rowntree) co-existing quite easily with redevelopment of the Tower Automotive lands, and glad to see the tower itself renewed.
 
"So I can see Nestle (formerly Rowntree) co-existing quite . . ."
QUOTE ShonTron.

And formerly the Cowan Co Ltd.
(Cocoa & chocolate)


Regards,
J T
 
agoraflaneur said:
Another major issue has to do with stitching together the fabric of the city via connections with the surrounding communities. In my view there should be an east west connection running through the lands, connecting with Dora (or Dublin) on the east and Ritchie (or Golden) on the east. This would make the area less ghettoized and fragmented within the larger cityscape. Alas, this is not being considered, and hope for such a development is almost nil seeing that a bridge cannot be built to connect King West with Queen West in the WQW triangle.
Click to expand...

Castlepoint are pushing for an at-grade pedestrian/cyclist crossing over the Barrie GO tracks at Dora, or alternately at Dublin. They're even talking about a grade-separated bikeway that would link the West Toronto Railpath to this crossing, if it can be done. Should be interesting to see if the City, and more importantly, Metrolinx will be willing to accommodate that. Bridging that railway would be difficult as there is no room on the other side for the required landing (especially if switchbacks are involved). And then there's the additional cost of a bridge....

Crossing the much wider Georgetown rail corridor on the west seems unlikely right now, though they plan to make several connections into the West Toronto Railpath and encourage people to use the Dundas West TTC / Bloor GO / future Metrolinx mobility hub.

And for anyone who wants to see how the Tower Automotive building looks on the inside:
http://vic.gedris.org/pics/2011-10-22-Tower/
 
Vic: Yes I am aware that the developer is "pushing" to have a connection on the east side, which does seem most feasible. That would be fantastic.

I suppose I was just lamenting the fact that the developer in WQW was also "pushing" (ie flat out promising) to have "The Bridge" and "Connect" have - wait for it - a bridge that ... connects ... Queen to King. In that much more important area, neither the developer nor the city came through with the funds, and I don't see much more likelihood of that here. All just marketing to make a profit by the developers who are unwilling to spend their own money to make that profit.
 
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We would love to get a report from the meeting!
 
Very interesting - based on the elevation drawings, it looks like everything will be a modern design and not the kind of faux garbage that has infiltrated the area in recent developments. It's also great that the historic existing tower will be fully renovated, though I'm not sure yet how I feel about 3 additional storeys being tacked on top.
 
http://thesterling1919.com/

main-building.jpg
 
The additional floors could be handled well with good setbacks and proportions, and complimentary design elements like the windows; however, it's hard to tell how they'll look from that rendering. This remarkable heritage building currently has a contrast of white/beige and red brick sections which is quite attractive and appears to be the original design, but the rendering shows an all-white/beige building which is less striking than its current appearance. The change seems to be arbitrary. They should preserve that colour and contrast in the sections of red brick.
 
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It's worth noting that the additional floors will not go higher than what's already there (elevator / mechanical room level, plus water tank level). They mentioned this at the last community meeting. But it looks like it will take up much more space than those levels currently do (with setbacks).
 
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