Toronto Merlin Residences | 28.6m | 9s | Melillo Architects

[Amare]

That last rendering looked pretty promising, it easily would've been the best looking building in this area.

Kind of looked like a watered down version of this:

This site needs to be redevelopped in any case, and hopefully whatever is proposed in the future looks good. That fake BiWay store currently on site has been having fake "clearance sales" for the past ~10 years now and really needs to go.

 

[DopeyFish]

yeah lakeshore village looks at that long branch tower with envy

also for stealing their TD branch

but yeah it would have been the best building in the area. still cheap looking but everything else is really worn down and out of style (looking at you, TNT)

 

[jmi22]

That building should come down, it's been a blight essentially for as long as I can remember. However, for those enthused at the idea of knocking down functional apartments on 8th instead of literally any of the sea of sfh south of Lakeshore, I find that a bit off putting. Maybe we should redevelop the 1.6km stretch of (northside) Lakeshore that has almost entirely large homes fronting onto it first? As much as rental replacement legislation makes knocking down old rentals sound dreamy, it is still displacement even if the tenants do get to come back half a decade later after leaving without a choice. Allowing owners of homes to freely sell and walk away with a chunk of cash while their properties get a major upgrade in density is not only morally right but also more practical as eventually you will run out of the most impoverished residents of neighbourhoods to displace.

This attitude of treating the less wealthy's homes and lives as purely disposable is far too common, and a resident of this neighbourhood once asked me with confusion why they weren't "knocking down those skeezy apartments west of Amos Waites Park", in reference to the Mimico Estates. The conversation soured once I realized where he was talking about, having spent a good chunk of my teenage years happily at friends homes within that neighbourhood.

There was a period where this was occuring amidst the single family homes in New Toronto, to great success with the least displacement possible, but the city made sure to legislate into oblivion following the 70's.