Mongo
Senior Member
Ditto. I lived for most of my adult life (almost twenty years) in downtown TO, but moved to Pickering. Why? Because for each dollar I spend on a house, I get at least twice the square footage I would get in Toronto.
Bill
Toronto Living Shangri-La Toronto | 214.57m | 66s | Westbank | James Cheng
Bill
RJR123
Active Member
Life is all about trade-offs. You get more house in the burbs, but must endure dreary landscapes, eight lane roads and the Wal-Mart nation.
Tewder
Senior Member
There is diversity in the 905 too, it's not all as you describe ... and Toronto isn't 'Paris' everywhere either.
Jdot
Active Member
Paris isn't "Paris" everywhere.
alklay
Senior Member
None of this has anything to do with this development.
caltrane74
Senior Member
I have to disagree, the 905 is bleek.
RJR123
Active Member
I'm sure there is....like Port Credit in Mississauga (which is a lovely, walkable neighbourhood). I'm sure there's other examples, and people pay a premium to live in these quasi-urban neighbourhoods. Outside of these extremely small areas, there is no diversity whatsoever.
Enough of the 416/905 talk. Stick to the topic at hand.
drummer
New Member
Does anyone has updates sales figures?
Are we up from 202 units sold in first 60 days?
Are we up from 202 units sold in first 60 days?
Filip
Senior Member
The University Avenue hoarding has come down entirely. Bishop's block is surrounded by fencing and some sort of mini excavation has begun beside it.
Junglab
New Member
Mini excavaion = archaeological survey. Either that, or someone's taking their Tonka trucks far to seriously.
caltrane74
Senior Member
So no presentation centre needs to be constructed. They can set up a sales centre in a nearby building I'm assuming.
Pre Sales were obviously brisk.
Filip
Senior Member
The sales centre is in the neighbouring office blocks on the second floor I believe. There will be no on-site office. I assume this should break ground fairly soon - I'm willing to bet sometime in the early fall (October).
caltrane74
Senior Member
that's good news!
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From the Star:
Brief window into the past
Archeologists have 4 months to excavate a former upscale neighbourhood before another is built
Aug 06, 2007 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Urban affairs columnist
To most, it's nothing more than a downtown parking lot, but to an archeologist, it's a rare, maybe unique, opportunity.
The site, the asphalted northwest corner of Adelaide St. W. and University Ave., was built up in the late 1820s. That's when John Bishop, butcher, landowner and English émigré, constructed a row of five townhouses. Two of those structures still stand, the rest were demolished in 1962 to make way for the automobile.
Now, a developer plans to build – what else? – a condo on the property. Before that happens, however, a band of archeologists has been given the go-ahead to dig. In just two weeks, the team has uncovered thousands of objects that will enable it eventually to put together a detailed picture of early 19th-century Toronto.
"This block had never been seriously impacted by subsequent development," explains Ron Williamson, managing partner of Toronto's Archaeological Services Inc. "We've got until November; by then we will have removed all the archeological record that's here. We're looking at the backyard of the third townhouse. What we have here is a lovely little time capsule."
Much of that capsule comes in the form of an old wood-lined cistern that at some point was taken out of use only to become an in-ground refuse bin.
So far, bags and bags of bits and pieces have been retrieved, everything from clay marbles, penknives and broken china dolls to pottery shards, teapot parts, inkwells and leather shoe soles.
As any archeologist will tell you, there's no better way to get to know a people than through the garbage they produce. This site is no exception. When Bishop built the complex, Adelaide, then called Newgate St., was highly fashionable, only a few blocks from the shores of Lake Ontario. Among the earliest tenants were Robert Sympson Jameson, Attorney General of Upper Canada, and his wife, Anna, a writer.
In other words, this isn't any old junk; it's the very best money could buy. The buttons were made of oyster shell, the crockery came from England, the pipes from Holland.
In time, the neighbourhood would lose its appeal; the building became a private school, a boarding house and finally a Chinese restaurant. After that it was paved over. Now, of course, it's desirable again, which is why the dig is taking place. As Williamson points out, this is his last chance; the site will be excavated for a five-storey underground garage, which means it will be gone forever.
Despite a sense of urgency, he insists four months is more than enough time to document the scene. Most days, a small gaggle of four or five workers can be seen sifting earth through a steel mesh, looking for anything that might be there.
What has Williamson and his team really excited, however, is a square of dark soil towards the rear of the property. To the trained eye, this is it, ground zero, an archeological treasure trove — the privy.
"This is the place to be," says Williamson, exultant. "You can find all kinds of things in a privy, from preserves and animal bones to human excrement. From that we can reconstruct the daily lives of the residents."
That work has yet to start. For the moment, the privy is little more than a strange patch of discoloration, a stain surrounded by remnants of stone and brick foundations.
Bishop's houses were quite shallow; over time additions were built. The pattern can still be seen in the townhouse at the west end of the block, a three-storey building with a low extension running north along Simcoe St. For years, this was the Pretzel Bell tavern, though for the last three decades it has sat empty and is falling apart.
For now, the archeologists' task is to gather as much as they can. Once the site has been handed over to the developer and cold weather sets in, they will sit down to figure out exactly what was recovered.
"The artifacts will go to our lab" to be washed and catalogued, says archeologist Aaron Peterson. "After that, we'll try to give it to a museum."
Peterson, who has been a professional archeologist just four years, is thrilled to be on the job.
"This is amazing," he enthuses. "Possibly a once-in-a-lifetime project."
AoD
Brief window into the past
Archeologists have 4 months to excavate a former upscale neighbourhood before another is built
Aug 06, 2007 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Urban affairs columnist
To most, it's nothing more than a downtown parking lot, but to an archeologist, it's a rare, maybe unique, opportunity.
The site, the asphalted northwest corner of Adelaide St. W. and University Ave., was built up in the late 1820s. That's when John Bishop, butcher, landowner and English émigré, constructed a row of five townhouses. Two of those structures still stand, the rest were demolished in 1962 to make way for the automobile.
Now, a developer plans to build – what else? – a condo on the property. Before that happens, however, a band of archeologists has been given the go-ahead to dig. In just two weeks, the team has uncovered thousands of objects that will enable it eventually to put together a detailed picture of early 19th-century Toronto.
"This block had never been seriously impacted by subsequent development," explains Ron Williamson, managing partner of Toronto's Archaeological Services Inc. "We've got until November; by then we will have removed all the archeological record that's here. We're looking at the backyard of the third townhouse. What we have here is a lovely little time capsule."
Much of that capsule comes in the form of an old wood-lined cistern that at some point was taken out of use only to become an in-ground refuse bin.
So far, bags and bags of bits and pieces have been retrieved, everything from clay marbles, penknives and broken china dolls to pottery shards, teapot parts, inkwells and leather shoe soles.
As any archeologist will tell you, there's no better way to get to know a people than through the garbage they produce. This site is no exception. When Bishop built the complex, Adelaide, then called Newgate St., was highly fashionable, only a few blocks from the shores of Lake Ontario. Among the earliest tenants were Robert Sympson Jameson, Attorney General of Upper Canada, and his wife, Anna, a writer.
In other words, this isn't any old junk; it's the very best money could buy. The buttons were made of oyster shell, the crockery came from England, the pipes from Holland.
In time, the neighbourhood would lose its appeal; the building became a private school, a boarding house and finally a Chinese restaurant. After that it was paved over. Now, of course, it's desirable again, which is why the dig is taking place. As Williamson points out, this is his last chance; the site will be excavated for a five-storey underground garage, which means it will be gone forever.
Despite a sense of urgency, he insists four months is more than enough time to document the scene. Most days, a small gaggle of four or five workers can be seen sifting earth through a steel mesh, looking for anything that might be there.
What has Williamson and his team really excited, however, is a square of dark soil towards the rear of the property. To the trained eye, this is it, ground zero, an archeological treasure trove — the privy.
"This is the place to be," says Williamson, exultant. "You can find all kinds of things in a privy, from preserves and animal bones to human excrement. From that we can reconstruct the daily lives of the residents."
That work has yet to start. For the moment, the privy is little more than a strange patch of discoloration, a stain surrounded by remnants of stone and brick foundations.
Bishop's houses were quite shallow; over time additions were built. The pattern can still be seen in the townhouse at the west end of the block, a three-storey building with a low extension running north along Simcoe St. For years, this was the Pretzel Bell tavern, though for the last three decades it has sat empty and is falling apart.
For now, the archeologists' task is to gather as much as they can. Once the site has been handed over to the developer and cold weather sets in, they will sit down to figure out exactly what was recovered.
"The artifacts will go to our lab" to be washed and catalogued, says archeologist Aaron Peterson. "After that, we'll try to give it to a museum."
Peterson, who has been a professional archeologist just four years, is thrilled to be on the job.
"This is amazing," he enthuses. "Possibly a once-in-a-lifetime project."
AoD