***Waterfront Development Thread***

[Taller, Better]

As long as Concord doesn't have anything to do with the development, we should be fine.

[isaidso]

Let's hope they move on to another city; preferably outside of Canada.

[Diesel_Power]

"Let’s not be waterfront wannabes"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1784949/

"When Toronto compares itself to Chicago, it suffers from waterfront envy. Torontonians who visit the Windy City often marvel at the swath of parkland that graces its Lake Michigan edge. Why can’t Toronto do something like that?

But imitating Chicago’s waterfront would be a mistake. As the latest news from down by the water shows, Toronto is trying something altogether different. The result should be a waterfront that in its own way is every bit as successful as Chicago’s.

Last week a group of developers struck a deal to buy a 5.54-hectare chunk of property at the east end of the downtown waterfront, just west of Cherry Street and south of the Gardiner Expressway. Home Depot originally planned to build a big-box store on the site. It dropped the idea after a public uproar and a negative decision from the Ontario Municipal Board. After sitting on the land for a decade, it decided to sell.

The new owners plan a mixed-used development – condos, offices, stores – that will transform the barren patch of land into a vibrant urban neighbourhood overlooking the harbour. Construction could start in three or four years.

The development is the latest in a string of exciting changes on the eastern end of the harbour. Just to the north of it, the West Donlands community is starting to emerge, anchored by the future Athletes Village for the 2015 Pan Am Games. Just to the west, the so-called East Bayfront is taking shape, with new office buildings, classrooms, shopping, apartments and condos.

Most Torontonians are still only vaguely aware that this is happening. Once they see all the construction, many will object. Memories of what happened around Harbourfront years ago still colour every debate about the waterfront. After a series of unattractive condos sprang up, many residents complained that the city was being cut off from the harbour by a wall of ugliness. No one wants that to happen again – and it won’t.

We have learned from the Harbourfront experience. Everything that goes up on the waterfront now has to go through design panels, environmental officials and planning approvals. To preserve harbour views, the buildings going up in East Bayfront will be arranged like a staircase, with the lower buildings by the water and the taller ones further back next to the Gardiner.

The whole area will be fronted by a tree-lined promenade so that people have direct access to the water. Two creative new parks, Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Park, provide still more open space.

“It’s not our hope to block the waterfront but to open it up,” says Jane Gol, president of Continental Ventures Realty, one of the developers of the Home Depot property.

What emerges will be far better than a sprawling waterfront park, swept by winter winds half the year. What we will get instead is a dynamic living community, open to the water but also tied into busy downtown scene. “If anything the waterfront needs more people. It needs life,” says Sam Crignano, president of the Cityzen Development Group, which is working with Ms. Gol’s Continental and with Castlepoint Realty Partners.

Chicago’s waterfront is the product of another era. City fathers decided in the mid-19th century to leave the land east of Michigan Avenue “public ground, forever to remain vacant of buildings.” The eventual result was the grand expanse of Grant Park, with its fountains, walking trails, softball fields and, most recently, the Frank Gehry-designed band shell of Millennium Park.

It’s a wonderful and heavily used public space, often known as downtown Chicago’s front lawn. But Toronto already has its waterfront green space: the Toronto Islands. For a growing city in the early 21st century, it makes more sense to build a truly urban waterfront where people come to live and work as well as play."

[current]

From Waterfront Toronto:

East Bayfront Construction Update



Over the next month, permanent light poles will be installed along the Water’s Edge Promenade, and the streets in and around Corus Quay. The lights, which will replace the temporary ones installed earlier this summer, include a timber tampered pole with a cast metal base featuring an oak/maple bark pattern.

The light poles, which were designed by West 8 + DTAH for the downtown waterfront, will also be installed at Canada’s Sugar Beach. The lights will be adapted slightly for the park by extending the height of the poles from nine metres to 12 metres, and by including three special light fixtures at the top which can be positioned to prevent light glare during concerts and other events.

[AndrewJM3D]

From Sugar Beach, a new angle of the core.

image hosted on flickr

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/...06893dda_b.jpg

image hosted on flickr

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/...d5030367_b.jpg


Another view from the beach.
image hosted on flickr

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/...672488d2_b.jpg

This will look great when the trees mature.
image hosted on flickr

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/...4a99bc0d_b.jpg

[Mollywood]

Sherbourne Commom (park) is moving along.

[/QUOTE]

[OEincorparated]

What are the F pillers for? Looks really nice sherbourne Park and the new beach park.

[Naughty By Newton]

Originally Posted by OEincorparated

What are the F pillers for? Looks really nice sherbourne Park and the new beach park.

They're a fountain feature. Water will drip from them into the new stream. Kind of like this.

[Filip]

Those 'F' things remind me too much of the Finnair logo:



Jeez.. nearly identical!

[Taller, Better]

Lovin' the colour of the RBC Dexia, etc.. in that shot (of our grey city).

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Filip

Those 'F' things remind me too much of the Finnair

Jeez.. nearly identical!

And is Santa flying airplanes instead of his reindeer these days?

[Taller, Better]

someone recently sent me a depraved Forward cartoon of Santa and poor Rudolph.

[Travis007]

Already posted this in the developments section but very relevant to the waterfront in general:


http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/uploa...s_campus_1.pdf

Not as impressive as the new Sheridan College in 'Sauga but a good addition to the waterfront. Should bring a lot more life to that area too.

[AndrewJM3D]

Originally Posted by Travis007

Already posted this in the developments section but very relevant to the waterfront in general:


http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/uploa...s_campus_1.pdf

Not as impressive as the new Sheridan College in 'Sauga but a good addition to the waterfront. Should bring a lot more life to that area too.

Really? What they are getting is a water downed version of something that used to be great.



The New George Brown campus will increase the size of the college by nearly 1000 full time students.

[Mollywood]

Looks like a new promenade is being built by the city.

[/QUOTE]

[Taller, Better]

No sexy music!!?!?!!

Looks interesting! Like a jigsaw puzzle, Harbourfront is coming together nicely!

[Mollywood]

I've run out of "Royalty Free Music". lol

This park is looking so GOOD!

[/QUOTE]

I'm going for some Janet Jackson. I hope Youtube doesn't bust my ass.

[Taller, Better]

I enjoyed hearing Miss Jackson and left it on till the very end! Dying to see the new park, but am going to wait till late Spring. Just too cold down there right now.

[current]

[AndrewJM3D]

Nice find Current.