The Redevelopment of Regent Park Thread

[KGB]

Rebuilding Regent Park

After half a century of neglect, one of Canada's oldest social housing communities is finally getting a fresh start.

By Peter Sobchak Illustrations by Markson Borooah Hodgson Architects





Built in two phases between 1948 and 1959, Toronto's Regent Park is Canada's largest and oldest community housing project, and was created for one purpose: to give the city’s underprivileged a place to live. Located on the lower east side of Toronto, Regent Park is an area defined by four streets, Parliament, Gerrard, River and Shuter. Inside sits a mammoth community housing development with about 7,500 people living in 2,087 units of rent-geared-to-income housing spread over 69 acres.

To say that Regent Park is aging and requires significant investment to maintain or upgrade buildings and facilities is a gross understatement. Building and unit designs are obsolete, no longer responding to the current needs of households. An illustration of this is that Regent Park only has one convenience store and one Laundromat over the 69 acres. When you factor in the outdated urban design characteristics of the site, there are significant challenges in maintaining a safe and healthy community.

“Try to order a pizza in the middle of Regent Park,” says Derek Ballantyne, chief executive officer of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). “It’s really hard because even though you have an address, it bears little relation to the street because your building is in the middle of a whole sea of other buildings.” This is one example of what doesn’t work in Regent Park.

“The concept for the design of North Regent Park was the Garden City, the idyllic, post WWII British notion that you should not have cars inside the neighbourhood, you should just have open spaces, and the buildings will be placed in these open park-like settings,” explains Ballantyne. “This design may be desirable from a planning perspective, it certainly looks pretty, but for the people living there it creates a lack of being connected to a street and therefore a neighbourhood, you do not have a place within the city.”

The open spaces, while looking good when drawn up, are not places people feel comfortable in, because they are neither private – in the sense of a backyard or a courtyard which is semi-secluded – nor are they public. “This was all developed by a single corporation and is considered private property. So police don’t patrol through it, you don’t get municipal services going through there, and so on,” says Ballantyne.
“Over time, these open spaces have become much less pleasant and much more threatening to people, places you have to get across, not places you want to spend time in.

The tenants will tell you they do not feel good about letting their kids play outside the buildings; they cannot see them, they don’t know what’s going on out there, they feel there is a significant amount of anti-social behaviour to which the kids may be at risk, and so on. As a result you have these broad open spaces where nobody is, and they become an invitation for anti-social activities to take place. It becomes ‘Let’s go to Regent Park: there will be no police because they can’t patrol it because there are no streets up and down it and they don’t walk through it because it’s private property anyway.

Plus, there aren’t a lot of people around so they won’t hinder our activities.’”
Factors other than urban design have also had influences on the present state of Regent Park. “Policies in the past were put in place that made it so that after a person or family reached a certain income level, they were basically forced to leave Regent Park,” says Tanzeel Merchant, an urban planner with Markson Booroah Hodgeson Architects, one of the design firms that collaborated on the new Regent Park Plan (a consortium that included Greenberg Consultants Inc., David Millar Associates, GHK International, and others). “This meant that only the poorest group of residents stayed in the community. There was no diversity, and therefore no way to strengthen the community.”

As a result of all these factors, Regent Park has turned out to be a place that does not work in the long run, and although there have been various atte-mpts in the past two decades to address the issue of revitalization, no one has been able to come up with a successful plan. “Past plans were wrecked on the shoals of financial viability,” says Balla-ntyne. “None of the past attempts to redo Regent Park were possible because nobody had really looked at the viability of doing it in a comprehensive way.”
“What’s new with this plan is past attempts have looked at dealing with small bits of Regent Park at a time,” says Merchant. “They involved breaking up the 70 acres into bits. Our new plan looks at it holistically and breaks it into phases that make it possible to do the entire area.”


The Regent Park Plan is the result of an initiative that began more than a year ago when the TCHC, Canada’s largest landlord and one of the largest social housing providers in North America, asked for a study to determine whether redevelopment of the entire Regent Park community was feasible. “We wanted a plan that accomplished two things: a plan for a mixed community that reintegrated it with the rest of the neighbourhood and the rest of the city, something that takes Regent Park, which is an island in the east end of the city, and reintegrates it into the fabric of the city,” says Ballantyne. “And a financial plan that demonstrated the feasibility of redevelopment.”

The study included consultation with 2,000 residents, community agencies and financial, design and planning experts on ways to revitalize the community. The final Regent Park Plan – unprecedented in Canada in terms of the size and scope of the redevelopment – was approved by Toronto City Council by a vote of 35 to one.



A Need For Reintegration



The proposed plan for Regent Park outlines how 2,087 rent-geared-to-income units will be demolished and rebuilt in phases over 12 to 15 years. “By far the most important element of the plan is the extent to which the original street network will be reintroduced to the area,” says Merchant. This will return the site to a more usual urban pattern of traffic-bearing streets, and connect the new neighbourhood more closely with the surrounding neighbourhoods. The intention is to re-open all of the earlier streets in the area, such as Sackville, Oak, Sumach and St. David’s Walk, and to add new ones to create a finer grained pattern of blocks. This will provide greater permeability and development flexibility for a variety of building types and heights. This will create, it is hoped, a more diverse neighbourhood.



With all housing being street-oriented, there will be a clear distinction between private and public spaces. The built form of the area acts as a container of public open space, enclosing streets, highlighting corners, defining parks and providing ‘eyes on the street’ increasing surveillance and safety. The intention of the plan is to encourage the greatest diversity of building types as found in a typical downtown urban neighbourhood.

The buildings will be primarily mid-rise and mixed-use along the main streets and low-rise and residential within the neighbourhoods on internal streets. Inner streets would have townhouses or stacked townhouses with minimal setbacks to create lively streets that encourage neighbourhood interaction.

Another key element of the proposal is creating a large park system, which mixes linear park space with accessible larger green spaces such as a six-acre park fronting on Dundas Street, and the enlargement of the area surrounding the Nelson Mandela Park school grounds. Higher density buildings will create a street wall condition with a scale of a five- to six-storey base and will be set back above that height. This base-building condition will be especially important around the central park where the built form will define the open space. Buildings would maximize the opportunity to face onto public open space, with a few higher point towers located along Dundas and River Streets.

The result will be a mixed-income, mixed-use neighbourhood that is reintegrated with surrounding communities. A total of 4,500 housing units are proposed – 3,700 apartments and 800 townhouses of which 500 units will be designated for affordable ownership – as compared to the 2,087 currently on site. There is an assumption that the Rent Geared to Income (RGI) apartment units will be mixed with market units in as many buildings as possible.

In addition to shops, community services and space for economic development activities, the plan calls for an extension of the Parliament Street retail area south from Gerrard Street, and the addition of more convenience stores throughout the area. A total of 250,000 sq. ft. will be allocated for retail, commercial, community and educational purposes.

The plan calls for the redevelopment to be done over a 12 to 15 year timeline, in 12 individual phases, each phase a stand-alone development block. The first phase of redevelopment is expected to start in the southeast corner of Regent Park at Shuter and River streets. This phasing approach is being done to minimize disruption to the community, minimize the cash-flow impacts on TCHC, and ensure that market units to be built as part of the redevelopment can be absorbed by the market.

“This phasing and relocation of residents is purposely being done over a long time period for several reasons, one of which is to make sure residents aren’t being made to feel like they are being kicked out of Regent Park,” says Merchant. As the phases progress, when residents are affected by redevelopment, they will be relocated first within the Regent Park community and if this is not possible, to nearby sites. “There is a five to 10 per cent turnover each year,” says Merchant. “The plan calls for a stop to the inflow of new people for a few years, in order to keep existing people in Regent Park, and to free up some units for relocation.”



Financial Viability


The total price of replacing the RGI housing is estimated to be $450 million. “TCHC’s equity investment will be about $70 million, which comes from corporate-wide revenue over a 12-year basis,” says Ballantyne. “Plus there is an intent to bring in market units, so the equity they have in the land will be parlayed into cash, hopefully to the sum of $80 million to $100 million.”

Much of the TCHC funding for the proposed redevelopment is expected to come from savings generated on site, through significantly lowered operating costs in the new units, primarily due to lowered energy consumption, maintenance, and so forth.

The City of Toronto has agreed to waive property taxes for 15 years, and reduced operating costs will allow TCHC to borrow against redevelopment, meaning the largest part of financing will be borrowed capital. Assistance with infrastructure funding (sub-surface, roads and parks) is expected to come, with the city’s backing, from the provincial and federal governments: for example through Ontario SuperBuild funds, and Kyoto Accord money.

“The Plan sees Regent Park as a sustainable community that will contain particular attention to the entire development having a low energy footprint and other measures that help create a more sustainable development,” says Merchant.
The other main source of income will be derived from the lease or sale of land on the site not required by TCHC for its housing or for the park or other community uses.
Now, more than ever, there is a strong desire to actually do something about Regent Park, and optimism in the air about its future.

This is the first time Regent Park has been owned and operated by a single owner: the recent transfer of responsibility for assisted housing from the province to Toronto’s TCHC has offered the opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to revisit the possibility of redevelopment and regeneration. Past controllers did not have the means to do something on an appropriately large-enough scale, but the TCHC has both title to the land and an ability to do something with it.

Another encouraging sign is that Regent Park has demonstrated what Ballantyne calls “a community capacity.” “There are a large number of residents within the community who want to be involved in a change process, they want to affect change in their community,” says Ballantyne. “Not just change to the buildings, but change to the way it feels to live in that community, the social aspects of that community.”

It used to be said that the residents of Regent Park lived in a land of good intentions, but for many years those intentions were far from reality. Finally, after half a century of neglect, the city has pledged to redevelop the entire area. With luck, the final result will match the good intentions of its designers, and at long last give the residents of Regent Park what they deserve: a good place to live.

[Mr Man]

This is great news. I wish Toronto would fund more programs like this.

[KGB]

An update from today's Star.......






The big `reveal' at Regent Park
Social housing authority approves plan

5,400 new residential units to be built

LESLIE FERENC
STAFF REPORTER

It's the ultimate extreme makeover: a $1 billion overhaul of the city's crumbling Regent Park neighbourhood that aims to reshape and rebuild it from the ground up, giving the community a new lease on life.

The Toronto Community Housing Corp. has unanimously approved a six-phase proposal that would take 12 years to complete, chief executive Derek Ballantyne said yesterday.

He's keeping his fingers crossed that the massive redevelopment will get the nod from Toronto and East York community council on Jan. 18, and will get zoning and official plan approval from city council during its Feb. 1-3 meeting.

Proposal calls could go out to developers for Phase 1 by early spring. Demolition could begin in late fall, with construction starting in March 2006.

A progress report on the project yesterday notes that it would see the construction of as many as 5,400 residential units: 1,900 of them rent-geared-to-income, 300 to be offered to residents under an affordable ownership program and 2,900 available at market rental rates.

Once complete, the complex would be home to 12,500 people.

All 2,083 existing rent-geared-to-income units will be replaced and at least 700 affordable units built, some of them in surrounding areas. New shops and a major supermarket will also emerge, making Regent Park, a 28-hectare area bounded by Parliament, Gerrard, River and Dundas Sts., a vibrant downtown neighbourhood.

Dead-end streets, which were originally designed to be child-friendly but turned out to be breeding grounds for crime, will be eliminated and "invisible barriers" separating the neighbourhood from the city beyond will tumble when those streets are reconnected to the area, Ballantyne said.

The idea is to fully rebuild the 1940s neighbourhood, Canada's first social housing project, replacing rundown buildings that have become costly to maintain. The goal is a healthy community, with a mixed-income population in an area that's welcoming and safe.

The plan envisions a mix of housing types, from highrise to townhouse, and a mix of business and community services, "all the things that make a neighbourhood successful," Ballantyne said.

Some 56 per cent of the stock will be offered at market rental rates, 29 per cent rent-geared-to-income, 9 per cent other social housing and 6 per cent affordable ownership.

A large number of three-, four- and five-bedroom units will be offered to accommodate big families already living there. And all the buildings will be connected to the neighbourhood's new energy plant.

Existing residents will be temporarily relocated within Regent Park or other city housing complexes until new units are built. Vacant units are already being held for them, and the corporation will cover moving and utility hookup costs.

The corporation will pay the $412 million cost of replacing the existing units through operating savings, reallocation of funds from capital repairs to new construction, and the sale or lease of surplus land.

The city has already agreed to defer property taxes, and all development charges, about $13 million, will be granted back to Regent Park, Ballantyne added. He hopes senior governments will kick in the $40 million more needed for infrastructure.

[Mr Man]

A large number of three-, four- and five-bedroom units will be offered to accommodate big families already living there.

They thought of everything! This is truly great news for the city and residents of Regent Park.

[salvius]

Sounds pretty much perfect.

[SpatulaCity]

I agree, it sounds phenominal. It's amazing to compare something like this to what's happening west of downtown with cityplace and the other tower-in-the-park megaprojects. If that whole area or at least significant portions of it were similar in design, we'd be in seriously good shape.

Someone remind me why we're still building towers-in-the-park...

[KGB]

There may be something to that...while the west end of downtown has certainly gotten all the glory and the east side has the bad rep, it seems that the east side has actually been getting the more critically acclaimed and socially responsible mixed income/use developments.....Cabbagetown and St Lawrence...plus Distillery District and the up coming West Don Lands and Portlands....as well as the remake of Regent Park.






KGB

[cassius]

Because people continue to purchase them.

The Regent Park plan does sound good. Probably just as good as the existing Regent Park plans did back when they were first proposed. ;) Will there be enough of a mix with middle income units?

[SpatulaCity]

well the mixed income aspect is probably the main difference. But this is more like getting back to what works... tried and tested, not trying out something relatively new.

[valantino]

Most happy that one of the Dickinson towers most likely will be kept.

BTW, the northern half of Don Mount Court is almost completely destroyed - only one six storey section remians

[KGB]

From today's Star....





Regent Park overhaul wins council's approval
Project will see social housing complex torn down

Community to include mix of incomes, public streets

KERRY GILLESPIE
CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Doctors and lawyers living beside single moms and new immigrants finding their feet — that's the future for Canada's oldest social housing complex.

Yesterday, councillors voted 43-1 to go ahead with a huge 12-year redevelopment of Regent Park.

Demolition on some of the 1940s buildings at Parliament and Dundas Sts. should begin late this year; construction of the first new buildings will follow in three months.

This redevelopment is about much more than new kitchens and better bathrooms.

"It's a redesign of a neighbourhood. It means putting streets back in, it means making it look and feel like any other neighbourhood in Toronto... which is completely different than what it is today," said Derek Ballantyne, CEO of Toronto Community Housing Corp., the city's social housing company.

Right now, Regent Park, bounded by Parliament, Gerrard, River and Dundas Sts., is home to 7,500 low-income residents.

The singles, seniors and families live in 2,083 rent-geared-to-income apartments, where they pay 30 per cent of their low incomes in rent.

The neighbourhood is cut off from the surrounding city because there are no through streets, or shops and businesses to give anyone who doesn't live there a reason to go there.

When it was designed more than 50 years ago, the idea was to create a park-like setting. But rather than creating safe areas for kids to play in, the lack of public streets spawned areas where crime could flourish.

The plan approved by council seeks to change that.

It plans for a mixed-income community with regular public streets and neighbourhood staples like a grocery store and community centre.

In the redeveloped Regent Park, 1,500 apartments will be rent-geared-to-income, 500 to 700 apartments will rent for market rates and 2,800 homes and condos will be for sale.

Another some 600 rent-geared-to income units will be built elsewhere downtown, said Ballantyne.

"I fully believe this revitalization project is not just going to revitalize Regent Park, it's going to revitalize that whole neighbourhood. It's a terrific project," Mayor David Miller said.

Councillor Bas Balkissoon who once lived in social housing himself, called the project approval a "milestone decision of this council."

Mixing home ownership and market rental units into government-funded social housing is more than just good urban planning, noted Balkissoon (Ward 41, Scarborough-Rouge River).

It is the "creative way" the project is being made financially possible.

Half of the $1 billion total project cost is expected to come from private sector developers.

The rest is a mix of tenant rent money, loans and government funding.

Deputy mayor Joe Pantalone was the sole councillor to vote against the project.

He said he supported the redevelopment of Regent Park but feared a "loophole" would result in less affordable housing overall.

Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) wanted all the current Regent Park rent-geared-to-income units to be replaced in the redesigned community.

He said he fears that the some 600 units that are slated to be built elsewhere will take up space that could have been used to more badly needed low-income units.

Regent Park tenants will be moved out in phases and all have been told they can return to homes in the new community if they want.

Councillor Glen De Baeremaeker said he's looking forward to the end of Regent Park being a low-income ghetto, "a place none of us want to go."

"I welcome the opportunity to change the mix... so you have doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, cashiers, everybody living in the same building, everybody mixing," said De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre).

Additional articles by Kerry Gillespie

[416]

Have any renderings been released or maybe a site plan?

[hkskyline]

As Regent Park falls, a hopeful vision endures
ANTHONY REINHART
14 February 2006
The Globe and Mail

The buildings with the blown-out windows at Dundas and Parliament Streets could easily tempt jaundiced assumptions about the neighbourhood.

If anyone is used to the cynical judgments of outsiders, it's the 7,500 residents of Regent Park, Canada's largest public-housing project and a steady supplier of news about poverty, drugs and violence.

Still, only the uninformed would have drawn dark inferences from the shattered glass yesterday. It was no act of vandalism, but Day 1 of Regent Park's billion-dollar redevelopment as a better-designed, and it is hoped, healthier community.

It's interesting how a few extra facts and a shift in perspective can turn a symbol of decay into a sign of hope, but that's pretty much what Adonis Huggins has been helping young residents to do here for more than a decade.

Mr. Huggins, 45, runs Regent Park Focus, a program that lets young people dabble in print and radio journalism, photography, filmmaking and music production. His work has just been recognized by “face the arts,” a campaign by the city and Toronto Life magazine to acknowledge people who enrich Toronto's cultural life.

Mr. Huggins's program engages young people in the affairs of the community by having them portray theirs as they see it from the inside.

It's about “being able to represent yourself, rather than be represented,” Mr. Huggins said yesterday, surrounded by participants' framed photographs in the program's headquarters, in the basement of a Regent Park apartment building. “It marries creativity and imagination with being able to have a voice.”

If they say anything at all, young people in struggling neighbourhoods aren't always heard over the sirens, headlines and political promises that signal the latest shooting. And the community shown back to them by the mainstream media is often more caricature than realistic portrait, Mr. Huggins said.

“Marginalized, low-income young people tend not to be represented in society as much,” and are beset with “the feeling that they're somehow outsiders,” he said.

Documenting their lives not only gives them power over their own portrayal, but the chance to put tough questions to politicians and police, all the while picking up skills that can help launch adult careers.

The program's website, at www.catchdaflava.com , offers a parade of participants who went on to formal media studies, and in some cases, related jobs. While he seems loath to take the credit, Mr. Huggins, a tall man with a quiet voice, is the one they have to thank.

He arrived at Regent Park Focus in 1991 with memories of how the after-school programs of his youth helped forge his future.

Born in Toronto in 1960, Mr. Huggins grew up in Kensington Market, the son of Caribbean immigrants whose jobs meant long hours away from home. His mother was a nurse and worked shifts at a hospital, while his father worked on CN passenger trains.

“There was no running around in the streets for me,” said Mr. Huggins, whose father, a former police officer, enrolled him in a youth drop-in at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Church on Bellevue Avenue.

“That's where I got my first insights into working with youth.”

When the family moved into a house on Clinton Street in Little Italy, they were the only black people on the street for years. For that reason, young Mr. Huggins would often return to Kensington, “to what I perceived to be a safer community” because it was more diverse.

He studied community work at George Brown College, then spent three years in Halifax working part time and studying at Dalhousie University before returning to Toronto in 1991.

That's when Regent Park Focus was born, out of a provincial initiative to improve health and reduce drug problems in nine communities across Ontario.

When Mr. Huggins arrived there as a youth worker, he had trouble getting young people to attend meetings and discuss issues. But when he gave them a video camera and let them record themselves, a funny thing happened.

“We discovered that youth can make the lousiest videos, but they'll watch it forever, because they can see themselves,” he said, laughing at the early results.

He seized on the kids' enthusiasm and enlisted volunteers to help teach them production and editing skills.

A Regent Park community newspaper, meanwhile, had just folded, so Mr. Huggins started a group for young journalists and launched Catch da Flava, published every two months.

A radio station, photography program, music studio and Internet lab followed, all housed in a former boxing gym in the basement of 600 Dundas St. E.

The project has not been without its challenges. Two participants have been lost to violence in other parts of the city — one shot, another stabbed. Recently, a young videographer was robbed of his camera while filming, and a computer went missing from the music studio.

Still, in the context of a continuing program involving hundreds of young people over more than a decade, these were exceptions, not defining moments.

Having their own media has not only allowed the young people of Regent Park to more fully reflect life to themselves, but “we provide a mirror for outsiders” who might jump to conclusions, Mr. Huggins said, “to look at themselves and their own perceptions.”

[phunky]

there are renderings... i saw them on city tv. just don't know if they are online anywhere.

[rise_against]

I thought there was a thread last year with renders...anyways this sounds fantastic.

[phunky]

there are some renderings in this pdf from their site. it's a bit large over 7mb FYI.
it's from dec.2002 though so it's not as current as the rendering I saw on TV the other day.

[cassius]

Those renderings were only competiting proposals for the first development I believe.

[SpatulaCity]

^ pretty sure that was the winning bid but they have since pulled out.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3707/regentproposal1ju.jpg

[Taller, Better]

Everyone should be proud of this kind of city planning!

[hkskyline]

Sentiment runs deep in Regent Park
Jim Coyle
16 February 2006
The Toronto Star

"Where we love is home."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

It was easy to understand the cheers as the first bricks fell to the din-making demolition machinery at Regent Park this week and the city's ambitious redevelopment of the infamous housing project began.

What might have surprised outsiders, though, were the laments for the much-cursed, long-troubled place.

"I'm very sad," Saverimuthu Julius told the Star's Vanessa Lu as the family's third-floor apartment on Dundas St. E. crumbled. "How many times have I climbed up the stairs?"

Regent Park was where the family's memories were made, where the children grew, where their progress in a new world was marked. It is the place, when new and improved, to which they hope to return. It was, in a word, home.

The idea of home holds a powerful place in the human psyche - sometimes the more powerful for the meanness of its construction, the spareness of its furnishings, its hard-scrabble surrounds. Sometimes, roots grab most fiercely to the least hospitable ground.

Place is identity. "So where ya from?" one of the first questions strangers ask.

When travels and horizons are limited, the turf you occupy - every nook and cranny, every lane and sidewalk - becomes known inch by inch, intimately, the way a mother knows an infant.

Not to romanticize hardship, with its thin walls, intrusive sounds and smells, its leaks and drafts, its relentless limits. From such places, the goal is almost always up and out. And for most of its life, Regent Park seemed a good place to leave behind.

Built in the late 1940s and early '50s, the project in short order became a 29-hectare synonym for urban wretchedness, closed to through traffic, excluded from nearby commerce, a stigmatized place apart.

Its open spaces looked sensible enough on the drawing board but were calamitous in reality. Because those spaces belonged to everyone, they effectively belonged to no one - and in short order they became unused, uncared for and eventually ceded to the lawless.

Still, if there was, in the very design of a place like Regent Park, exclusion from the broader city outside, a symbolic shunning, there was often a sense of belonging within.

Whatever else they do, hard places instil a sense of identity often so deeply felt as to be indelible. There are few more wistful expats than those who grew up in the grittier parts of Glasgow or Liverpool or the Dirty 'Oul Dublin of decades past.

In hard places there is a sense of tribe, the fealty to place like the fealty to family. Members may criticize its shortcomings, but they are bound tight and defensive against insult from without.

Hard places are love-hate complexes. They can trap or motivate, toughen or break you down. They have their own codes and currencies, their education system, too. And it's not for nothing that so much literature - so much music and fashion - emanates from urban patches of want.

There, daily life is intense - the smells, the noises, the temper-fraying heat, the dispiriting cold. There, the senses, by necessity, become more acute. Paying attention - to a glance or a brooding silence, distinctions in might and status - is a survival skill. Details matter.

"To a middle-class stranger, it's true, one street would have seemed as squalid as the next," Mordecai Richler said of Duddy Kravitz's Montreal. "But as the boys knew ... no two cold-water flats were alike."

There were tears this week for the simple reason that if Regent Park was written off long years ago as a failure of architecture and design, it was not necessarily a failure of the families who lived and loved there.

No more so, anyway, than in the fictional tenements of Betty Smith's Brooklyn or on Richler's St. Urbain St., or in the recent real-world renderings of Paul Clemens' east-side Detroit or Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Bronx.

As LeBlanc wrote in her book Random Family, for the kids of Tremont Ave., "years of scaling rooftops, dangling from fire escapes and riding bicycles through the narrow alleys had made Tremont theirs. Tremont raised them up."

Place has that power. And sometimes, poverty measures only money - no small thing, right enough, but not everything.

An acquaintance who grew up in the Gorbals of Glasgow once said he didn't know he'd been born and raised poor until long after he'd immigrated to Canada, was watching a TV documentary one night with his wife, and heard the narrator talking about the worst slums in Europe as the camera panned his childhood street.

It is the way of the world.

"The library was a little old shabby place," Betty Smith wrote in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. "Francie thought it was beautiful."

That's why, amid the hopes and dreams for the new, tears fell among residents of Regent Park this week for the old.

For fleeting moments, maybe because of even harder lives they'd left behind, or maybe because love (if never luxury) was close at hand, what they knew there was sometimes beautiful.

And when it wasn't, it was still home.

Jim Coyle usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

[jr.badboy]

Hey wuts up guys, just like to say im the new guy here. just sayin my hellos to everybody.
Also in a way with the whole regent park demolition plan going down, its a little sad, theres so much history invovled there. i also lived there when i was younger. im sorta going to miss it. i found this great pic online on regent park but im new here i dont really know how to insert a pic. so if somebody could help me that would be great

[valantino]

Welcome

image address

[jr.badboy]

(img)rpn11(/img)

[Taller, Better]

Welcome Badboy!

[Skybean]

July 13, 2006

http://static.flickr.com/64/191722379_e4f2099a19_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/76/167125163_84ca9f6f70_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/46/167124752_3667d0778f_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/57/191722380_c78f1dea08_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/78/168513299_04e6c24307_b.jpg

[Tallinn to Toronto 4]

those are really great looking pics guy! fantastic composition on the second last one~!

[Buster]

those are really great looking pics guy! fantastic composition on the second last one~!

Yeah, it looks like a construction site ballet!

[intervention]

I saw a presentation regarding Regard Park's redevelopment at work at the City Planning Department and, for the most part, was at least satisfied. Though the "mixed income" development really won't reduce much of the stigma of 'social' housing. Why? Because social housing towers will be inserted amidst smaller scale townhomes and stacked units that will be sold at market rate.

That, and I kind of like the cohesiveness of the architecture. The complex is really interesting, much more so than other social housing projects across the city.

[Metroland]

Many people (regent parkers and non) believe it is a condo development, and they will all be given condos to live in when complete.

[metroboi_nay]

Isn't it decided whats getting built there? Where did all those people move to who lived there? Looks like it housed a lot of people.

[Tallinn to Toronto 4]

Isn't it decided whats getting built there? Where did all those people move to who lived there? Looks like it housed a lot of people.

i was thinking the same thing? like, 100's of people who needed social housing got evicted for re development? fuked. i think a lot of the old motels on kingston road are rented out by the government for social housing and pending immigration stuff.

[Taller, Better]

You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette, and in this case you have to relocate people for the period of time it takes to build the new project. I doubt if "evicted" is the correct term. I can't see any way around the short term upheaval if there is going to be a long term solution. This project is a brave and far seeing one, and I would imagine that even though it is painful for the residents moving out, most of them can see the long term gain. I spoke to a woman who lives in the next set of buildings about this, and she said pretty much that- she did not look forward to being moved, but in the long run she was excited about the future.

[valantino]

over 50% were relocated within the community and the majority of the rest within walking distance

Wasn't like demolition proceed a few months after the re-development scheme was created

[Taller, Better]

^^ As I suspected, "relocation" as opposed to "eviction". Quite a difference.

[intervention]

People were not evicted. The government has found housing for all residents and the reason why it has to be done in phases (it being redevelopment) is because there isn't enough housing to move everyone out at the same time to areas within a reasonable distance from the site.

After the redevelopment, the housing corporation gave all residents the option to return to the site or remain where there were housed.

[Martinsizon]

http://www.torontohousing.ca/ImageLibrary/2006-18RegentUpdateAugust2006All_1533178182006.pdf Document on regent park including a rendering

[rt_0891]

Banking on Regent Park
Royal Bank branch to anchor 16-storey condo in revitalization
Nov. 29, 2006. 05:27 AM
JENNIFER WELLS
BUSINESS COLUMNIST

Viewed from Martin Blake's 34th-floor window on Queen St., just west of Yonge, Regent Park is a miniaturist study. The grey of November washes over the horizon, its brittle and barren tree tops, its doll-sized real estate.

"You see the green dome of the church over there," Blake says, the splash of green useful in directing a visitor's gaze toward the vast revitalization of a neighbourhood.

Eight months ago, a walk along those streets ? its major arteries and smaller laneways ? made real what Derek Ballantyne, CEO of Toronto Community Housing Corp., called "the absence of those things that render a feel of completeness to a neighbourhood." One of the most yawning: the hollowing out of banking services. Where once there were 12 full-service bank branches, only one remained.

But lo, Mr. Blake has cheering news. As vice-president of project implementation for Daniels Corp., Blake is overseeing the Regent Park rebirth, Daniels Corp. having signed on in March as project developer for Phase 1 of the project. In partnership with TCHC, Daniels will build the brand-new marked-to-market condominiums, and brand new TCHC rent-geared-to-income housing and brand new commercial space, including, hallelujah, a brand-new full-service branch of the Royal Bank at the northwest corner of Regent St. and Dundas St. E. A binding letter of intent has been signed. Before Christmas, if all goes as planned, Daniels will be taking the building proposal before the project's design review committee, and then it's on to city hall with the site application. Construction is slated for the spring.

"We went to every major bank," says Blake of the proactive wooing of the financial community. "We sat down with them. We went through the plans that had been designed by TCHC. ... We outlined the parameters that we were looking for in partners, because it isn't just a question of a commercial lease with us, it's a partnership."

What residents will see: a 3,800-square-foot-or-so Royal Bank branch anchoring a 16-storey condominium, not unlike the branches one sees anchoring all those condos popping up on King St. W. "We see this as an opportunity to be part of an exciting and I would say historic redevelopment," says Alexis Mantell, RBC's communication manager for the greater Toronto region.

Both Mantell and Blake speak to the "partnership" issue: the Royal's recent involvement with an on-site job fair and the bank's commitment going forward to try to seed the new branch with employees from Regent Park.

This is all to the good.

Undoubtedly, the mixed-use form of the new neighbourhood helped make the business case. "Our goal," says Blake, "is to ensure that as you walk along you don't come to a block of all-market housing, or a block of all TCHC rent-geared-to-income housing. We want people to walk along and have no idea if they're looking at a rental or a market condominium. We don't want to repeat what you saw in Regent Park where everything looked similar."

The brick block uniformity, the isolation from the broader community, the streets that wind in on themselves as opposed to connecting with the world beyond, the near total absence of commercial activity. The list of failures is long and well told.

It is imperative that the housing and commercial mix be got right this time, and the banking community is an essential piece of that. Last spring, in an interview, Diana Taylor spoke of the need to connect the financial community with low-income neighbourhoods. Taylor is the superintendent of banking for the State of New York, and has made equitable and fairly priced financial services a priority. "Our whole motivation here is to get people into banks," she said. "It's a mechanism for saving money, and it's a really good way to get people into the financial system and building credit." A key element, in other words, in the revitalization of the individual within the revitalization of the broader community.

In the absence of conventional lenders, Regent Park and neighbourhoods like it have witnessed the profusion of cheque-cashing operations, including, it must be said, the Royal Bank's own Cash & Save operation, a non-deposit-taking, non-lending extension of the Royal which charges 1.99 per cent of the face value of the cheque, plus a 99-cent processing fee. It can be hoped a full-service branch of the Royal will render such an operation unnecessary.

The buzz is building. Daniels Corp. is talking to two of the national grocery chains, and hopes, says Blake, to make an announcement before Christmas as to which will be moving into Phase 1. The planned footprint would put the grocery store cheek-by-jowl with the bank. "They want to be here," says Blake of the potential commercial tenants. "We're not having to incentivize people to come into this area. They're not looking for breaks on lease rates or anything like that."

Next up: Very likely one of the coffee chains, followed by a fourth commercial tenant, the nature of which has not been decided upon.

But the story, insists Blake, is bigger than Regent Park. "People refer to the revitalization of Regent Park. I think it's more than that," he says. "I think it's the revitalization of the downtown east side. I think all of the commercial people are recognizing the huge potential."

"Everybody is very aware of the changes that are about to happen," echoes the Royal's Mantell.

Derek Ballantyne calls the Royal's decision a "real vote of confidence." A potent symbol, as I've said before, that was long overdue.

Additional articles by Jennifer Wells

[Jim856796]

Why ain't they tearing down none of the 14-story highrise blocks? There are five of these buildings.

[valantino]

they will just not now as people live there

[kettal]

Regent park might become a nice place to live. Does this make me a gentryfier? :(

[The 'Sauga]

Renderings from Diamond & Schmitt's website:

http://www.dsai.ca/


http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/3310/z10ve0.jpg

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1861/z11kr3.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2118/z12ze6.jpg

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/3972/z13tp7.jpg

[phunky]

VERY NICE!!

[ladyscraper]

Renderings from Diamond & Schmitt's website:


I'm having a bit of trouble understanding this redevelopment. These building look great to me but I'm curious if the poor people on housing plans get to stay in the neighborhood and live in these buildings or are these for new people moving in? Do most of the people that have been living in Regent Park have to leave when all is said and done with the entire redevelopment or are parts of these buildings saved for them and priced much lower? and if so how much of it?
Thanks to anyone that can fill me in on these things!

[valantino]

^new rich folk while the poor will be farmed out to power the next generation of green energy


the redevelopment is in part intensification with 80% of the current RGI units to be rebuilt along with the market housing (the other 20% will be replaced off site - 90 Carlton, 60 Richmond East, townhomes replacing the former police station on Regent

[phunky]

from what I remember it's supposed to be a mix of affordable housing and regular condos. but mainly affordable housing.

[aberrate]

I'd live there.

[Mollywood]

I think it looks great. Imagine how different that area will be when it's finished. (along with the Donlands, Distillerary, Filmport, St Lawrence Market redevelopment and Corktown developments) I think the east side will have the most dramatic change of any area of Toronto and open up all new possibilities. Isn't this a great time to be living in Toronto? I love the fast pace of change in Toronto, every week there is something new announced.

[LordMandeep]

the east side and the area near Skydome have seen the greatest change and will continue to see even more.

[valantino]

good ... the east side as it currently stands is quite the delapitated hole

[Metroland]

sooooo sweeeeet. me and my family lived in regent park for awhile when we moved to Canada, great to see this place shape up!

[InTheBeach]

good ... the east side as it currently stands is quite the delapitated hole

Ya. And it also one of the coolest places in town.

It think the "problem" is the high concentration of shelters and soup kitchens in the area. More than the rest of the city contained within a few square kilometers. We need to be a better job of sharing the wealth, and the despair. This change in Regent Park is a good step.

South of Richmond is great, but it does get sketchy from there up. Shuter, anyone?

I still think Dundas between Sherbourne and Jarvis could become one of the best stretches in town. But I love dog-legs.

[Mollywood]

The east side ain't so bad now. It has a few sketchy corners but most of it has a lot of character and a cool vibe. The east side has the cutest houses. Those old Victorians are some of the nicest houses around. anyway, it can only get better with all the new development.

[Taller, Better]

There are dodgy sections, but it has picked up a tremendous amount... especially in Corktown.

[valantino]

Ya. And it also one of the coolest places in town.

I see very little cool between Queen and Gerrard, Jarvis and Bayview

[elliot]

Rudy, i know you are busy... but you usually made sense.

[Mollywood]

You don't think the farm in Cabbagetown is cool? How many other cities have a farm right in the centre of their city? I think it's very cool! Hell, all of Cabbagetown is cool. Even the small side streets, like Seaton, are quite nice in parts. Seaton, just south of Gerard is a lot more charming than anything I've ever seen in Mississauga. (or suburbia, in general) I'm not looking to start shit with anyone in Mississauga, it's just that I've never seen anything remotely charming there, so it was the first thing that comes to mind.

[Mollywood]

Or maybe it was Carlton but the houses and gardens are wonderful! You won't see many residential streets that nice and charming anywhere outside of central Toronto.

[KGB]

You don't think the farm in Cabbagetown is cool?

Sure it is...in fact, as a downtown neighbourhood, it would be hard to beat...anywhere. In fact, the east side of downtown has some of the best enclaves. But it also has some really blotchy areas as well (St Jamestown, Regent Park, Moss Park, and an unusually high concentration of shelters, missions and whatnot).

It also has a lot of bad history to overcome...the entire east side of downtown was essentially the largest slum in NA back in the 30's. Mention Cabbagetown to someone today, and they think of an unbelievably quaint victorian village you would never expect to find in the heart of a large city....mention it to my grandmother, and Cabbagetown to her was the horrid slum of the Depression/WW2 era.




KGB

[Mollywood]

I agree, the east side has had an image problem but look at all the positive changes, that's what gives one hope. For instance, that new development "The Modern" is just one block down from Queen & Sherbourne, which is one of the worst corners in Toronto. Yet people will buy a condo there, so it shows people are not afraid to move into sketchy areas and people have faith the area is looking up. That's one thing that makes Toronto different from American cities, people here will buy condos right beside the worst areas. Another example is neat St James Town. There are something like 4 condos going up right across the road. People will take those chances in Toronto, that they wont do in other cities. When you see things like that, along with all the projects being redeveloped by the government, you can't help but feel that this area will be unique and cool. Some people actually prefer living in edgy areas. I have no fear about walking anywhere at any time. I have been through all those dicey areas many times and have never had or seen any trouble. When you combine the old with the new, I think this might actually turn out to be the best part of Toronto. Hell, even Leslieville is going upscale and quite gay. I walked through there last week and it has changed a lot. Now I know where all the Church st. boys are moving.

[valantino]

You don't think the farm in Cabbagetown is cool?


the farm is on Winchester which is several blocks north of Gerrard buddy.



Regent Park, Moss Park and Armoury, bad 80s infill, rundown heritage buildings (several more on George are ready to join Walnut Hall ) and the public with the worst sense of fashion I could never dream up

[Sawadaa]

The book, "Utopia: Towards a New Toronto" had quite an interesting concept for a large block of eastern downtown. They envisioned the area enclosed within Church, Dundas, Sherbourne, and Queen be razed and be replaced by "Toronto's Central Park". This is actually quite an interesting vision, getting old of probably the worst part of downtown Toronto and replacing it with a "Central Park", which is something that downtown Toronto is lacking. There is already Grange Park, St.James, and Allan Gardens, etc. but it's never a bad thing to have more public space. Unfortunately, this will never happen in reality.

[Taller, Better]

. They envisioned the area enclosed within Church, Dundas, Sherbourne, and Queen be razed and be replaced by "Toronto's Central Park". This is actually quite an interesting vision, getting old of probably the worst part of downtown Toronto and replacing it with a "Central Park",.

I beg your pardon? There is a great deal of Toronto's built history in that area. It is all well and good for an elite group of panjandrums to hypothetically mull over a map, planning a pretty New York City style park to replace all those unsightly poor people, but I think that area has a lot of potential. A friend of mine just moved into an 1850 brick Georgian style house and would be very unhappy to hear of this bulldozer scheme. I guess had Walnut Hall not fallen down, these helpful folk would have done the job.
Huge parks like Central Park, or Boston Common, that are in the centre of high density urban downtowns have to have been created up to hundreds of years ago to make sense. The city then
developed around the park, not the other way round. Penis envy should not blind us to the fact that we can't always have what other cities might have been blessed with through hundreds of years of urban planning.

[KGB]

I really don't think we need to go bulldozing what's left of the oldest part of the city for yet another city park...Toronto already has more per capita than any city on the planet.

Not to say smaller projects couldn't be planned. Moss Park Armories could be demolished to increase the park beside it. Moss Park Apartment complex could be replaced with something as well. Things like that. But wholesale blockbusting is something we gave up as stupid in the 60's.




KGB

[Taller, Better]

I'd love to see more small scale projects like what is going on in Regent Park. As KGB says, some of those housing projects at Moss Park, and the armouries could be replaced with superior projects. I'm just not at all happy about the concept of losing all our very own Coronation Streets:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/dawnd_01/Summer%20Part%20Two/mar1307SeatonSt.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/dawnd_01/Summer%20Part%20Two/mar1307SeatonSti.jpg

and who in their right mind would want to give up The True Love Castle?!?!

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/dawnd_01/Summer%20Part%20Two/mar1307TrueLoveCafeii.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/dawnd_01/Summer%20Part%20Two/mar1307TrueLoveCafei.jpg

I mean, comeon....

[valantino]

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/dawnd_01/Summer%20Part%20Two/mar1307SeatonSti.jpg

could do without Corrie - re-development site in waiting

(wonder why someone went to great lengths to replace the facade or is it a bad extension of this factory row)

[Taller, Better]

^^ well, trouble is we don't have a lot of the old Victorian terrace houses left in the city. They have disappeared rapidly. It is true that this one was about as lower working class as they came... not a speck of superfluous decoration.There is an irony in that most of the old terraces that Coronation Street were based on, in Salford (Manchester) are long gone... victims of the eager bulldozer crew. True, someone has butchered that first one, but they all have great potential. The area is still a bit dodgy, but on the way up. My theory is that the world can never have enough Corrie! :cheer:

[isaidso]

I like Victorian and Georgian row houses too, but these ones are simply atrocious. Save the ones worth saving. I'm not in favour of saving simply because it is of a certain architectural style.

Perhaps I am way too particular as to what a proper Victorian or Georgian should look like. I grew up in London, so to me, alot of Toronto's Victorians and Georgians are poor reproductions. It's all in the detail and proportion. Get a bay window wrong or a floor height wrong, and the whole style is compromised.

[Taller, Better]

Ouch! it is Colonial Georgian... not the real thing. We are not London and never will be. Toronto in the mid 1800's was not London during the mid 1800's. And as we all know, this example is the low end of Victorian rowhouses. I still say they have potential. I'm not pretending that with a little lick of paint we could turn this into Bath... it is just a little row of brick townhouses not pretending to be anything other than they are.... "proper", or "improper"! ;)

Victorian rowhousing took all sorts of forms here:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/dawnd_01/Summer%20Part%20Two/oct02ChurchStixxvii.jpg

[KGB]

I like Victorian and Georgian row houses too, but these ones are simply atrocious.

You'd be surprised how a proper restoration can bring back what looks to be too far gone. And "simple" architecture is no less valid than highly ornamental architecture.

You don't even need to do a proper restoration...hell, I even like the way those 70's reno jobs look today...just badly stucco'd and fairly simple street treatments can work wonders...technically, this stretch of terraces is terrible, but it has great street presence anyway....


http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/6126/pict6372nj6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)




KGB

[valantino]

[quote] I still say they have potential./quote]

they do however not sure if its worth the effort.

.......

I guess with new sash windows, new doors, new chimneys, rogers and a consistent paint colour they would be passable

[Taller, Better]

Ah... that shot is across from the Berkley St Theatre. Stucco certainly has its place in genuine traditional Georgian architecture, and I agree that stripped down fundamental styles have their own type of beauty. At no point should Colonial architectural styles be confused with the original motherland ones... chalk and cheese. Each should be evaluated with different yardsticks..

[quote] I still say they have potential./quote]

they do however not sure if its worth the effort.
I guess with new sash windows, new doors, new chimneys, rogers and a consistent paint colour they would be passable

Well.. let us not forget that this is on Shuter, not Avenue Road. Let's just say the nabe is a "fixer upper". Is it worth the effort? Most definitely. Why? Because the alternative of some low end replacement monstrosity is too frightening to imagine. Maybe a ghastly "Star of Downtown" type condo development, with Authentic " Ye Olde Style Victorian Towne Homes" that have two car garages under each spanking new towne home. The scale and rhythm is all there... just needs a bit of spit and polish to bring it up to speed! ;)

[KGB]

At no point should Colonial architectural styles be confused with the original motherland ones... chalk and cheese. Each should be evaluated with different yardsticks..

Well, Georgian architecture was really just another form of Greek Revival. But oddly enough, by the time Toronto had embraced georgian style, it had already fallen out of vogue in Britian, where it was mostly an 18th century popular style. Canada was practicing 19th century georgian style almost by itself.

But by the 1920's, it seems everybody (even Americans) were hot for Georgian Revival. It seems every so often, we feel a need for the "order" of classical architecture.




KGB

[Taller, Better]

That is very typical of Colonial architecture, to be out of synch by a generation or so. One of the few exceptions is Dundurn Castle in Hamilton that was the first Italianate style house built in North America, by an English architect of the time building for one of Camilla Parker-Bowle's predecessors, when the style was current in London. It utilized stucco, by the way, and had the first flush toilet in North America.. personally installed by Thomas Crapper's son, a full decade before one was installed in the White House! Haha!
There are a few nice examples of the Greek Revival influence in Toronto... a couple being MacKenzie House and number one Toronto Street, the old Post Office number 8, or whichever it was.

[DrT]

from today's Star:

Condos, bank anchor plans for renewed Regent Park
Oct 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Donovan Vincent
city hall bureau

The first tangible signs of Regent Park's new housing mix were revealed yesterday – two condo buildings that will be anchored by a Sobeys, Tim Hortons and a Royal Bank branch.

The $70 million, nine- and 19-storey structures at Dundas St. E. and Parliament are to be connected by a glass podium, with retail on the ground floor. The suites will go on sale starting at about $190,000 next fall, with first move-ins slated for spring 2009. They're part of Phase 1 of the remaking of Regent Park, in which the concentration of social housing will be broken up and replaced with a mix of housing types.

Toronto Community Housing Corporation is using the proceeds from the sale of land and market-priced condo units to build eight- and 22-storey buildings for about $60 million. The corporation's rental buildings will be about 60 per cent rent-geared-to-income, and include housing dedicated to seniors. Those buildings are now under construction and are set to be finished in early 2009.

Two more condo buildings and townhouses are to follow.

Other phases in the redevelopment – there are six in total – will be built over the next 12 to 15 years. The number of assisted housing units won't drop, Toronto Housing officials say, but some will be dispersed around the downtown core.

Toronto Housing has a $300 million capital repair backlog, which is why its partnership with the developer, Daniels Corp., makes sense, said Derek Ballantyne, CEO of Toronto Housing. It makes it possible to add density, mixed housing and commercial activity to the site.

[Taller, Better]

Excellent news! A project we can all take pride in.

[Daphne7411]

Rendering for the first market phase of Regent Park, developed by Daniels.

The project's named One Cole...

http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=onecolerenderingom0.jpg

[NorthYorker]

Rendering for the first market phase of Regent Park, developed by Daniels.

The project's named One Cole...

http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=onecolerenderingom0.jpg

Image isn't loading, try to get it up quick, I'm very interested in seeing how this turned out.

[UD2]

saving architectures, there is a difference between saving them and pure resistence to change.

I love the post above that said "save the ones that worth saving". That is absoultely right; if you want to save history, than save a few piece of it, and give the rest to development.

The problem with Toronto is that so many people that are too scared of change are using historical reasons to cover their foolishness. If you saved every single Geogerian, victorian, and whatever other "historic" buildings around the city, you would have no place left to build anything new. Then how would a culture actually advance?

Those of you who want to save every piece of everything, I ask you to travel. Hopefully you'll realize how far this type of thinking has fallen behind in every other parts of the world.

Again, history is good only in little pieces of reminders. When you're sorrunded by history, you're in trouble.

[NorthYorker]

saving architectures, there is a difference between saving them and pure resistence to change.

I love the post above that said "save the ones that worth saving". That is absoultely right; if you want to save history, than save a few piece of it, and give the rest to development.

The problem with Toronto is that so many people that are too scared of change are using historical reasons to cover their foolishness. If you saved every single Geogerian, victorian, and whatever other "historic" buildings around the city, you would have no place left to build anything new. Then how would a culture actually advance?

Those of you who want to save every piece of everything, I ask you to travel. Hopefully you'll realize how far this type of thinking has fallen behind in every other parts of the world.

Again, history is good only in little pieces of reminders. When you're sorrunded by history, you're in trouble.

I really can't agree with this perspective, and I think you have misjugded people by assuming they are afraid of change. Atleast for me, I am generally in favour of retaining older properties because it helps create culture and a distinctive community. Even more importantly though is that Toronto has the luxury of having tons of underdeveloped areas that aren't being protected by anyone. Why tear down a victorian when theres a parking lot across the street just begging for something new? As for your recommendation to travel, I have, and I'm sure many others in this forum have, and IMO nothing is more impressive about seeing new places than understanding where they came from and how they got to where they are now. Even if none of this means anything to you, you can atleast see that the city should be a reflection of the people within it. If we are a city full of people scared of change and proud of older architecture, then let it be, it reflects who we are. Maybe things will change in the future, but until then I'm happy surrounding myself with past generations' visions of the future.

[valantino]

Why tear down a victorian when theres a parking lot across the street just begging for something new?

Sooner or later, all the parking lots will be gone whether we make them a priority by removing ownership from private hands or keeping the current level of controls. I agree with everything else though.

you would have no place left to build anything new.

I think the number of cranes in the skyline prove there is plenty of space for new. However, with or without controls (i.e. planning, preservation) the downtown will eventually reach its developable potential. Condominium corporation's ownership structure not being open to redevelopment and their increasing popularity being a huge reason. At that point, I'd rather have Jane Jacob's head stamp of approval than a tall skyline to show off with from Mississauga.

[Skybean]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2144/2473339319_d38f635363_o.jpg

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7791383@N05/2473339319

[kettal]

That's the narrowest grocery store I've ever seen

edit: oh I see, that's a green roof. Very cool.

[Jaye101]

Niceee!

[CrazyCanuck]

Good to see some mixed use in there.

[Taller, Better]

That's the narrowest grocery store I've ever seen

edit: oh I see, that's a green roof. Very cool.

I read it the same way... looked like a wall!! LOL!

[isaidso]

It would be very irritating shopping in there.

[Tallinn to Toronto 4]

That's the narrowest grocery store I've ever seen

edit: oh I see, that's a green roof. Very cool.


hahaha - that's exactly what I was thinking at first.

[yin_yang]

That's the narrowest grocery store I've ever seen

edit: oh I see, that's a green roof. Very cool.

LOL, the thought cracked me up! i assumed it was a green roof, but your message was just hilarious

[Bisonblight]

Wouldn't a Price Choppers or No Frills be more appropriate than a Sobey's for subsidised housing. There damn expensive. I guess they figure its part of the condos, so expensive is better. Like the addition of the Timmy Hos though.

[Skybean]

Yeah Sobey's is really expensive. I also thought it was a thin strip from the render... how do you know if that's a green roof? There's no scale to the render.

[Tuscani01]

Looks like a green roof to me.

[Taller, Better]

I'm still loving the idea of a Sobey's being about six feet wide!! LOL!
Cleanup in Aisle One! :D

[valantino]

^you may be onto somethin' ... the ultimate in grocery shopping .. cafeteria style

[Taller, Better]

There could be one of those horizontal people movers that just rolls you right through the store. Grab a box of cereal, grab some fruit, toss your money at the cashier and get dumped out the other end.
Sobey's desperately needs some guidance to spruce up their utilitarian 80's looking stores, but they have the best seafood of any of the supermarkets. Fresh, big white scallops.... mmmm... I think it may be because the store comes from the East Coast.

[valantino]

There could be one of those horizontal people movers that just rolls you right through the store. Grab a box of cereal, grab some fruit, toss your money at the cashier and get dumped out the other end.


pure genius

[kettal]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/Loblaws000.jpg

You think that Sobeys is bad?

[elliot]

Future render of Bathurst and Lakeshore??!

[valantino]

Wouldn't a Price Choppers or No Frills be more appropriate than a Sobey's for subsidised housing.

There's a No Fills a couple blocks up Parliament.

[Taller, Better]

^^ wha dat?

[valantino]

^really?!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a234/mark3333/nofrills.jpg

[outinleftfield]

Yeah, at Spruce and Parliament... it's in your pic!

[Jaye101]

Sarcasm is hard to detect on the internet. But com'on, dude!

[current]

May 16

Northeast corner of Dundas and Parliament
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/2499892205_f341e59171_b.jpg


www.Onecole.ca with a Tim Hortons, Sobeys and RBC.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2160/2499892217_d1545e110c_b.jpg


Looking east at the very large site, they are going down two levels.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/2499892229_7b4918be70_b.jpg


Dundas/Sackville rental buildings.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3034/2499892231_4cc31a719b_b.jpg


Looking south at the southwest corner of the site.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3155/2499892271_5f8efa0de0_b.jpg

Renders:
http://www.onecole.ca/pdfs/OneColeGarden.pdf

http://www.onecole.ca/pdfs/MEDIA%20KIT%20One%20Cole%20Building%20Rendering.pdf

[Taller, Better]

Nice! How do you get around? By foot/bike/car? You cover a lot of ground in one day....

[current]

Thank you Taller, Better. I like to walk and it was a long walk that day.

[mckarisma]

Very Nice Current! I didn't know these were so far along! Much appreciated with the illustrations!

[babel]

This morning, as the 505 rattled downtown, I noticed that the west side of the podium is being faced with grey brick - like the Four Seasons Centre - rather than the red brick shown in the rendering. It seems to be quite popular all of a sudden - Stage East Lofts and 2 Ossington have both also opted for it.

[current]

May 25

From the TD Centre with Spire on the right.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2304/2525886206_0c074ebe05_b.jpg

From New City Hall.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3052/2525886214_2f672674fe_b.jpg

[Taller, Better]

cool pic of Spire!

[ONE HUMAN]

I hate the yellow panels on SPiRE. I know they are supposed to be splashes of colour to provide visual interest, but in reality they simply make the building look unfinished. It gives the appearance that they haven't installed the proper blue panels in those spots.

[Taller, Better]

Probably multicoloured would have worked better.

[Ziggy]

I hate the yellow panels on SPiRE.

Really? I really like them! I guess everyone's tastes are different, I really like Spire overall, it's proportions look great.

The new Regent Park buildings look great so far also.

[isaidso]

I hate the yellow panels on SPiRE.



Yellow? That's so peach. Come on now.

[catcher_of_cats]

From last week

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3189/2970732728_1f4c5328fd_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3229/2969889091_5535a79b03_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2970732484_9a41bbe183_o.jpg

[Bisonblight]

Thanks for all the pics. That building's going to be the greatest seniors residence ever.

[urbandreamer]

Passing by the site I shoot:

Looks good in typical Clewesian fashion, if a tad stark.
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh33/urbandreamer4ever/constructionpixtorontobyurbandreamer4ever/DSC00425.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh33/urbandreamer4ever/constructionpixtorontobyurbandreamer4ever/DSC00424.jpg

Daniel's One Cole Condominium is a massive long structure, partially seen beginning to rise here:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh33/urbandreamer4ever/constructionpixtorontobyurbandreamer4ever/DSC00421-1.jpg

[yyzer]

thx UD for all the updates here at SSC

[GridSky]

Great updates, UD! This is one of the more important developments in Toronto and it barely gets any attention here.

Please keep us posted, guys. :)

[Taller, Better]

I agree.. thx for the updates! Good article on Clewes in yesterday's Globe (or perhaps it was the Star) .