It has been a few months since we looked at the construction progress of H&W Development Corp.'s Fontana, a four-building, Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects-designed condominium community under construction on Clegg Road, near Warden Avenue and Highway 7 in Markham. Two of the development's four buildings are now topped off at 12 and 16-storeys along South Town Centre Boulevard, and work is progressing on the remaining southeast and northeast buildings.

Fontana viewed from the southwest on South Town Centre Blvd, image by Jack Landau

Construction has progressed significantly since our last visit, and the southeast building now stands 6 storeys high over Cedarland Drive, with 10 more storeys left to build. The northeast building, hidden to the rear in the view below, stands at an equal height, but will top off a few floors short of its neighbours, at 10 storeys in total.

Southeast building viewed from the south on Cedarland Drive, image by Jack Landau

Fontana is making a major contribution to a new urban-style street wall on South Town Centre Blvd, which is currently being built out with density that exceeds parts of Downtown Toronto when compared block for block. This is the model being pushed for this part of municipality by the recently rebranded City of Markham, with a goal to create more of an urban feel in what is to become the core of the formerly strictly suburban community.

Fontana contributing to the street wall on South Town Centre Blvd, image by Jack Landau

The mid-rise dominant built form being executed in Markham is mostly happening in the name of building healthy urban density, but is also a product of necessity. Height restrictions are in place here because of the area's proximity to Buttonville Airport, so density is pushed downwards here into long, lower buildings, unlike the conditions that support the countless high-rise point towers going up elsewhere around the GTA.

Southeast and southwest buildings viewed from the south on Cedarland Drive, image by Jack Landau

On the south side of the Fontana development, Cedarland Drive will soon be home to a stop on Viva's Highway 7 Rapidway, a bus rapid transit (BRT) route which runs through the heart of Markham. The Cederland Viva stop is on a part of the Rapidway—scheduled to open in the coming weeks—which connects the line's route along Highway 7 to the west to its Enterprise Drive alignment through Downtown Markham to the east. The new stop is conveniently located right next door to Fontana, and residents of the development will have what might be some of the best transit coverage in Markham.

BRT stop on Cedarland Drive, immediately southeast of Fontana, image by Jack Landau

Additional information and renderings can be found in our Fontana dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.