Toronto East Harbour | 214.2m | 65s | Cadillac Fairview | Adamson

What I still don't get is how these lands benefit from not tearing down the East Gardiner.
  • You still have the ramps to/from the DVP in which serve no purpose to access the lands;
  • There are still no new access ramps east of Jarvis, not retaining or providing faster travel to/from the site by car; and,
  • The ramps east of the Don are still getting torn down and freeing up land on their site.
If anything, it's just a visual blight in the immediate area. Why the hell did the hybrid option get pitched by First Gulf in the first place?
 
I'm not really digging this. It feels really suburban to me. I would have liked a stronger street grid on site (i.e. more smaller streets, not giant blocks like this is laid out).
 
DonValleyRainbow said:
What I still don't get is how these lands benefit from not tearing down the East Gardiner.
  • You still have the ramps to/from the DVP in which serve no purpose to access the lands;
  • There are still no new access ramps east of Jarvis, not retaining or providing faster travel to/from the site by car; and,
  • The ramps east of the Don are still getting torn down and freeing up land on their site.
If anything, it's just a visual blight in the immediate area. Why the hell did the hybrid option get pitched by First Gulf in the first place?
Click to expand...

You have to realize that 125,000 vehicles use the East Gardiner every day. University Avenue, the sort of road that would've been built with the "removal" option (a six-lane boulevard) carries a third of that traffic and it's busy for most of the day. Even just half of the East Gardiner's traffic would turn a surface boulevard into a traffic nightmare, and that's obviously going to hurt the site's potential.

By the way, the partial rebuild (which is a better name IMO) does include an on/off-ramp at Cherry Street.
 
DonValleyRainbow said:
What I still don't get is how these lands benefit from not tearing down the East Gardiner.
  • You still have the ramps to/from the DVP in which serve no purpose to access the lands;
  • There are still no new access ramps east of Jarvis, not retaining or providing faster travel to/from the site by car; and,
  • The ramps east of the Don are still getting torn down and freeing up land on their site.
If anything, it's just a visual blight in the immediate area. Why the hell did the hybrid option get pitched by First Gulf in the first place?
Click to expand...
First Gulf campaigned to tear down the Gardiner here, but barring that wanted the hybrid because it does remove the Gardiner east of the Don, it does add new ramps up from and down to Lake Shore east of Jarvis. It moves the Gardiner ramps to the DVP further north.

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amnesiajune said:
No they didn't. They proposed the Hybrid Option at a time when Waterfront Toronto was promoting a full removal of the East Gardiner.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20..._first_gulf_comes_up_with_new_compromise.html
Click to expand...


Feb 26, 2014

First Gulf and Great Gulf Support The Removal of the Gardiner Expressway East
There has been extensive coverage in the media recently about the future of the eastern stretch of the Gardiner Expressway. With four options on the table including remove, replace, maintain and improve. the decision facing Toronto City Council will impact the most prominent and exciting commercial development in Canadian history planned by First Gulf at the former Unilever site. Located at 21 Don Roadway, on the east side of the Don Valley Parkway, north of the Gardiner, this impressive project will be Toronto’s “Canary Wharf”; an employment district comprising 15 million square feet of office and commercial development, providing 70 thousand jobs and the City with $150 million new tax revenues annually.

First Gulf CEO David Gerofsky was recently interviewed by the media on First Gulf’s development plans and support of the Gardiner Environmental Assessment removal option of the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway.

From the National Post: "Two years ago First Gulf bought the sprawling former site of the Unilever Factory. Lever Brothers had opened a factory on the site in 1890 to make soap; the factory closed in 2009. Mr. Gerofsky said his firm plans to demolish most of the factory site and erect new buildings with a total of 15 million square feet of space, providing a potential of 70,000 jobs. His firm is prepared to donate several acres of its site to the city, to allow Broadview Avenue to connect to Lake Shore. That way, the Queens Quay LRT could swing north to Broadview subway station. But this is only possible if the east end of the Gardiner comes down, he said.”

Click here to read the full story in the National Post

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From the Toronto Star: "First Gulf CEO David Gerofsky, who has been in talks with Metrolinx and the province, said he expects the Queens Quay LRT project to move ahead soon. The company proposes to turn the former Unilever site into Toronto’s Canary Warf, creating 15 million square feet of office space for 70,000 workers. Gerofsky said the development could bring in $150 million of incremental new property tax for the city.”

Click here to read the full story in the Toronto Star.

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From Global News: David Gerofsky from First Gulf talks about how removing the expressway can help benefit the city of Toronto.

Click here to watch the video.

http://greatgulf.com/news/entry/fir...ort_the_removal_of_the_gardiner_expressway_ea

The revising the revisionism will have to wait another day.

AoD
 
While I like the concept, I hope the final design of the buildings is not so monotonous. I'm afraid with all the buildings looking so similar it could end up like a taller, modern version of Hull's Place du Portage skyline:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4228...4!1sO_OUQ7ngJW91ghmUSPofmg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Or maybe the better analogy would be that it would resemble if all the bank towers in the financial district were designed as part of the Bay-Adelaide Centre.
 
agreed - the massing and arrangement of the buildings looks interesting but the actual individual buildings are all boxy and repetitive. also, they dont look like residential buildings but rather like office buildings.
 
Redroom Studios said:
agreed - the massing and arrangement of the buildings looks interesting but the actual individual buildings are all boxy and repetitive. also, they dont look like residential buildings but rather like office buildings.
Click to expand...

They are probably placeholder buildings - meant to denote built-form than actual design.

AoD
 
Correct, this is essentially a master plan concept by OMA and Adamson at this point, with no architects announced for particular buildings.

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EDIT: I'd be willing to bet that later in the process once the initial rezoning of the whole site has been achieved, that we will see further amendments sought for particular plots within it which would allow for some residential. Despite having a pile of residential to the south, it needs some right inside it.
 
interchange42 said:
Correct, this is essentially a master plan concept by OMA and Adamson at this point, with no architects announced for particular buildings.

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Click to expand...

True, but we've seen master plan concepts which suggest the various buildings' final designs will not be monotonous, such as the Galleria redevelopment plan, or the M City proposal in Mississauga. In both of those cases the buildings depicted are placeholders, but not such monotonous/similar ones.

I'm not saying this master plan means we will get a monotonous development, just that I'm hoping that is not the case.
 
Personally, I am more concerned about the design of the open air plaza - I am not sure if that will make for a great urban space. Something maybe half the size would be more intimate - and transition to the surrounding aside, pulling the mass of the tower away from the plaza and towards the end of the sub-block? It would create a bowl-like amphitheatre space (and coherent stepping would reinforce that effect as the "rim")

Having some hotel use would be perfect for the site.

AoD
 
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