I just saw sign on Front St. W. (near the corner Front & Spadina) about an application being made to construct a proposed 4 NEW towers ranging from 22 to 28 stories. This project is in addition to the Tridel Element to be built further down the street. Wow, Front St W. is gonna be really dense w/ condo's!!

Does anyone have any further info re: 400 Front St. W.?

Could be 'Cityplace' west of Spadina.

It's an old application from many years ago. Unless it's a brand new proposal with the exact same heights and has been recently proposed within the last month (not too likly though).

Its weird how I never noticed the sign before? Maybe its always been there, who knows.

Its definately not part of the Cityplace project. Citplace is South/West of this site

Its weird how I never noticed the sign before? Maybe its always been there, who knows.

Its definately not part of the Cityplace project. Citplace is South/West of this site

Would it be this:
http://www.pinnaclecentre.ca/images/area_map1.jpg

Webcam of Pinnacle Centre
http://209.161.252.33/axis-cgi/jpg/image.cgi?user=www&pwd=www&clock=0&text=0

^^ No

Thats Yonge/Bay/Harbour.

And the heights are in the high 30s and 40s.

Interesting, does anyone have any info on these??

should be tridel. they are selling a 24 stories to the east of the site mentioned.

what shape is the sign in? is it shiny white?

The sign is white, but it doesn't look shiny, and its square in shape. It actually looks like its worn down by the elements (as if its been there for a while). But again, I never noticed it before. Either that sign was there all along or, maybe its an old sign that was removed and then put back up recently?

wow. great news for toronto

There is also one of those development application signs on King St. immediately east of the Hudson site (NW corner of Charlotte/KingW). It's for a 25 storey mixed-use residential building with retail at grade.

As far as signs go, it's still shinning white so it must be somewhat new.

I really dislike Tridel's Element condo. It's damn ugly.

The one next to Hudson is for the second phase of Hudson.

I really dislike Tridel's Element condo. It's damn ugly.

Normally I would agree with Tridel = ugly, but I have to say that Element isn't to bad. Could be much worse from them if you know what I mean. I actually think that they are not the worse anymore, with the stuff coming from Daniels especially at MCC. It seems to me that the more supposive 'NY style' condos are getting cheaper and uglier by each duplication. And I was originally a fan of them. Too many of them specially grouped together is making the area around Sheppard that they occupy look very sterile.

I would hope that we get more projects like Tridels Element - it's one of the most forward thinking advanced condos ever to go up in Toronto. Tridel is starting to lead other developers in looking for advance and green technologies.

"Sun, Wind and Water - the answer to the energy crisis. Builders are finding creative alternative energy sources for high rise buildings"


A few builders are beginning to take the words of Thomas Edison to heart
and are harnessing the sun, wind and water for their condominium towers — almost 100 years after he made his prediction.

Alternative energy has mostly been the domain of environmentally minded citizens or institutions that have wanted to lead by example, regardless of the cost. But as traditional energy costs continue to rise, some builders are bringing alternative power into the mainstream.

For example, Tridel plans to use a revolutionary approach to cooling the 22-storey condominium tower - Element - that it's building at the corner of Blue Jays Way and Front Street in Toronto. Cold water from far out in Lake Ontario will supply the building's air conditioning system.

Meanwhile, Shane Baghai is promoting a view of Lake Ontario from his new condominium tower at One Avondale, even though it is many miles from the shoreline. He can do that, because his condo tower will be built on one of the highest spots in Toronto near Yonge Street and Highway 401. The upper floors will offer a panoramic view of the city - plus catch a lot of wind.

Baghai plans to use that wind to help supply electricity to his building. He's putting a wind turbine on the roof at One Avondale to power the building's emergency lighting system. Also up on the roof with the windmill will be solar panels to convert free sunshine into free hot water.

These are some of the innovative ideas home builders are looking at to bring new energy efficiencies to their housing projects.

The Tridel model is possible because Enwave District Energy Ltd. is spending nearly $170 million on a scheme to bring cold water in from five kilometers out from the bottom of Lake Ontario and use it to cool 100 buildings in downtown Toronto. Tridel's Element condo, now in the pre-sale stage, is the first residential building to sign up to the service.

The 4 C water from the lake bottom doesn't go into the buildings. It passes through a heat exchanger that extracts heat from warm water returning from the buildings in a separate closed loop system. The warmed water from the lake goes on to the city's normal water delivery system that supplies drinking water to the city. The water from the buildings that surrendered its heat then returns to the buildings to absorb some more.

At Element, warm air collected from the 336 suites will blow across the cooled water returning from Enwave's huge heat exchanger in the basement of the Metro Convention Centre and pass on its heat to the cool water. The cooled air returns to the suites to sooth the occupants.

Jim Ritchie, vice-president of sales and marketing at Tridel, said not only does the Enwave cooling method reduce operation costs with less use of electricity, but it also eliminates expensive air conditioning chillers. "We are looking at a variety of new technologies and new thinking that will reduce energy use in our residential buildings," said Ritchie. "And this new lake water method of cooling will reduce the mechanical vibration noises in the building that are part of the traditional air conditioning systems."

Enwave is a joint venture between OMERS (57 per cent) and the City of Toronto (43 per cent) and its big pipe project is the first of its kind in the world. The pipe is 1.6 metres in diameter and lays 83 metres deep five kilometres out in the lake. As well as cooling and heating buildings in the core, it also supplies a new source of clean drinking water to Toronto.

Enwave also operates a downtown steam plant supplying heat to dozens of downtown government, office and hospital buildings and Ritchie said Tridel's Element project will hook into Enwave's heating source as well.

Moving inland, to Baghai Developments' One Avondale, the technology changes to wind power, although the windmill to be placed on the roof of the tower won't be the size of the 30-storey windmill twirling on the shore of Lake Ontario at the west end of Exhibition Place. Baghai's Lakota turbine weighs only 35 pounds and produces from 900 to 1,500 watts of electrical power.

David Moore at True North Wind Power predicts that in 10 years the little Lakota wind turbine will be as common on single-family home lots as air conditioning is today. Moore has always had great confidence in wind. He is a former helicopter pilot in the Canadian Forces and now runs True North Wind Power from a small research station in Ferndale, on the Bruce Peninsula. He says it's unlikely there is a more ideal place in Ontario to study wind generation. The Bruce Peninsula is eight kilometres wide and sees plenty of wind as it separates Lake Huron from Georgian Bay.

Moore says the rooftop at One Avondale is another ideal location to capture the free energywind can produce. The building sits at a high point in Toronto. It is 21 storeys high and has no neighbouring obstructions.

But Moore wants to know if the wind can produce worth-while energy under less than ideal conditions, so he and the University of Toronto have a Lakota
turbine operating on a three-storey U. of T. research building on the north side of Dundas Street across from the Art Gallery of Ontario. Determining the potential of harnessing the turbulent, unpredictable winds in a crowded urban setting will go a long way in helping design a wind turbine that can become a
common household appliance in the future.

The electricity generated by the turbine on the roof of One Avondale will be used to power some of the hallway and interior lighting in the building, plus supply emergency lighting in case of a power outage, as happened last August. The electricity generated by Baghai’s Lakota can be stored in batteries or sent directly to the lights.

Plus, solar panels on the roof will supply 20 per cent of the domestic hot water needs of the building. Solarnetix Inc. of Toronto is installing the panels and spokesman Viktor Tchernikov says the system will heat 20,000 U.S. gallons to 130F or 55C each year. He said it would require 115 million BTUs of
fossil fuel heat to get the same results.

The installation and material costs of the solar panels at One Avondale are expected to pay for themselves in energy savings in six years at today’s energy costs.

In order to maximize its efforts as it designs more energy-efficient buildings, Tridel has hired environmentalist Jamie James as an energy- onservation consultant. James said the term “energy conservation” scares off a lot of potential supporters because it sounds like you simply turn off the convenient appliances in your life and thus save energy. “We aren’t looking to reduce the use of the everyday appliances and conveniences in our lives, we are just looking at ways to have those same services do what they do, but use less electrical energy as they do it,” said James.

“We had all better be thinking energy efficiency because energy costs are going to increase significantly over the next while. The residential market will certainly become more aware of this, and Tridel wants to continue to be at the leading edge of energy efficiency and conservation, but it all has to be balanced out against costs and price point because they are involved in one of the world’s most competitive condominium markets,” said James, who has a master’s degree in environmental management from Yale University.

“It is a lot cheaper to save onekilowatt hour of electricity than it is to produce one-kilowatt hour from alternative sources, so that’s our first priority. One way we do that is that Solar panels at One Avondale near Yonge Street and Highway 401 in Toronto will supply 20 per cent of the hot water for residents and will pay for themselves in energy savings in six years.

Tridel is the first condo developer to install Energy Star kitchen appliances as standard features,” James says. The U. S. Department of Energy issues an Energy Star to appliances that reduce their energy use by at least 50 per cent from the energy models required of machines manufactured up to 1994.

More than 40 household appliances, from dishwashers to fax machines, are
eligible for Energy Star ratings as measured by a third party outside the manufacturing sector, explains James.

“We install a front-loading clothes washer. For some reason they use 40 per cent less water than a top-loading machine and a lot less detergent as well. Now we are looking for features that have a built-in heat exchange so that our condos are not dumping out warm air in the winter and cool air in the summer through the kitchen range hood, the bathroom vent and the clothes dryer. The outgoing cool can absorb some of the heat from incoming air and outgoing warm air can pass on warmth to the incoming cold air and greatly reduce the suite’s energy costs.”

Another method Tridel is using at Element to reduce heat absorption in the summer is to create a green landscaped terrace on the roof. The concept of building “greenroofs” on flat-roofed buildings to insulate the building from the summer sun and the winter cold is another revolution that is gaining momentum in North America.

Yea...Tridel does build those resort-style condos sometimes (usually in areas where there's no point in trying to build urban streetwalls in the first place...or can't anyway because of zoning bylaws).

But I like the way Elelment wraps around that corner of the intersection...very nice urban feeling....this is the kind of development that should be filling in the gaps in the west end of downtown...not places like Cityplace. I'm gonna have to give Tridel kudos for helping this former parking lot neighbourhood turn into a truly "downtown" place with Icon and Elelment.






KGB

While I defintely agree that Element is doing great things with this water cooling thing I still think the design is extremely lame.

The curvature of the building at the corner is not needed and only clashes with the curvature of Matrix. The whole building just seems very 'heavy'.

I'm all for getting rid of parking lots but something much much better could of been done with such a prominent site.

http://www.tridel.com/images/buildings/element_260.jpg

The curvature of the building at the corner is not needed and only clashes with the curvature of Matrix. The whole building just seems very 'heavy'.


I think the curve compliments that of Matrix. Matrix... what a stupid name for a condo.

I think the massing is more appropriate than that of cityplace, being in the Spadina area. Something taller would be nice, but buildings like this have their place in creating streets with serious urban appeal.

I want to see a developer do a building this size, but with big massive windows and no balconies, like an old factory loft. Not a faux-historical, but an honest brick building (or maybe concrete..) Brick pilasters running its entire height, maybe concrete horizontal elements, and big honkin windows with mullions (but not too many!).

I want to see a developer do a building this size, but with big massive windows and no balconies, like an old factory loft. Not a faux-historical, but an honest brick building (or maybe concrete..) Brick pilasters running its entire height, maybe concrete horizontal elements, and big honkin windows with mullions (but not too many!).

Check out King's Court which is currently underconstruction.