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The design has evolved. Lots of new information and renders on the site now.

It's funny to be relitigating this, but the "makeover" of the West Island involves demolishing every building, removing almost all of the trees, regrading most of the island and expanding it significantly. The new Therme building will be about the same footprint as the whole island is today.

Paul Karakusevic (who is a fantastic architect) speaks Thursday night at U of T Daniels: https://www.daniels.utoronto.ca/events/1711060200/architecture-and-right-housing-featuring-leilani-farha-and-paul-karakusevic-karen

My goodness, that is ugly. Does it matter? No. does it have to be this ugly? Also no.

If they’re going all residential, this should be a conversion, not a teardown. But yes, this is an affordable housing play.

This is a great idea, and in the long term it will almost inevitably happen. A street of small buildings with mixed uses is a magnet. Kensington and Yorkville are two of the most vital and economically productive places in the whole city. Geary Avenue is heading the same way despite being...

With respect, I disagree with @greenleaf about the landscape. It’s a weird configuration: benches that are perpendicular to the sidewalk and crammed quite close to the plantings between them. The benches themselves are also, being made of grey concrete, quite uncomfortable. We’ll see how...

I'm not sure that a lack of engagement is a problem, but this project is wonderful and I will get to it. Thanks for the suggestion.

It’s entirely possible to put a high-rise on the site, and generate enough revenue to make up for extra construction and operating costs. There are precedents in Toronto for every specific point I mention in the piece. It’s not “the library’s site.” It is the city’s site. The argument here...

The Crystal is getting a renovation. My piece on OpenROM: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/article-rom-crystal-renovation-design/

The two towers will connect at the base. They’re doing the demolition, but haven’t completed design for the second phase yet.

Tuesday:

Question: did the grapefruits in the courtyard lose their fruitiness?

Yesterday:

I have indeed read the report that @Northern Light brought forward, along with all of the major planning reports on the Annex going back to the 1970s. We disagree on the implications.

This is a weird digression @NorthernLight. But absolutely the city can create an HCD that covers a diverse district. They’ve done so with King-Parliament (which was altered at appeal) and King-Spadina (which is under appeal right now). The point I’m trying to make is that a) HCDs now...

Everything in the Annex west of Brunswick is five storeys or less. If an HCD is put in place, it would absolutely impede a taller development on any side street because it wouldn’t “fit.” Even if the city alters its requirements for separation distances and podium-tower form (which it absolutely...

There are a lot of things to say about this proposal, but if “visual and physical impacts on heritage” are enough to stop a building project, then it’s impossible for this area to ever meaningfully intensify. What doesn’t have “visual impacts”? A fourplex, maybe? If this test applies, and the...