Toronto Towns of Don Mills | ?m | 4s | Winfield | Paradigm

One Nut Kruk

One Nut Kruk

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http://donmillstowns.com/index.php

This should really help revitalize this area. These look really nice and colourful. Totally unexpected for this area, but very much welcome. It even looks like we're getting black mullions here; amazing.

P.S. I forgot to close the brackets in the thread title. Mods, can you please fix this?
 
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The architecture is a refreshing take on the modern townhouse. It's like something you might see in the suburbs of a European city. That shade of yellow might not age well, though.

Our 21st century modern townhouses look much better than those squat 1960s townhouses with tiny windows that were purportedly good design back then. The new generation stand tall, confident and metropolitan. They meet the street well and provide a good sense of enclosure for the public space on the street. The only thing I'd like to see changed city-wide is to widen the front steps, so that people can sit on the steps comfortably and informally and chat like they do on the steps of brownstones in New York.
 
junctionist said:
Our 21st century modern townhouses look much better than those squat 1960s townhouses with tiny windows that were purportedly good design back then. The new generation stand tall, confident and metropolitan. They meet the street well and provide a good sense of enclosure for the public space on the street. The only thing I'd like to see changed city-wide is to widen the front steps, so that people can sit on the steps comfortably and informally and chat like they do on the steps of brownstones in New York.
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Not the greatest example. That is a public housing town home development and doesn't really reflect many of the older style town homes. I personally like the older style town homes - they have a better sense of community, generally better floorplans, an actual front and backyard (and a garage) and bigger rooms. Some of my favourite town home developments and probably better examples of older developments:

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Exploiting ignorance? This area is more like Parkwoods/Maryvale/Wexford -- definitely not Don Mills.
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Not the first time marketing has stretched the truth. You want to buy in Don Mills or Wexford? Most will take Don Mills.
 
One Nut Kruk said:
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Those renditions look pretty good. I was always wondering what was happening to this area, especially after Rexall was established at the adjacent corner not too long ago. It always seemed out of place to me. I believe this project will complement the newer Rexall quite well.

The issues I see with this development are:

  1. There are still quite a few run-down buildings along this stretch of Victoria Park. It will take some time before the area is revitalized. Perhaps a revitalization of the plaza at Victoria Park & Lawrence can be a catalyst.
  2. It's not in Don Mills! But seriously, this is a testament to the gentrification and revitalization of the Don Mills/Lawrence area, particular after Shops At Don Mills came into fruition. Don Mills has always been a middle-class neighborhood but it's been rapidly rejuvenated into a sought-after locale which obviously is creating a trickle effect to developments like this one.
 
James said:
Those renditions look pretty good. I was always wondering what was happening to this area, especially after Rexall was established at the adjacent corner not too long ago. It always seemed out of place to me. I believe this project will complement the newer Rexall quite well.

The issues I see with this development are:

  1. There are still quite a few run-down buildings along this stretch of Victoria Park. It will take some time before the area is revitalized. Perhaps a revitalization of the plaza at Victoria Park & Lawrence can be a catalyst.
  2. It's not in Don Mills! But seriously, this is a testament to the gentrification and revitalization of the Don Mills/Lawrence area, particular after Shops At Don Mills came into fruition. Don Mills has always been a middle-class neighborhood but it's been rapidly rejuvenated into a sought-after locale which obviously is creating a trickle effect to developments like this one.
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Yes, the townhouses on the other side of Victoria Park -- a little north of here -- were supposed to be demolished and replaced. The owner has instead decided to do maintenance and keep them standing, for the time being.

That Rexall is such as wasted opportunity, and its positioning is awkward. All the parking should have been placed in the back. Retail could have stretched from Grewlawn Cr to Lynvalley Cr.

As for the Towns of Don Mills, it's too bad a central courtyard isn't being incorporated. I don't like the road that will be running through the development.
 
Just adding the same about location - that's Maryvale, not Don Mills. Also a question re the townhouses north of the location on the east side - seriously they're not redeveloping that location? I used to live in the townhouses along Cassandra just west of Vic Park and those structures were in serious disrepair (the ones on the east side, I mean).
 
cruzin4u said:
Not the greatest example. That is a public housing town home development and doesn't really reflect many of the older style town homes. I personally like the older style town homes - they have a better sense of community, generally better floorplans, an actual front and backyard (and a garage) and bigger rooms. Some of my favourite town home developments and probably better examples of older developments:
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My concerns apply to all of those examples. They meet the street with garages and driveways. Their staggered facades don't provide a sense of enclosure to the public spaces the way a continuous street wall does. They're set back further from the street to accommodate driveways and look less metropolitan overall. The new generation avoids these issues with facades that meet the street with formal front doors and windows, not blank garage doors, that provide strong streetwalls instead of staggered facades, and that have taller and bolder facades overall.
 
Nobody considers this Don Mills but according to the City of Toronto, Don Mills is up to Vic Park instead of DVP.

Just be glad they didn't call it "East Bridle Path"
 
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