Toronto 536 St Clair West | 131.39m | 35s | Diamond Corp | Arcadis

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Northern Light

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No one will lament the loss the buildings currently occupying 536-538 St. Clair W........for this application:

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app.toronto.ca

Application Details

app.toronto.ca app.toronto.ca

Site as is:

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* docs are up *

Architect is IBI

Proponent is Diamond Corp.

Someone there is going though an 'orange' phase again


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Orange phase........or pink....

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From the Planning Rationale Report:

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The Landscape Plan is a bit disappointing.........and the rationale for that is included:

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Additional Comments:

35s looks like a reach here, the new'ish tower to the east is 19s.
The precedent they are going for is the development at the corner of St. Clair/Bathurst at 36s.
I think Diamond is baking in a modest height reduction here.

Streetwall is atypical in going pretty much straight-up w/o set backs on St. Clair.
There are similar streetwalls nearby, but none this tall. City may want a stepback here somewhere.

Parking ratio is very low, in a good way.

@ProjectEnd will love some of the unit layouts facing St. Clair on the lower levels.

At 3 elevators to 380 units, we've seen worse, but not ideal.
 
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The trees will be added back in. This is a dodge to get around the unreasonable new complete application requirements for surveys / underground utilities, where trees are proposed. We're going to see a lot of first applications with "no trees" for a while.
 
Kenojuak said:
The trees will be added back in. This is a dodge to get around the unreasonable new complete application requirements for surveys / underground utilities, where trees are proposed. We're going to see a lot of first applications with "no trees" for a while.
Click to expand...

Agreed, lots of applications taking this approach to deal with the current staff position.
 
I remember being in grade 10 or 11 towards the latter half of the 2000's decade when that Pizza Pizza building was completed, and thinking what is this waste of space 1-storey doing at this corner. Well, here we are getting closer to it finally getting intensified substantially.
 
Nice looking design. Love the arches at the front and the scallops at the back of the tower. If I were to give a critique, I would say all the units on the ground floor should be retail. The building across the screed on raglan has successful retail on raglan, and the new design to the north is proposing a retail spot on the laneway. It would also help if they improved the presence along Albert Wiggan. Would anyone know if there are buildings that put the loading bay underground in the parking structure? I would assume its economically unviable, but eliminating the giant loading bay would go a long way to creating a good urban laneway. I'd be a lot less picky there if the building to the north wasn't doing such a good job in setting up the bones for that space.

Also, Am I wrong in thinking 3 elevators is really limited? When I lived on the 27th floor of a 32 floor building we had 6 elevators, and it was unusably busy at rush hour.
 
Ward8 said:
Nice looking design. Love the arches at the front and the scallops at the back of the tower. If I were to give a critique, I would say all the units on the ground floor should be retail. The building across the screed on raglan has successful retail on raglan, and the new design to the north is proposing a retail spot on the laneway. It would also help if they improved the presence along Albert Wiggan. Would anyone know if there are buildings that put the loading bay underground in the parking structure? I would assume its economically unviable, but eliminating the giant loading bay would go a long way to creating a good urban laneway. I'd be a lot less picky there if the building to the north wasn't doing such a good job in setting up the bones for that space.

Also, Am I wrong in thinking 3 elevators is really limited? When I lived on the 27th floor of a 32 floor building we had 6 elevators, and it was unusably busy at rush hour.
Click to expand...

You need significant vertical clearance (at least 6 metres for a Type-G loading space) as well as room to maneuver trucks and loading vehicles - so not viable on a site of this size.
 
First time I've seen a 'garbage elevator', does this imply residential garbage facilities are on a separate floor from the ground level?

And is it me or do those pillars look really thin to be holding up such a huge cantilever?
 
MichaelZ said:
First time I've seen a 'garbage elevator', does this imply residential garbage facilities are on a separate floor from the ground level?

And is it me or do those pillars look really thin to be holding up such a huge cantilever?
Click to expand...
It does imply that, yes, and has been happening more frequently in the last few years as more demands have been placed on the ground levels of buildings and the lots have been getting smaller. As the FSI goes up, the some of the uses have to get shifted to other floors, and as garbage storage needs grow as the number of units in the increasingly taller buildings goes up, ground floor space is just too valuable to house the bins while they await emptying by the next garbage truck pickup.

Blanky said:
Why is this building taller than the ones closer to the intersection corner?
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Planning rules have changed since those buildings were proposed and built. The Province is forcing the City to accept ever-larger buildings near rapid transit stations.

42
 

Community Consultation Meeting -​

536-538 St. Clair Avenue West​

Tuesday, Dec 6 2022 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
(UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

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Thanks for the update! So much for St. Clair becoming a disaster. It is rapidly becoming our version of the Upper West Side. lol
 
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