Toronto The Uptown Residences | ?m | 48s | Pemberton | Burka

The white part on the model will be above ground parking, the parking is split half below ground and half above.
 
I think it will contrast well with Blu right next door, another project that I like. I'm excited to see the cranes operating next year so damn close together!

I hadn't seen this drawing before, so, for interest's sake...

I just found this image over on Flickr by Andrewjm3d

uptownblu.jpg
 
The Moving Occupancy Date

When is the estimated occupancy date for this condo ? Is it Nov 2008 or March 2009 or Nov 2009 ? or maybe March 2010 ?
 
Just for history's sake... remember what happened on the Uptown condo site in the beginning...

collapse.jpg

(CP photo)

From CityNews.ca:

Inquest Begins Into Uptown Theatre Collapse
Monday September 17, 2007
CityNews.ca Staff

It was a local landmark that suddenly turned into a dangerous death trap. And now officials are reliving that December 2003 moment when the Uptown Theatre at Yonge and Bloor collapsed on a school next door, killing a Costa Rican student and leaving more than a dozen others injured.

Nearly four years have passed since that terrible day, but an inquest into the incident is bringing back those memories - along with ways to ensure it never happens again. Those who were on the scene back then came together one more time on Monday to recall and reflect.

Some of their descriptions sounded eerily like the recollections of rescue workers during the September 11th attack. "You could still see, like, the dust in the air as it was settling down and ... walking in the front stairwell, as we were going up, there were lots of victims with all sorts of cuts and debris and dirt on them, and they were coming down as we were going up," remembers Toronto Fire Captain Robert Humphreys.

"I jumped out of the vehicle and then figuring 'do I run to the building right away?' We don't know what we're dealing with," adds paramedic John Flengas, who tended to the injured. "Here is an unstable structure. Do we wait for the fire department? We hear sirens coming from all over the place but we don't know who's coming, if it's police coming or if it's the fire department, ambulance that's coming. So it was all very surreal."

It was Flengas who found the victim's body. He knew right away that Augusto Solis was dead. "From dealing with a lot of trauma in our job, that amount of rubble on the victim, there's no way he could possibly survive that," he remembers.

The coroner's inquest will examine the structural situation with the Uptown and whether the inspectors and the demolition workers involved made mistakes as well as issues regarding construction as opposed to demolition.

Flengas claims he always thought there were uniform standards for the kind of work that was going on in the building. But he was dead wrong. "I figured it was the same as construction, with all the permits that you have to apply for for your own home and stuff, so I figured it was pretty much the same. Then when I was surprised to hear that it wasn't as stringent.

The coroner will likely be considering tightening up those regulations by the time the inquest wraps up in about two weeks. But whatever happens, just about everyone involved agrees there's one conclusion they can't wait to jump to.

"Like everybody else, hope that it won't happen again," P.C. John Angus confirms.

The firm behind the demolition of the theatre was later fined for violating the Health and Safety Act, with many witnesses who walked by the complex before it fell recalling they were worried because it seemed so unstable. A few even crossed the street over concerns that the building might collapse. A few hours later, their worst fears came true.
 
Digging begins on Uptown site

It appears excavation has begin on the Uptown site.

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Uptown2_Sept26-07.jpg



Uptown3_Sept26-07.jpg



Uptown4_Sept26-07.jpg
 
Someone in an earlier post reported (or suggested) that excavation would be a joint venture between the two developers, but Uptown and Blu are definitely separate buildings.

I still maintain these buildings are unusually close together. It will be interesting to see two cranes swinging around so close together a year from now.
 
I was in the Crystal Blu sales office bothering them this past weekend and the agent told me that the Uptown will not be directly beside Crystal Blu.

Instead, if you image the entire construction site as 4 quadrants, the Uptown will be in the northeast quadrant, and Crystal Blu will be in the southwest quadrant. In other words, everyone will have a view from the Uptown building. (But not Crystal Blu because of that ugly brown rental buildling to the south).

Is this possible? Is the site big enough for this? I thought the front of Uptown also butted right up against Balmuto. (At least the model one page back suggests so).
 
I was in the Crystal Blu sales office bothering them this past weekend and the agent told me that the Uptown will not be directly beside Crystal Blu.

Instead, if you image the entire construction site as 4 quadrants, the Uptown will be in the northeast quadrant, and Crystal Blu will be in the southwest quadrant. In other words, everyone will have a view from the Uptown building. (But not Crystal Blu because of that ugly brown rental buildling to the south).

Is this possible? Is the site big enough for this? I thought the front of Uptown also butted right up against Balmuto. (At least the model one page back suggests so).

It's possible that the two buildings are staggered (a bit) as the agent suggested but I smell a rat. That is unless Pemberton slid the building further east on the lot but I don't think they did as the existing laneway (which runs north/south between Yonge & Balmuto) will remain plus it is not owned by Pemberton or Bazis. It appears from the Uptown rendering as if the 35 Balmuto St. entrance & lobby to Uptown is low, and the highrise begins a bit further east so that may provide some southern views to those on lower floors of Uptown on the far east side of the building. Otherwise it seems that Blu (7 & 21 Balmuto St.) is going to block the balance of southern views for the first 36 or 37 stories at Uptown.

I found this Revised, Preliminary Report from April 2006. The highlighted site is CrystalBlu, the site north of Blu is Uptown. Unless something dramatic has changed, they look pretty closely lined up to me.

uptown_blu.jpg
 
^Thanks for that. I had a feeling she either didn't really know what she was talking about or she was greatly exaggerating.
 
That drawing also seems to indicate that there's a lane running between the two buildings. Is this for garage access?
 

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