Toronto Rush Condos | 44.96m | 15s | Alterra | BDP Quadrangle

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2013/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-56084.pdf

520 Richmond Street West - Zoning By-law Amendment Application - Preliminary Report

This application proposes redevelopment of the site at 520 Richmond Street West which is currently occupied by a one-storey construction supply warehouse store. A 13-storey mixed-use building is proposed containing 108 residential units, commercial uses at grade and 36 parking spaces below grade. The building will have a total height of just over 43 m, including the mechanical penthouse.
 
Apparently, Alterra is calling this project "Richmond and Augusta".

Some interior renovation work has been happening at one end of the existing building (Stephenson's Rental), for what I imagine might be the sales centre.
 
Pics taken Oct 6, 2013


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There's no application in to the City for this site at the moment, no final report having followed the preliminary report from 2013, and all references gone from Alterra's website. DEAD for the time being.

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Public meeting announced:

520 Richmond Street W - Rezoning Application

Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Hyatt Regency (370 King Street W), Regency BC Room, Mezzanine
 
The meeting is underway now. There are about 3 dozen community members here. Heather Rolleston from Quadrangle is presenting the design…

…which has changed from the podium-less 13-storey previous version. The new design—not submitted to the City yet—is now a 15-storey proposal inclusive of a 7-storey podium.

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Because the building is in the Fashion District, they're looking to make the building feel a part of that by giving the exterior a woven look. They're doing that by applying a 3D relief pattern in the bricks between the windows on the Richmond and Augusta sides, and then applying a similarly sized design (not well shown in the renderings) on the bricks on the other sides.

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Because the building backs on Rush Lane aka Graffiti Alley on the north side, and a similarly painted lane on the west side, Quadrangle is designing the lower walls facing the lanes so that they will accept graffiti. No renderings of those sides on the boards, but they were shown in slides.

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The balconies are proposed to be clad with very closely spaced pickets to give a screen effect, so possibly closer than is shown in the rendering.

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Inside there are some interesting numbers, specifically 22% 2 bedroom suites and 18% 3-bedroom suites.

Speaking on behalf of Joe Cressy, his assistant Brent Gilliard told the audience that Alterra, who are building the Ace Hotel a block away, have been one of the easiest developers to work with that Cressy's office has ever dealt with, and wanted the crowd here to know that.

Questions from neighbours have been about the effect of construction on the possibly rickety old buildings on Queen, whether there's enough widening being given to Rush Lane, rodents in the area (not sure how they figure into the plan, myself), and shadowing on 500 Richmond's gardens on the other side of Augusta.

Meeting over.

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I really like the basket weave pattern of the brick podium and the metal pickets of the balconies -- refreshing use of traditional materials.
The blank west wall could do for more articulation, maybe having a slightly darker brick for the square portions to echo the window openings of the other sides or having it inset for more visual relief/texture.
Also the mechanical penthouse should have some kind of ribbing, to relate to the pattern of the balcony pickets, a sort of reference to corduroy instead of a monolithic grey box.
It looks a quite a bit out of scale compared to 500 Richmond next block over which already appears quite bulky and massive, but Waterworks across the street will be 13 stories.
 
This submitted for SPA on July 14th, 2017. Meaning we can get a proper render.

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Interestingly, they have graffiti on the elevations:

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I think this would look much better if they just extended the bottom cladding all the way to the top. Not a fan of all these two-tone buildings.
 
The upper portion really looks like it’s been ignored but I can’t complain the brick at street level looks quite warm.
 

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