Toronto Jaedon Mews | ?m | 3s | UrbanQuest | Arch DWG

Indeed....although with Sotheby's as their agent, these could be expensive..
 
Indeed....although with Sotheby's as their agent, these could be expensive..

TOWNHOUSES
Project to add modernist touch to area's traditional look

From Friday's Globe and Mail

June 6, 2008 at 1:13 PM EDT

* Little Italy Lofthouses
* Location: College and Shaw streets
* Builder/developer: UrbanQuest
* Size: 1,650 to 2,000 square feet
* Price: $749,900 to more than $1-million
* Sales centre: to be announced
* Contact: (416) 480-6213 or www.littleitalylofthouses.com

The incongruous string of trendy cafés, raucous bars and posh boutiques alongside hardware stores and vegetable stands has made Little Italy into an appealing, electric neighbourhood where youth and heritage can blissfully coexist.

While the area's cultural and retail identity has branched out in fearless directions, the architectural identity has stuck close to the script written for it more than 100 years ago, that of a traditional, Victorian working-class neighbourhood.

UrbanQuest's Little Italy Lofthouses is attempting to turn a corner with a handful of modernist three-storey townhouses on a laneway just north of the intersection of College and Shaw streets on Little Italy's west side.
Little Italy
Enlarge Image
The Globe and Mail

"We redesigned the exterior facade to make it more modernistic," said Shakeel Walji, creative director of Walsh Group, which is handling the project's marketing and exterior identity.

The site had been approved to absorb a medium-size infill addition of townhouses, he said. "We had to work within the planning envelope that already existed."

Seven townhouses will face Shaw Street, while another six will face the laneway and also be able to accommodate small front yards.

Parking will be available in a secure underground common garage.

UrbanQuest's husband-and-wife principals, Glenmorris Cohen and Vivienne Ziner, have specialized in high-end infill townhouses built to accommodate urban creatures with a taste for luxurious lifestyles and top-drawer finishes.

These townhouses, set to be launched within the next two weeks, will feature 12-foot ceilings in the main living areas as well as rooftop terraces on top of the third floor overlooking the mostly low-rise neighbourhood. Standard interior features will include quartz countertops in the kitchen, bathtubs by famed interior designer Phillippe Starck, and hardwood floors.

Sales will be handled by Sotheby's International Realty's urban-core expert, Veronica Lord.

Special to The Globe and Mail
 
Seven townhouses will face Shaw Street, while another six will face the laneway and also be able to accommodate small front yards.

Parking will be available in a secure underground common garage.

The last time these townhouses were released (different design - about 3 yrs. ago), they had them touching back-to-back (so none of them had any windows in the back); therefore they were long and skinny with only windows at the front. This sounds like an improvement - or they addressed that design flaw. Though the land slops considerably down (towards Shaw) and I remember the old design having the townhouses in the back much higher than the ones on Shaw St. I wonder how that has been re-worked.
 
Very handsome! Put's many other townhome designs to shame.
 
Little Italy Loft Houses

Looks like a nice sister project for Cube Lofts on College Street.

It appears these "loft houses" will be going just a few steps north of College Street, fronting onto Shaw.

Website here. Cube Lofts thread here.

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Neat. I really hope this is what we'll see in the West Donlands instead of horrible cookie cutter suburban faux-anything mini mansions.
 
Very pleasant. Similiar to the teeple project at Bayview which I posted about a while ago : lineaonbayview.com

Got an email today from Sotheby's (which is marketing them) saying that
the floorplans will be going on the littleitalylofthouses.com site tomorrow.
Where'd you get those floorplans from Casaguy?

These developments are definitely a welcome addition to any toronto neighbourhood.
 
This development is going in on the site of a burned-out church on the West side of Shaw street. The ruins of the church have been there for years. Can anyone confirm that this was the church burned down by that crazy guy who killed someone, burned down a couple of churches then threw himself off the scarborough bluffs?
 

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