In Memoriam, on the not so sudden passing of the "
Great Pyramid of Woodbine" (2019 -2023) proposal...
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Regularly one of the funniest (and most impactful) stops along our "Affordable Housing Bike Tours" of the Danforth with political-candidates...
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You were the visual-embodiment of a badly-flawed policy & practice at Toronto City Hall... and you helped to change / relax / remove that policy, just by being YOU...!
We can all agree the original massing of taller building was uniquely ill conceived.
Relaxing of the angular plane may have helped here........but honestly, probably not. It's important to know why.
This building changed from a midrise to a tall building, both in reality and in guidelines. Though even before then, you can see the change in massing that occurred to the concept in 2021, when T-F was removed from the project and Superkul was installed.
The original concept had an inordinately large lowrise (1.5 storey) spot right a the corner of Woodbine/Danforth, while at the same time building out greater height right to Woodbine.
As the concept evolved, you can see, greater setbacks along Woodbine {very much needed, as the status quo is dangerously narrow) ; a larger setback from Woodbine for the tower on top of this.
One can also see in the massing that there is less site coverage in the lower floors with a significant visual opening between the midrise and hirise forms.
Key here, is that the new massing does a fairly good job of minimizing shadow impacts; they do occur, and with the added height reach further into 'neighbourhoods' than was previously the case, but they also pass more quickly with the slimmed profile of the taller building.
What you actually see here are a series of gives and takes.
Further from Woodbine
Closer to Danforth
Smaller floor plate at midrise height range
Greater tower height (just about 2x)
Aside from a change in Architecture firm, what happened here?
I think we really see that this became a tall building site which is a function of the MTSA designation here, and potential precedent proposals at Main and at Pape setting the stage for a comprehensive re-think. Though, again, the pyramid was actually gone when this was still midrise in form, based on renders posted here. 'see
@ferusian 's post here:
Meanwhile, east of Woodbine and Danforth, two new independent coffee shops have popped up and a third one has changed owners and refreshed its look in just the last couple of months. A Tim Hortons is also coming to the corner of Danforth and Cedarvale. So although Starbucks won’t be long...
urbantoronto.ca
I think we can see some benefit here from the City being more flexible; and a provincial growth mandate; but we also see a proponent and their arch. firm showing a greater understanding of community needs and wants and also hiding the visual impact of the height better with a tower form than the original did with a midrise.
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For all of that..............I'm not sure this will be the final word on this development just yet. Unless the TTC lands are added, I don't foresee any radical changes to the massing here, particularly at height, but closer to grade, I think there's probably a need for some refinement.
toronto.webex.com
