Toronto West Block Est. 1928, The LakeShore, and The LakeFront | 130.75m | 41s | Choice Properties | a—A

junctionist said:
That takes the heritage facade preservation project down a notch in my opinion. An important part of any good preservation project is adapting the old to the demands of the new. If you can't even adapt the windows of the old facade to the new building, you haven't done enough in my opinion.
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I'm speculating here, but I think the issue here is the the client, Loblaws, aren't familiar with or can't be bothered to adapt to exterior windows in their stores. It's disappointing, for sure, but hard to solve without a willing client.
 
smably said:
I'm speculating here, but I think the issue here is the the client, Loblaws, aren't familiar with or can't be bothered to adapt to exterior windows in their stores. It's disappointing, for sure, but hard to solve without a willing client.
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I'm not so sure how true this speculation is. They have exterior windows lining the East side of their Maple Leaf Gardens flagship store.
 
Large-scale retailers are notorious for not wanting their flexibility limited by exterior windows. Why would the architects want the windows covered? That makes almost no sense. It’s very clearly a case of the client wanting their upper level windows covered so they can use those walls for product and other uses accordingly.
 
.dwg said:
Large-scale retailers are notorious for not wanting their flexibility limited by exterior windows. Why would the architects want the windows covered? That makes almost no sense. It’s very clearly a case of the client wanting their upper level windows covered so they can use those walls for product and other uses accordingly.
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There are also many retailers who want the opportunity to have upper windows to also display their product, branding and advertising. Loblaws does it well at various other locations, as does Shoppers and Rexall. It's a shame this wasn't a requirement here, more so considering the heritage component.
 
Mar 22, 2020

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I was hoping it would feel more inviting for a pedestrian after this was done with trees, proper sidewalk paving, etc. They're not done yet but it looks like it will remain as unpleasant as it was before. The widths of the roads down there doesn't help.
 
isaidso said:
I was hoping it would feel more inviting for a pedestrian after this was done with trees, proper sidewalk paving, etc. They're not done yet but it looks like it will remain as unpleasant as it was before. The widths of the roads down there doesn't help.
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Yep agree. I was hoping this project would bring some much needed life into the area. That remains to be seen, the original building is nice but this grocery store seems to be about the best thing this neighbourhood has got so far. Hopefully it does liven up some how.... and maybe it will.

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416ForLife said:
Yep agree. I was hoping this project would bring some much needed life into the area. That remains to be seen, the original building is nice but this grocery store seems to be about the best thing this neighbourhood has got so far. Hopefully it does liven up some how.... and maybe it will.
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Big grocery stores are not the best for urban liveliness, since they want to focus shopper attention inwards and also have only a few points of egress.

Given that they were going to demolish the whole building anyways, I wonder if it would have been better to put the bulk of the grocery store in the basement like at MLG, and carve out some space for small-format retail on the ground floor.

In any case, I think the best we can hope for is an outdoor patio for the grab-and-go portion of Loblaws, and some greenscaping to shelter said space from the intersection.
 
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jje1000 said:
Big grocery stores are not the best for urban liveliness, since they want to focus shopper attention inwards and also have only a few points of egress.

Given that they were going to demolish the whole building anyways, I wonder if it would have been better to put the bulk of the grocery store in the basement like at MLG, and carve out some space for small-format retail on the ground floor.

In any case, I think the best we can hope for is an outdoor patio for the grab-and-go portion of Loblaws, and some greenscaping to shelter said space from the intersection.
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At MLG, Loblaws is on the main floor, the basement is a parking garage. The second floor at MLG has the LCBO, Cooking School, and is it a Joe Fresh up there?

Here, according the architectural plans I have, Loblaws will be up on the second floor. On the ground floor, the Loblaws entrance will be from the north side of the building beside the driveway. From there you'll also be able to access to other retailers directly, a Shopper's Drug Mart, and a Joe Fresh (which makes sense as Joe Fresh's head office will be upstairs atop the replicated historic structure). On the southeast corner of the ground floor will be the office lobby. The lobby will have an entry to a café at the café's east end. At the café's west end, it will have a door to another small lobby, which will also have doors to the Joe Fresh and Shoppers, and to the outside where there could be summertime seating for the café.

There will also be a restaurant in the base of the condo that fronts on Bathurst. Finally, there are a couple spots for retailers under the Gardiner.

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jje1000 said:
Big grocery stores are not the best for urban liveliness, since they want to focus shopper attention inwards and also have only a few points of egress.

Given that they were going to demolish the whole building anyways, I wonder if it would have been better to put the bulk of the grocery store in the basement like at MLG, and carve out some space for small-format retail on the ground floor.

In any case, I think the best we can hope for is an outdoor patio for the grab-and-go portion of Loblaws, and some greenscaping to shelter said space from the intersection.
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Loblaws owned the building and the land as far as I could tell? I’m sure their storefront is part of the deal however I have no idea what kind of ownership or terms were agreed upon.
 
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