West Don Lands

[AlvinofDiaspar]

RRR:

See the Block Plan for WDL:

http://waterfrontoronto.ca/dbdocs//450ef44699525.pdf

(p. 14 of PDF)

AoD

 

[waterloowarrior]

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Thx for that

I'm a little surprised about a couple of towers along the river/berm edge. The towers on the south edge beside the energy centre and railway tracks, and the one on Cherry across from Gooderham make sense in defining the edge of the 'nabe.

WDL will only realize the full benefits of the Gardiner coming down if the Cherry underpass is also made a lot more people-friendly -- dedicated, separated bike path? Streetcar running all the way to Cherry Beach and/or connecting to Queen's Quay?

 

[CDL.TO]

Yet more evidence for the value of a Downtown Relief Line.

 

[DSC]

WDL will only realize the full benefits of the Gardiner coming down if the Cherry underpass is also made a lot more people-friendly -- dedicated, separated bike path? Streetcar running all the way to Cherry Beach and/or connecting to Queen's Quay?

There is an EA underway already on the section of Queen's Quay west of Parliament and including Cherry Street south of the berm - it will certainly include looking at linking the Cherry Street streetcar line (which will now end just north of the railway berm) to the Queen's Quay east streetcar line which will initially end at Cherry Street/Queen's Quay. The plan is to continue this line further into the Portlands once they start to be developed and maybe eventually looping back north to meet Queen Street again. Whether it will go to Cherry Beach or turn east along Unwin or Commissioners is not clear, at least not to me.

I agree that the Cherry Street bridge will need to be expanded, not only to accommodate the streetcar but also continue the planned Cherry Street bike path south of the berm to meet the Martin Gardner trail. I also hope they extend the trail which now runs immediately south of the berm from the Don River to Parliament so that it continues west to Yonge Street (where a bike path is, supposedly, being built this year from Lakeshore to Front.)

 

[marcus_a_j]

from NRU, July 11, 2008

DESIGNING RIVER CITY

Panel sees residential

Members of the waterfront design review panel got their first shot at critiquing the plans for River City, the waterfront’s premier residential neighbourhood.

Developer David Wex, of Urban Capital Property Group and architects Gilles Saucier and Andre Perrotte of Saucier + Perrotte Architects presented their vision, which has been created along with ZAS Architects, Redquartz Development and Stos_landscapeurbanism.

“This is the first development team selected by Waterfront Toronto through the RFP process,” chair Bruce Kuwabara of KPMB Architects told the other panel members just before the presentation at Wednesday’s meeting.

“There’s nothing else like it in Toronto…and it’s really refreshing to see a building that doesn’t look like every other building in the city,” he added afterward.

The site is located in the area squared off by King Street in the north, the new Don River Park in the south (at Eastern Avenue), St. Lawrence Street in the west and Bayview Avenue in the east.

River City, as it’s being touted, is at the northeast tip of the West Don Lands precinct and is hugged to the south by railroad lines and the Gardiner Expressway. The Don Valley Parkway runs up the east side of the development and the elevated part of Eastern Avenue going over the DVP runs through the middle of the development.

The team presented early concepts showing town houses along the extended River Street, and the panel requested more detail on “the townhouses’ relationship to the street.” Also, plans for a 14-storey tower with a smaller 10-storey tower that allows a western view of the city for the taller tower’s top floor residents got the nod from panellists.

The panel recognized that the team would come back with a more detailed design at a later date but asked for more specifics on noise-control. The panel also took issue with the all-glass dark buildings, saying they are not energy efficient and challenged the team to come back with a strategy for taking advantage of solar energy.

A challenge for the architects was to design the development on a flood protection plain,
which meant no underground parking. They presented the idea of a two-level above-ground parking structure, topped with a courtyard for the residents only. Panellists suggested the side walls of the parking garage be somewhat transparent for safety reasons.

The entire development represents a $250-to-$300 million private sector investment in waterfront area revitalization and proposes 900-residential units and 268 aboveground
parking spots. Unit sales are expected to begin in early 2009 with construction scheduled
to begin in 2010. Toronto Community Housing is also building 130 units of affordable housing on site.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

From WT:

West Don Lands Newsletter May 08:

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/dbdocs//488a2929c5cdb.pdf

Interesting bit on p. 2:

New Pedestrian Oriented Streets

Waterfront Toronto, with support from the City of Toronto, has been developing an innovative design for pedestrian streets within the West Don Lands. These pedestrian oriented streets introduce a new street typology for the City which erases the boundary between sidewalk and street to provide a common public space shared by pedestrians, cyclists and low-speed motor
vehicles. The concept is one of integration. Pedestrians, children at play, bicyclists, parked cars, and moving cars all share the same street space.

By redesigning the physical aspects of the street, the social and physical public domain of the pedestrian is reclaimed. This concept has successfully been used in countries including the Netherlands, Germany, England and France. Waterfront Toronto has adopted the Dutch term "Woonerf", meaning ‘living street’, to refer to this new street typology. The first detailed design for the woonerfs in the West Don Lands has recently been submitted to the City.

AoD

 

[syn]

Yet more evidence for the value of a Downtown Relief Line.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to build a subway to the largely uninhabited West Donlands while everything else is being constructed?

 

[urbanfan89]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to build a subway to the largely uninhabited West Donlands while everything else is being constructed?

Yes, but the TTC has never heard of coordination.

 

[Jayomatic]

^ or vision.

 

[smuncky]

 

[nstuch]

will those hdyro wires be buried as part of the development? or will the city be converting them to Toronto-standard crappy old wooden poles?

 

[DSC]

will those hdyro wires be buried as part of the development? or will the city be converting them to Toronto-standard crappy old wooden poles?

People asked about this at the EA open houses and got lots of mumbling and no real answers, so I fear not. These are not Toronto Hydro pylons; they belong to Hydro One - I think they originally connected to the Hearne station on Unwin and now bring electricity from the Lakeshore up the Don Valley, maybe from the new gas powered station next to the Hearne.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The proposed pedestrian streets sound like they'll be a good fit with the existing Distillery District. In England, these mixed pedestrian/cyclist/slow-moving vehicular arrangements are called Home Zones - there's one at Kings Lynn in Norfolk, which I visit a couple of times a year to see my Mother.

http://www.yoursmillenniumcommunity.co.uk/home-zones.aspx

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Burying the flyover

While I knew the berm/park was going to be quite a hill, I'm impressed with how much they have built up the rest of the floodplain. The first chunk to be constructed (just south of King at River) looks like it'll be almost at the same elevation of King -- which is a huge build, because there used to be a 3 story warehouse there that had 2 stories below King.