Toronto Hullmark Centre | 167.94m | 45s | Tridel | Kirkor

I personally do not understand why Doris is slated at max 40Kph. I know north of Church it goes to 50, but still it seems silly to me. Now with Beecroft open, I usually take that south (I Live on Drewry), and I usually go around 60ish except for around the bends but I know the city will put up speed limit signs later for 40kph :(

There are two schools on Doris.

Good luck speeding on Beecroft, there are alot of cruisers on that street due to the presence of a police station. :rolleyes:
 
August construction update

Posted on the Tridel Talks blog, an update on Hullmark Centre and some great photos:
"Hullmark Centre August construction update"

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Thanks for updates! I noticed that the window cladding has been removed and only the curtainwall parts remain intact. Any reason for that?
 
Thanks for sharing, jivey80. I was about to ask Tridelmaster when the yellow crane would go down, considering they finished work on the central part of podium.
 
Facing west, is part of the middle adjoining area going to catch up with the south tower? Or is the south tower's footprint how we see it now?

Also, how many floors is the middle adjoining area going to be?
 
The middle part is finished; it is only one storey high and it will house Whole Foods. The office building connecting south and north towers will be 5-storey high, so the footprint of the south tower will not change.
 
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NYCC before Hullmark was hatched. These pictures were scanned from an old magazine circa 1990.
 

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What was the building on the south-west corner (the Nestle building corner)? Now, it is the last remaining parking lot on the intersection...
 
What was the building on the south-west corner (the Nestle building corner)? Now, it is the last remaining parking lot on the intersection...

If you mean the building that used to be where the parking lot that is now in front (east) of the Nestle building, it was a number of low rise buildings that were updated in the 1970's and early 80's.

There was a Bank of Montreal in a fairly new part of the group that was subsequently moved into the Sheppard Centre when these were all torn down for the parking lot.
 
That Bank Of Montreal branch was really odd,.. it was like a huge cement bunker.

Actually, I think they demolished those buildings so they could build the Sheppard Stubway,... remember, the eastbound to southbound tracks are directly under that parking lot. The open space in front of the northwest corner of Tridel-Hullmark Centre should give you an ideal of how wide that subway turn tunnel is since Tridel-Hullmark Centre won't be building on top of it.
 
Very good summary of the problems at Yonge-Sheppard. I live at Yonge-Finch and take the 401 going west every morning. I'm just glad I'm not going 401 east using that left turn lane. If only there was space to building a fly-over left turn ramp after going under the 401 overpass. .


I'm happy they finally opened Beecroft to Finch. Your bottleneck is basically on Yonge from Poyntz to Franklin,.... once you get to your free-flowing right turn 401 westbound ramp you're fine.

You're right, that southbound Yonge to eastbound Highway 401 left turn is a real pain.

Since there's no space to build a left turn flyover ramp after going under the 401 overpass,... conventional highway engineering design calls to start the flyover ramp further upstream,.... and what they end up with is a left turn flyover ramps that starts near entrance of the southbound Yonge to westbound 401 right turn ramp,... yes, very confusing and expect lots of last minute lane changes,... and accidents! This flyover ramp would fly over the entire width of Highway 401,... all 15-16 lanes at this point,... and would be about 600-700 metres long! And it'll cost about $35 million. And would require shutdown of various lanes of the 401 during constructions,.... we went through about 3 years of reconstruction of the 401 at Yonge,.... Arghhhhh! See the first diagram here:
http://www.toronto.ca/involved/projects/yonge_tms/pdf/1_yonge_sttreet_tms_executive_summary.pdf

But keep in mind,... there's multiple issues with the current Yonge-Highway 401 interchange,... the westbound Highway 401 to southbound Yonge left turn and forced merge right turn to northbound Yonge is so inefficient it cause backup and gridlock on westbound Highway 401 collector lanes,... often backing up to Bayview and Leslie during rush hour. This westbound Yonge to southbound Yonge left turn would also need another flyover ramp,.... and this second flyover ramp would not only have to fly over the entire width of highway 401 again,... but also have to flyover the southbound Yonge to eastbound Highway 401 flyover ramp! And this one would likely cost another $35 million. Thus producing 4 levels of roadways!,.... those Avondale condos would have such a lovely view,... NOT!

I came up with an multimodal (vehicular traffic, bike lanes and pedestrian sidewalk network) interchange solution that would likely cost about the same as just one flyover ramp,... but solve multiple issues at this interchange including, the problematic southbound Yonge to eastbound 401 left turn, westbound 401 to southbound Yonge left turn, westbound 401 to northbound Yonge forced merge. In my solution all right turns and left turns would be free-flowing,... without the need for any traffic signals,... in fact, there would NOT be any traffic signals along Yonge Street from Avondale-Florence down to William Carson Crescent (almost YorkMills-Wilson). The city has hired consultants to examine this interchange and they're considering my solution, they should have a decision by the end of the year.


For me, when there is heavy traffic on Yonge southbound to 401, I take Beecroft south until Poyntz which has double right-hand turn lanes and a right-only light. That seems to be moving a lot of cars through, but that is what also causing a backup on yonge. .

The next time you're doing a right turn there,... eastbound on Poyntz to southbound Yonge,.. notice the No Right Turn On Red Light signs,.... I'm responsible for that! In the late 1990's when they were constructing the Sheppard Stubway line,... and had some community consultations,.... I complained to the local councillor Norm Gardner about that right turn. Because there's a 3-4 feet high cement subway entrance at the north-west corner blocking these right turn drivers view of approaching southbound Yonge cars, these right turn cars would have to edge forward into the pedestrian crossing,.... and they wait for a gap,.... when they finally see a gap,... these right turn drivers would quickly accelerate,... often without checking for pedestrian crossing northbound. I, myself, have had a number of close calls there,.... but now with that No Right Turn On Red Light signage,... its much safer. Still have to becareful there,.... and I always get a chuckle whenever I see a cop catching someone making at right turn on red light there. ;P

I wonder if they'll keep that No Right Turn On Red light at that corner now that Poyntz will be widen and and aligned with the extended Anndale Ave,..... and also since that 3-4 feet high troublesome subway entrance will be demolished once EmeraldPark opens with its own subway entrance at the northwest corner of Poyntz and Yonge.
 
If the city would extend Sentec to connect with Radine and then build an on ramp to fly over Gwendolen park to connect to the 401, it will at least reduce the amount of traffic collection from West of Yonge. Will need to bulldoze between 20-30 houses and the parkland flyover won't be cheap (the golf course won't be too happy wither).

Hmmmm,.... That's an interesting idea,....

The golf course is a city golf course,.... so its not like they would complain much.

Those flyover ramps would be interesting and expensive since they would likely need to connect onto Highway 401 in the middle of the Hogg Hollow bridge. Then it'll probably be too close to the 401-Avenue Road interchange,... the MTO generally likes a minimum distance between between interchanges.

Currently the 401-Avenue Rd interchange is generally inaccessible for those in downtown North York,.... going westward, the 401-Bathurst interchange is not a full interchange,.... those in downtown North York would have to go all the way to Dufferin-Allen to get onto 401 if they miss 401-Yonge interchange and need to go westward. It might be better (and cheaper) to convert 401-Bathurst interchange into a full interchange.

The problem is most of the condos and hence density is on the east side of Yonge Street,.... so it would make more sense to build a Higway 401 connection by extending Willowdale Avenue down to Highway 401 (only part of a city park is in the way),.... this was what the city of North York wanted to do before. Whole bunch of issues with NIMBY,.... and MTO.

Yeah, MTO,... basically, even any interchange improvements like at the troublesome Yonge-401 interchange meets with resistance from the MTO. Why? Because,... anything that brings more traffic,.. onto THEIR 401 would effect their numbers,.... basically, the less cars on the 401, the better their numbers,.... less cars, less accidents, less congestions, higher average speed,.... that's all they care about. The backup of the Yonge-401 interchange causing gridlock throughout downtown North York,... that's a city problem,... not MTO. The backup of along westbound 401 at Yonge,.. that's an MTO problem,.... that's something they're concerned about,.... but southbound Yonge to eastbound 401,... that resulting gridlock is a city problem. Well, at least now city and MTO are discussing the issues,....
 
My personal opinion is the traffic is caused moreso by office workers and commuters coming from north of finch/steeles down to or up from the 401, not condo's. However, that's just my opinion...


HDLtd, you are certainly entitled to your own personal opinion.

Drivers from Finch,... ok, I can see that,... but I think drivers from Steeles would be smart enough to avoid Yonge-401 interchange,.... I mean why drive into gridlock,... if you're at Steeles already,.. you should be smart enough to go around the area and use another 401 interchange.

Let's look at some facts,.... since amalgamation (15 years ago where North York city was forced to join the city of Toronto), in downtown North York core (just the area along Yonge Street between Doris and Beecroft from Finch to Highway 401) there has been over 50 condos built or under various stage of developments but just ONE office building (Transamerica Tower at 5000 Yonge Street). During that time, traffic has gone from heavy but bearable to total gridlock,.... and I guess, we can blame that on that one office tower!

Now, lets look at a typical office tower,.... where each floor is basically full of cubicles,... where each cubicle is about the size of a car or parking spot (if you're lucky!),... And since these 100 metres (former height limit for the area) office towers are about 20-25 storeys high,.... each of these office towers would need about 20-25 levels of underground parking for all the employees! Clearly, this is NOT the case,... in reality each office tower has about 3 levels of underground parking. So where does the vast majority of these office workers (at least 85%)park their cars??? Hint,... at home,... and they take public transit or cycling or walk to work.

Can the same be said of those living in any of the over condos built within the last 15 years,.... are at 85% of these condo dwellers taking public transit, cylcing or walking to work? And then there's still that 50:1 ratio of new condos to new office building built within the last 15 years,.... so I think it's pretty safe to say the added density from the condos are what causes the vehicular traffic gridlock problems in downtown North York.

Note: While each floor of office would have higher density than a typical floor for condo,.... a 100m office building and 100m condo tower would typically both have similar number of parking spaces. Consider, a parking space is about the size of a condo's bathroom,... and each condo floor has about 12-20 units where each unit has about one parking space,.... a 100m condo would have about 30 floors and about 3 levels of underground parking.

Certainly, it's not the condo dwellers whos at fault,... it's our various level of governments,.... namely the Ontario government and the city of Toronto for making downtown North York a high density mobility hub,... allowing condos to pop up like weeds,.... a new condo is completed and opens up in downtown North York every 3-4 months! They thought since the area is served by the Yonge Subway line and the Sheppard stubway line,... let the new condo dweller use public transit,.... but the Yonge subway line is already operating at 100% full capacity and the Sheppard Stubway doesn't go anywhere! These level of governments allow these high density development because it allows them to collect more tax dollars per square feet of land and collect development fees (Tridel-Hullmark Centre paid about $100 million in such fees,.... and how much of that will actually end up for any infrastructure improvements in the Yonge-Sheppard-401 area???),.... but yet, they don't put any money back into the area in terms of improving infrastructures,... like better highway interchanges or more roadways, bike lanes, schools, etc,... Instead, the Ontario government extends subway lines into their Liberal friendly riding at Vaughan Centre (low density area with a bunch of big box stores at Hwy 7 & Jane),... while Toronto get shafted with streetcars,... err, LRT lines,...
 

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