West Don Lands

[TKTKTK]

The building to right of the last picture above is still there - Its the loft building that the "Corktown District" building at 569 King east will abut, the building in the foreground are the habitat for humanity towns that were thrown up a few years back.

In the last photo, only the building in the background (the old Simpsons Knitting Mill at 52 St. Lawrence Street) remains. The building fronting the street was the old Stables, those were torn down before I moved into the neighbourhood a few years ago. The shed structure on the right was torn down when they built the half-way house complex behind (which incorporated one of the old garages farther back, 5 or 6 years ago?) and the habitat for humanity stuff went in two years ago.

 

[badga]

ah....i fell victim to the post without preview.....i meant to say that where the stables building has is where the HforH townhomes are now not that they were one and the same.

 

[badga]

Thought I would pass this along... email from waterfrontoronto

JOIN US FOR A PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE FOR THE WEST DON LANDS
May 29, 2008

The West Don Lands is an 80-acre brownfield site next to the Distillery District, that runs from Parliament Street in the west to the Don River in the east and from King Street down to the rail corridor. The revitalization of this area will transform this derelict site into a vibrant, sustainable, mixed-used community.

The key elements underway will result in:

· 23 acres of parks and public spaces, including 17-acre Don River Park
· 6,000 new residential units, including affordable housing units
· 750, 000 square feet of commercial space
· An elementary school, a recreation centre and two childcare centres
· Public transit within a five minute walk, including the Cherry Street Light Rail Transit line
· Bikeways and pedestrian connections
· Sustainable green bu! ilding design standards
· Flood protection for downtown Toronto, and risk assessment-based soil remediation

Waterfront Toronto would like to invite you to learn more about these exciting projects at our upcoming Open House for the West Don Lands:

Date: Thursday, May 29, 2008
Time: 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Place: Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, 106 Trinity Street – Toronto

We will be focusing on several items, including:

* West Don Lands Public Realm Design
* Don River Park
* Newly Selected West Don Lands Phase One Development Team
* New Streetcar Line on Cherry Street

Members of the project teams will be on hand to guide you through the exhibits, a! nswer questions and share ideas. We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you on the 29th!

For more information, please feel free to contact Amanda Flude at aflude@waterfrontoronto.ca or 416-214-1344 extension 276.

 

[marcus_a_j]

^ Thanks. Sounds good. I hope to make it but I have a golf tournament in Alliston, gonna be difficult getting down in time. Any word on any future meetings?

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Open House

Popped in on the way home from work. Good sized crowd, and quite a few reps. of one type or another working the room.

Things I didn't know beforehand:

They're planning an Enwave-style heating and cooling plant for the whole district, piping hot and cold water to all the buildings. Very good idea.

The first buildings will go up on the 'River Square' part of the site, which is to say just south of King at the King/Queen triangle. While not a bad idea, in that it'll complete the 'Corktown' residential 'nabe with Streetcar's condos, the Vinegar lofts, and -- stretching a bit -- the new townhouses at River/Shuter, that means the main site near Distillery won't get built for years and years. That'll probably also delay the Cherry streetcar.

Even given all the work going on, WDL will be another 10-20 years in the making, IMO.

I'd love to hear from anyone who stayed for the speeches.

 

[Hydrogen]

Even given all the work going on, WDL will be another 10-20 years in the making, IMO.

Ten to twenty years? You mean ten years until they start?

Gawd.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Here's my non-official guesstimates

Ten to twenty years? You mean ten years until they start?

Gawd.

Hmm... no, I don't mean 10 years until they start anything, but rather 10 years until they start the final phases.

There is a ton of earth-moving being done right now to build the berm/park. They claim it'll be done by the end of the summer(ish), and they've put in the sewage pipes while they're at it, so that's good. But the berm is just started, they need to re-do the bottom of Bayview, and extend River and the other streets. I doubt they'll have any of that done this year, which means the first River Square phase can't START until mid/late 2009. Any delays, and there are myriad possibilities including the need for the environmental permit, and River Square is pushed back to 2010-2011. Now, they might want to have the various phases competing for customers with each other, but that's not how these things usually happen, do they?

Phases 2 - 4 and therefore the Cherry Street LRT (I can't imagine they'll put trains down that way until there's a possibility of riders) won't be more than a sparkle in someone's eye until River Square is sold out and River Square looks to be 4-8 buildings. I'll bet the Cherry/Front/Mill construction doesn't start for 5 years in the most optimistic of scenarios. An optimist about something this size, I'm not, so I'm thinking more like 10 years before the final phase will be even in selling phase.

20 years to completion isn't that bad, though -- because, unlike a private company (see the railway lands), the berm/park/bike paths are going in first rather than last. So the amenities will be in place while construction continues.

 

[Edward Skira]

I'd prefer a longer time frame. Will hopefully allow for different architectural styles to be incorporated. I'd hate to see another CityPlace (all glass point towers) pop up here.

 

[TKTKTK]

I'd prefer a longer time frame. Will hopefully allow for different architectural styles to be incorporated. I'd hate to see another CityPlace (all glass point towers) pop up here.

I understood that they were going with different architects/developers for the different parcels/sections. The River St. neighbourhood is all done by the same people - right?

 

[Janbe]

When does the first phase of this project go to sales?

 

[casaguy]

A wide panoramic of the area. (Taken from the Gardiner Expressway this morning.) The mounds of dirt in the mid-ground would be for the development. And actually, from this point of view there is huge potential for this entire swath of land.

 

[waterloowarrior]

a couple of images from the plan

 

[ganjavih]

Hmmm... even more evidence that tall glassy point towers don't fit into this neighbourhood. Is anyone else sceptical about the West Donlands being developed as depicted in those images? The grand boulevard, the people-scaled blocks, the lowrise/midrise apartments. It's like the way neighbourhoods were built 100 years ago... too urban. It'll never be done like that. The mighty point towers will win.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

ganjavih:

Actually there are glassy point towers in WDL - it's to the south of the site and near River Square.

There is absolutely no reason why well placed point towers in a development like St. Lawrence would make it any less "human scaled". In fact, it might be the model if additional density is required.

AoD

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

4 separate phases, but one architect per phase...

I understood that they were going with different architects/developers for the different parcels/sections. The River St. neighbourhood is all done by the same people - right?

... seems to be the plan right now. I don't think they'll stick to that, though. River Square is the smallest block. I expect that the extra cash possible from auctioning off block rights in the bigger sections will start the calls for 'more eclectic and more variety'.

AoD -- nothing wrong with mixed heights, but I hadn't heard of any towers being planned. That having been said, Gooderham will be across the street.