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AlvinofDiaspar

AlvinofDiaspar

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There is an interesting tidbit from agenda of the Waterfrontoronto Design Review Panel, Meeting 21 (November 14, 2007):

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/dbdocs//4734a7ae1099a.pdf

"Possible Institutional Use Project"? In Camera? Is this the Ryerson Waterfront Campus? Note that Daoust Lestage are one of the key parnters in the Ryerson Master Planning Team.

Let the rumours begin!

(This thread will renamed or merged with extant thread(s) when more info becomes available).

AoD
 
Given the messy public spat over Project Symphony, and the welcome emphasis on design in the review processes now being introduced on the waterfront - and at Aura, which has been cleaned up nicely in the final version - perhaps developers are shy of showing early and unreviewed designs in public? They shouldn't be though, since the process will result in improvements to their proposals.
 
Has to be

I saw the report too.

I can't see it being any other institution.

Ryerson was the only one to raise the idea publically.

I did see some musing from York after the fact, but this appears pretty far along.
 
Waterfront College or University Site Confirmed

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/12/20/another-waterfront-development-secret.aspx

Government officials are negotiating another secret deal for public land on the Toronto waterfront, this time for a college or university to take a prime spot near the Redpath sugar refinery.

Renée Daoust, a Montreal architect, confirmed today that she has produced drawings for a building that an institution plans to erect on the south side of Queens Quay, between Jarvis and Sherbourne streets. She declined to name her client.

“It’s a bit premature, because they are in a negotiation process,†she said from her firm, Daoust Lestage, in Montreal. “People are not talking right now.â€
Ms. Daoust is also a member of Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Panel, a group of architects with the power to approve or reject the designs for projects on the waterfront. She said she will not sit judgment over her own project. “You have to excuse yourself,†she said.

Waterfront Toronto, jointly owned by the federal, provincial and city governments to manage the redevelopment of the port lands, confirmed that it is talking to a school about locating on the site.

“We are in discussions with an academic institution, which will end in a good deal for all,†said Marisa Piattelli, a spokeswoman for Waterfront Toronto. Asked why the land was not put out to tender, she said “academic institutions don’t want to compete against one another.â€

She said there are other pieces of land available at that site, where today crews were driving piles into site of the former Marine Terminal 28 at the water’s edge. Any deal must be approved by Toronto City Council, she said.
Ryerson University had been in discussion with Waterfront Toronto for the site. But yesterday Dr. Sheldon Levy, the president of Ryerson, said his institution is not going to the port lands.

“It’s not us,†he said. “It’s easier to grow and consolidate around the university itself.â€

Ms. Piattelli said she has also had discussions with George Brown College, which has a campus a few blocks away at King and Sherbourne, and the Ontario College of Art and Design, which recently underwent a major expansion at its McCaul Street campus. Neither school was immediately available for comment.

The new project will go on land east of the Jarvis Street slip, where ships dock to unload raw sugar for the Redpath refinery. The land belongs to Toronto Economic Development Corp., a city agency. TEDCO came under fire earlier this year after it made a secret deal, which it codenamed “Project Symphony,†with a mystery tenant for that space (seen above). TEDCO later revealed that its tenant is Corus Entertainment Inc., after the name of the tenant appeared in the National Post.

However, the Design Review Panel earlier this month rejected the Corus building design, and said it will withhold $9-million of its $12.5-million contribution to that project, unless the architects change details of that project.

Louroz
 
Harper wrote a letter to them specifically rejecting UPeace coming to Toronto. It was unnecessary, because the deal was going to expire anyway, but Harper wanted to register his condemnation of the idea.
 
Alvino found a link to the waterfront review panel minutes. It is interesting that the institutional use is In Camera. Does anyone care that it is being withheld from public scrutiny?
 
Sorry Louroz, I guess you beat me to the punch. I just posted the article you posted here in the Construction forum under the Corus thread. Anyhow, i read somewhere that Sheldon Levy of Ryerson was interviewed and he said Ryerson was not planning on being on the waterfront as they have many opportunities to develop around their current location. I guess that quashes the Ryerson rumours. So who are the mystery clients, so the guessing game begins
 
Tongue in cheek? International Academy of Design & Technology. I know they're not high profile enough to warrant a waterfront building, but they are leaving the CBC building next year.
 
I thought that thread indicated they were folding their Toronto operations, not merely moving out...
 
George Brown's Waterfront Campus

George Brown College in discussions for site near Redpath
Posted: January 10, 2008, 11:20 PM by Barry Hertz
City, Real estate

George Brown College is in discussions to open a campus on a prime site on the Toronto waterfront next to Redpath Sugar.

The Post's Peter Kuitenbrouwer reports:
d“We are in discussion with George Brown College about locating on the site,†John Campbell, the chief executive of Waterfront Toronto, said yesterday. “We’re trying to animate the waterfront.â€

A design review panel of Waterfront Toronto, a public agency set up by the city, province and federal government to redevelop public land in Toronto’s port, held a meeting in mid-November at which it went “in camera†for an hour before lunch to discuss a “possible institutional use project†on Queen’s Quay near Jarvis Street.

“We are definitely in discussions,†said Brian Stock, a spokesman for George Brown. “We are not in a position to announce it.â€

Renée Daoust, a Montreal architect who sits on the design review panel, is also the architect for George Brown’s proposed waterfront campus.

Mr. Campbell said rules ensure she will not be passing judgment on her own building. Ms. Daoust said recently that she has produced drawings for the campus,
which would sit on a prime six-hectare site of public land. Both sides declined discuss specifics, except to say that they are trying to make the numbers work.

Mr. Campbell said that, under instructions from the City of Toronto, he wants to lease, not sell, the site to George Brown. He said he plans an appraisal before any deal. “We will be making sure as a public asset we get top dollar for the taxpayers,†he said.

Seeking a school for the waterfront, “We’ve talked to probably every college and university in a 50-mile radius,†Mr. Campbell added. “Humber, Seneca, York, U of T, you name it.â€

The deal follows a pattern for land owned by the Toronto Economic Development Corp., a city agency: In two other recent cases, it has cut deals for public land without a bidding process.

Last spring, after a long, secretive process, TEDCO confirmed — after a report in the National Post — that it has a deal by which the City of Toronto will borrow $132-milion to build an office complex for 1,100 employees of Corus Entertainment Inc.

No one else got a chance to bid on that deal. And in October, TEDCO sold six hectares of public land in Scarborough to a division of Taylor Wimpey Plc., the world’s largest home builder, again without tender.

Mr. Campbell said he will continue to cut deals for public land without bidding.

“If Bill Gates comes along and says, ‘We want to put 1,000 jobs in three buildings on the waterfront,’ we’re not going to say, ‘Bill Gates, get back in line.’ We’ll say, ‘How can we help?’ It’s for the public good.â€

George Brown, which has 15,000 full-time and 60,000 part-time students, is the fastest-growing college in Ontario, Mr. Stock said. “We’re bursting at the seams at this point,†Mr. Stock said. George Brown College has recently bought a 30,000-square-foot building at 230 Richmond St. E., which it is currently renovating.

The school also bought an 18,000-square-foot building at 215 King St. E., which will become a new restaurant for the cooking school.

A for a waterfront deal, he said, “It’s a question of funding. We have to make sure everything we do is sustainable.â€
 
I am all for having some College buildings on the waterfront, but I wouldnt want to see a "campus" there. I fear it would create too much of an isolated feel. If a couple of buildings were tied into the fabric of a mixed use area, then go ahead, but if it becomes a set district, I am against the idea.
 
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