Toronto Daniels Waterfront - City of the Arts | 156.05m | 45s | Daniels | RAW Design

ADRM said:
From the renderings of the latter, it seems to appear that the Innovation Centre is to sit atop of the northernmost portion of the current Sugar Beach, where I believe there is now a large, landscaped, grass-covered mound.
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That is correct - the mound was always meant to be temporary.

The current iteration of that design (though I believe it's in the process of a redesign) looks like it could severely interrupt the flow from the existing Sugar Beach to the Daniels-gifted extension. I wonder if there will be provision in the Innovation Centre redesign to move it eastward or to somehow better integrate it into the current park design.
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I think the staircase might have intruded a little, but the building falls within the footprint of the development site - see the site/context plan from Claude Cormier's site:

http://www.claudecormier.com/en/projet/daniels-waterfront/

AoD
 
Super interesting, thanks. The Cormier site typically has very good site plans/renders.
 
I do not remember any comment on that at the WaterfrontTO Design Review Panel meeting. It's quite possible that the panelists were not shown the context of the park diagonal into which the stairs of the Innovation Centre definitely intruded. Here's hoping that is being examined in the redesign. I wonder if we can get an answer from Sweeny &co on that.

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ADRM said:
The current iteration of that design (though I believe it's in the process of a redesign) looks like it could severely interrupt the flow from the existing Sugar Beach to the Daniels-gifted extension. I wonder if there will be provision in the Innovation Centre redesign to move it eastward or to somehow better integrate it into the current park design.
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While I can't say that I am too excited about these huge stairs they will provide a great vantage point to observe Sugar Beach I am not sure that they will really impede the flow of people from Sugar Beach to the Daniels 'extension. The Daniels section is at corner of Lower Jarvis while the stairs and Innovation Centre are opposite Richardson. (Frankly, why will there be huge flows from the Daniels Park to Sugar Beach anyway?)
 
I initially found the design for the innovation centre to be quite appealing. But from that perspective, it looks like the staircase takes too much space away from the walkway. The building creates a sense of enclosure on Sugar Beach that's unnecessary. Keeping the sight lines and walkways open and wide from Queens Quay would be far better.

It also looks like they're proposing to use unfinished poured concrete on the stairs. It would be a shame to have all that concrete next to Waterfront Toronto's sublime granite mosaic pavements. Concrete is cheap and utilitarian.

If Ryerson pulled it off along Yonge Street with the steps to their student centre, it's because the public realm on Yonge Street is itself extremely cheap and utilitarian--all stained concrete and asphalt. No one criticized Ryerson for it because the student centre cleaned up a part of Yonge Street and brought great architecture to a tired streetscape. But it should be avoided on the waterfront after we've already invested so much in urban design excellence.
 
DSC said:
While I can't say that I am too excited about these huge stairs they will provide a great vantage point to observe Sugar Beach I am not sure that they will really impede the flow of people from Sugar Beach to the Daniels 'extension. The Daniels section is at corner of Lower Jarvis while the stairs and Innovation Centre are opposite Richardson. (Frankly, why will there be huge flows from the Daniels Park to Sugar Beach anyway?)
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It's not just impeding the flow that might be the problem, it's impeding the sightlines. One should be able to look straight through from anywhere on the path to the opposite end, and the stairs must not be allowed to impinge upon that.

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I was surprised to see, when looking at the plans on Claude Cormier's site, that the north end of the Sugar Beach walkway is pinched off. I checked satellite mapping to double check if this was really the case, and as you can see, it is. So, I dove into some Waterfront Toronto planning docs for the area, and it turns out that that piece is planned to be taken care of when the platform portion of the Water's Edge Promenade (which exists on the west side of the waterfront in the QQTerminal/Power Plant area) gets built on this side. No idea when that's planned to go in here, but maybe not until they're ready to go all the way from the Jarvis Street Slip to the Parliament Street Slip?

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March 30
More up on site
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Possibly tower(s). First one is mostly pre-sold, second one could be on spec (a la daniels MO) or they will start selling as they are excavating.
 
Urban-Affair said:
Possibly tower(s). First one is mostly pre-sold, second one could be on spec (a la daniels MO) or they will start selling as they are excavating.
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What does "on spec" mean in this case? I thought legislation mandated that towers not begin construction until they are a certain percentage sold—is that not the case or are there loopholes used to exploit that?
 
There's no legislation (that I'm aware of) that requires a certain percentage of units to be sold. Banks and other financial lenders are the ones requiring it before they provide financing for developments. Daniels has enough capital to proceed with construction before entering sales.
 
ADRM said:
What does "on spec" mean in this case? I thought legislation mandated that towers not begin construction until they are a certain percentage sold—is that not the case or are there loopholes used to exploit that?
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Daniels manages their own financing with a lot of their developments, so no need to reach a percentage of sold units. They have more than enough cash to back their own loans without having to pre-sell anything. They tend to build first, sell later quite a bit and it works out well for them.

For consumers, it means no dealing with construction delays. They have had massive lines for some of their communities in Mississauga when sales for already completed units opened.
 
Anyone know if the office parking garages and residential ones are going to be joined at a later date? It makes sense to have them separated, but it seems to me (a total noob), that it'd be cheaper to dig one massive hole for both parking undergrounds, vs separate ones - even if they were to separate the two.

Or am I totally off, and the big hole they are digging now will serve both office and residential parking?
 
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