Toronto Crosstown Community | 135.02m | 44s | Aspen Ridge | Sweeny &Co

[toronto647]

Here is a birds eye view of the site. Few notes:

- crosstown place has 2 cranes on it.

- Aspen Ridge Office (to the right of the 2 cranes) seems a bit stalled since a bit now... probably because the townhomes are now delayed to Spring 2022. I assume Aspen Ridge is waiting on the TTC/Metrolinx to confirm the opening date of the Eglinton LRT and have that as confirmed news prior to release.

- Crosstown 1, 3 & Crest sites seem to have demolishing work and site cleaning going on still. Approval from the city planning folks still hasn't been received and based on there last submission wont be getting an approval anytime soon. With a harsh winter I would assume construction wont start still next year. They have already notified the owners of enacting the unavoidable delay clause due to covid-19 so there isn't a major rush. Investors probably don't care either since they can build up more equity and the Eglinton LRT operations can be in full swing and also Ontario Line construction can start in that area. I assume Ontario Line construction will be the next catalyst to increase prices substantially in this area similar to how the Eglinton LRT was.

- Aspen Ridge also submitted development applications to increase the size of some of the mid rise buildings... will be interesting what direction the city ends up going in

Enjoy the pics

 

[AlbertC]

Oct 7, 2021

 

[AlbertC]

Crosstown Park South

A new 3,120 m2 park is coming to the northwest corner of Eglinton Avenue and Don Mills Road as a result of the 24-hectare Crosstown-Eglinton mixed-use community development project. While we aim to provide fully accessible content, there is no text alternative available for some of the content...

www.toronto.ca

Crosstown Park South​

A new park is being designed as part of the new Crosstown-Eglinton mixed-use community development. The City will be engaging local residents to determine a new site-appropriate park that meets the needs of the community.

Project Timeline​

• Winter 2020 to Spring 2021: Conceptual design development and community engagement
• Fall 2021-2022: Construction drawing preparation and tender for construction
• Summer 2023: Construction

The timeline is subject to change.

A new 3120 m2 park is being designed a the northwest corner of Eglinton Avenue and Don Mills Road. This new park (Park Block 6A) is part of the new 24-hectare Crosstown-Eglinton mixed-used community development.

The new park is in the conceptual design phase, which will be developed through consultation with the community. The proposed concept design for the new park includes:

• Kid’s play area
• Sloped amphitheatre seating area
• Junior and senior kid’s play area
• New plantings and planting areas
• A shade structure
• Shade trees and pollinator gardens
• Picnic area, wood bench seating, and proposed bike racks
• New accessible pathways

 

[AlbertC]

An industrial ballet preserves a 1960s IBM complex in North York​

Nov 16, 2021

In 1951, to be exact, the sprawling plant and head office opened its doors onto (mostly) dirt roads just north of the fourth concession (the future Eglinton) and waited for the city to catch up. The handsome, art deco/stripped classical, stone-clad building by Grimsby, Ont.-born Clare G. MacLean (1903-1973) was added to in 1954 – to stretch the façade to 365 metres – and then, in 1967, a completely new, brick complex to the west welcomed even more high-tech employees.

A product of the golden age of the office campus, the 1967 John B. Parkin Associates buildings hugged the ground as they zigged and zagged joyfully in response to their site, yet, at only three and four storeys, were also able to command a presence since they were perched upon a natural crest. While it might be crass to call them “car-chitecture,” their 500-metre length and in-and-out rhythm allowed fast-moving drivers on Eglinton Avenue East to take in the composition without taking too much attention off the road. To provide further interest, faces of warm, iron spot, brown brick – from Belden Brick in Canton, Ohio – were broken by asymmetrically placed sets of slim, vertical windows separated by slim piers. A City of Toronto heritage report dated September, 2016 suggests the complex “may be seen to represent a subtler, more confident approach for IBM and a shift on the part of Parkin Associates to … a second wave of modernism that was more organic” that related to the “late work of Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto.”

Today, while the MacLean building awaits reassembly at the north end of the site, the 1967 complex (with additions in 1970-71) is being readied, in situ, to become part of a massive residential, office and retail complex by Aspen Ridge Homes called “Crosstown.” While some portions will be saved in full – and luxury suites will be inserted inside – in other areas only a percentage of the original complex will remain to allow for three elegant, black towers to co-exist onsite. In a few key areas, only a freestanding wall will stand as a sort of “screen” that will both shield public space and allow for continuity of the façade. This, says CORE principal Babak Eslahjou, is “a romantic interpretation of remnants of the past.”

Touring the site on an unseasonably warm November morning with CORE’s Kevin Saunders and Aspen Ridge site clerks Matthew Di Nicola and Zaharko Hrushewsky, this unique retention strategy is breathtaking to witness. One minute, our little group is inside a building gazing at its exposed steel skeleton, while the next we emerge into sunshine to view a lone wall that is now held aloft by a massive, bridge-like structure.

Back inside another part of the complex, we climb an original staircase to check what resident’s views will be like on the third floor. And, to be expected, they are quite something. With the downtown skyscrapers clearly visible through the currently-unglazed openings, Mr. Saunders explains that the unique window-shapes influenced those designed for the new towers: “We looked at replicating that on the south and the north faces; it’s a defining characteristic of the [Parkin] building that we wanted to pay homage to [but] not copy.” And when the new double-glazed units by State Windows are placed into the heritage buildings, they will be as accurate as possible … right down to the black steel spandrel panels.

“It’s been an incredible team effort,” Mr. Saunders says with a tip of the hat to engineers Jablonsky Ast & Partners and heritage consultants GBCA. “With everything going on and so many different outside influences, trying to resolve everything, it really has been an incredible process.”

The process, from what I can tell, is like an industrial ballet, as the delicate work of (heritage) retention can be seen happening just metres away from where enormous augers probe the ground in anticipation of new, deep foundations. In another area, enormous piles of concrete block (former wall-structures) have been set aside for recycling: “They’ve set up a crushing pad elsewhere on site. … They can use it as loose coarse granular elsewhere, because the whole site is 64 acres, there’re 14 buildings going in, so everything’s being reused where we can,” Mr. Saunders says.

And all of it, as we walk, is set to the music of jackhammering, warning beeps, the clack-clack-clack of winches, and the thrumming of diesel engines.

Despite the racket, I can’t help but slip into a sort of reverie as I walk: if this project would’ve began, say, 15 or 20 years ago, would the Parkin buildings have been viewed as heritage? Remember, that’s when Toronto lost John C. Parkin’s Bata World Headquarters just down the road, and Peter Dickinson’s Inn on the Park. Is this city finally warming to the idea that heritage can be 1965 as well as 1865?

“I don’t give ‘heritage’ an age,” CORE’s Babak Eslahjou says. “I think the buildings need to be of significant importance in order to be preserved. … Preservation has become much stronger now and I like to see this strength used for quality architectural pieces.”

An industrial ballet preserves a 1960s IBM complex in North York

Three full decades before the world’s first personal computer was released, the former IBM headquarters stood at the corner of Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

[toronto647]

An industrial ballet preserves a 1960s IBM complex in North York​

Nov 16, 2021

An industrial ballet preserves a 1960s IBM complex in North York

Three full decades before the world’s first personal computer was released, the former IBM headquarters stood at the corner of Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East

www.theglobeandmail.com

Here are up close pictures of the construction... See link:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/toronto/gallery-a-1960s-ibm-complex-in-north-york/

 

[toronto647]

Updated Crosstown Community Image from last week. Lots of progress!!

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

That crossing at Don Mills and Eglinton E. looks barely recognizable there.

 

[salsa]

You can clearly see the new streets starting to take shape.

 

[toronto647]

View - December 6, 2021(This project will be such an awesome before and after shot, it's too bad will probably take till the end of the decade!)

 

[toronto647]

Residents' appeal of Don Mills rec centre decision underway, while new developer offer considered - Streeter

Don Mills residents are at a standoff with the city over plans for a recreational centre, while they consider a compromise from developers.

streeter.ca

 

[toronto647]

Block 8 Documents have been submitted to the city. Block 8 includes ten 3-storey townhouse blocks consisting of 8 units each, for a total of 80 residential dwelling units. Very Impressive plans! Sales will commence following the completion/construction of the onsite sales centre (target date March 2022)!

Side note - From phase 1 of development only block 9 remains not submitted to the city. It is anticipated the two (2) mid rise condos will be altered into one (1) high-rise condo which in theory makes sense. I wonder how long this would take and whether it would delay the start of phase 2. Important to note block 5A is now part of Phase 1. With the ongoing litigation in regards to the Don Mills Community Centre I suspect Blocks 3A and 3B will get delayed into Phase 3.

Link to the development application: http://app.toronto.ca/AIC/index.do?folderRsn=kAXzg3UO8DVy6GO1hYPgew==

 

[interchange42]

Hey @toronto647, you've got your finger on the pulse up here, so please let us know when the other various blocks start being marketed, and we will get separate threads going for each, like we do for Towers I, II, III, and the Crest, Block 5A, and Crosstown Place.

42

 

[Northern Light]

Residents' appeal of Don Mills rec centre decision underway, while new developer offer considered - Streeter

Don Mills residents are at a standoff with the city over plans for a recreational centre, while they consider a compromise from developers.

streeter.ca

Hmmm.

I know the City's view here; but I do respect the resident's group position that they made a good faith deal with the City and the Developer and then that deal was reneged on .

Having a good recreation centre a 5-15 minute walk away and having one that's a 25-35 minute walk away is not really the same thing.

I would argue that the City's recreation centre strategy is a bit problematic in that it favours huge, expensive sports palaces but fewer of them; while Planning is aiming increasingly for
'the 15-minute city'; ie. everything you need within a 15 minute walk of every front door.

PF&R's plans directly conflict with Planning's aspirations.

I do get that it's nice to have more substantial facilities and that there are cost savings from consolidation.

There are parts of the old City of Toronto that have 4 community centres within a short distance of each other because each offers an amenity the other does not.
(one has the arena, one has the pool etc.)

I'm tempted to look at consolidation in those types of situations too.

But where I might argue for 4 into 3 or 2; the PF&R seems to want 4 into 1.

That's perhaps a step too far.

 

[toronto647]

Hmmm.

I know the City's view here; but I do respect the resident's group position that they made a good faith deal with the City and the Developer and then that deal was reneged on .

Having a good recreation centre a 5-15 minute walk away and having one that's a 25-35 minute walk away is not really the same thing.

I would argue that the City's recreation centre strategy is a bit problematic in that it favours huge, expensive sports palaces but fewer of them; while Planning is aiming increasingly for
'the 15-minute city'; ie. everything you need within a 15 minute walk of every front door.

PF&R's plans directly conflict with Planning's aspirations.

I do get that it's nice to have more substantial facilities and that there are cost savings from consolidation.

There are parts of the old City of Toronto that have 4 community centres within a short distance of each other because each offers an amenity the other does not.
(one has the arena, one has the pool etc.)

I'm tempted to look at consolidation in those types of situations too.

But where I might argue for 4 into 3 or 2; the PF&R seems to want 4 into 1.

That's perhaps a step too far.

Update - https://www.toronto.com/news-story/...community-centre-legal-challenge-falls-apart/

Basically, The Don Mills Residents declined to build the community centre in the Lanterra/Cadillac Fairview Spirit Condos developments which go up for sale middle of next year. Now it heads back to court this Spring where the city will seek injunctive relief aka allow them to proceed with building the community centre at the aspen ridge crosstown site.

Folks, what we learnt here is to avoid going to litigation and try to settle the matter. These Don Mills Residents will be left with absolutely nothing except their ego. They could have negotiated to even get a 2 storey gym at the site which would have been larger than what they were initially promised. But nope, now they will get nothing and have wasted everyones time. The city is probably even more pissed and will hold and sell this land and nothing will happen until the next decade lol

Personally speaking, I am in favour of the 4 in 1. A parent who has 3 children who signed up in multiple activities and the parent is also signed up for something will be impossible to travel to all the destinations on a given weekend and supervise the children and ensure they get participation in their activity. Also the location is much better as it is on a major transit hub (Ontario Line + Eg LRT) and will serve thousands of more people at this location.

With that being said the deal the Don Mills residents had on the table was a very fair one and a respectable one but now they will getting nothing 0

 

[toronto647]

Hey @toronto647, you've got your finger on the pulse up here, so please let us know when the other various blocks start being marketed, and we will get separate threads going for each, like we do for Towers I, II, III, and the Crest, Block 5A, and Crosstown Place.

42

Hello @interchange42, You have not created separate threads for Blocks 6A (Community Park) and as well as for Block 3A&B the joint/connected Don Mills Community Recreation Centre + Large City Park. Theres no development applications for these as I believe they are done internally through the city? not sure though. In any case I have provided links to each of those sites and perhaps you can just create one thread for city parks and community centre? or your call up to you.

Block 6A - https://www.toronto.ca/city-governm...es/new-parks-facilities/crosstown-park-south/
Block 3A&B - https://www.toronto.ca/city-governm...lities/don-mills-community-recreation-centre/