Toronto Lower Don Lands Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto
Riverdale Rink Rat
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The key is to get out of your car.
TKTKTK, the best part of Harbourfront's improvements are basically hidden from the street. The boardwalk, restaurant patios now facing the water, finger piers, HtO park, even the Music Garden, can't really be seen/experienced from Queen's Quay.
You'll be pleasantly surprised if you go down after work on a sunny day. Relatively quiet, great stroll.
TKTKTK, the best part of Harbourfront's improvements are basically hidden from the street. The boardwalk, restaurant patios now facing the water, finger piers, HtO park, even the Music Garden, can't really be seen/experienced from Queen's Quay.
You'll be pleasantly surprised if you go down after work on a sunny day. Relatively quiet, great stroll.
Riverdale Rink Rat
Senior Member
Member Bio
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2008
- Messages
- 2,775
- Reaction score
- 273
- Location
- Back to East York... Alas!
Follow up on Harbourfront walking
In contrast to my post above, we walked down to Harbourfront yesterday to show the new stuff off to my aunt & uncle, who now live in Aurora and don't get downtown too often. The place was hopping!
We did Summerlicious at Biff's (highly recommended!) and then strolled down Yonge. Nothing to write home about until you get to Queen's Quay Terminal, but then Harbourfront becomes the place the whole waterfront could be in a few years. Restaurant patios at the front of QQT were packed. Tons of people strolling the boardwalk or grabbing a boat ride off the finger piers. An African band was playing jazzy tunes in the bandshell, to a standing room only audience. The kids were back using the wavedeck as a slide at Simcoe, HTO was packed, then things quieted down to strollers and bikes in HTO West and along the Spadina wavedeck. We cut back up Spadina and through CityPlace -- great stroll on a summer night.
In contrast to my post above, we walked down to Harbourfront yesterday to show the new stuff off to my aunt & uncle, who now live in Aurora and don't get downtown too often. The place was hopping!
We did Summerlicious at Biff's (highly recommended!) and then strolled down Yonge. Nothing to write home about until you get to Queen's Quay Terminal, but then Harbourfront becomes the place the whole waterfront could be in a few years. Restaurant patios at the front of QQT were packed. Tons of people strolling the boardwalk or grabbing a boat ride off the finger piers. An African band was playing jazzy tunes in the bandshell, to a standing room only audience. The kids were back using the wavedeck as a slide at Simcoe, HTO was packed, then things quieted down to strollers and bikes in HTO West and along the Spadina wavedeck. We cut back up Spadina and through CityPlace -- great stroll on a summer night.
Chrisel
New Member
Wandering Ecologies: Lower Don Lands, Toronto, Canada
Weiss/Manfredi weaves new ecologies, communities, and public spaces around the renaturalised Lower Don River
www.worldarchitecturenews.com
Wandering Ecologies establishes a new identity for a formerly industrial region of Toronto, where recreational, living, and cultural activities are free to wander and overlap, creating a new model for sustainable waterfront expansion on the eastern edge of the city. Urban life and nature are reciprocal conditions that together can transform Toronto’s Lower Don Lands into a new cultural and ecological paradigm. City and water, infrastructure and ecology, destination and retreat: the essence and potential of Toronto’s Lower Don Lands resides in celebrating these multiple ecologies.
Organised around the newly designed meandering Lower Don River, the park creates settings for recreation and civic life. The naturalised river creates wetlands and habitats for avian and aquatic species and provides opportunities to engage the water through kayaking and fishing. Public spaces are linked along the southern bank of the Don River Meander and lead to a boardwalk and pier outlook that will become a focal point of the park, providing a vantage to view the Toronto skyline and functioning as a year-round setting for festivals and events. The Valley functions as both flood spillway for the Don River and also as a setting for organised recreational activities.
The design strategy proposes a network of routes and paths that accommodate public transit, parkways, local roads, bicycle trails and an extensive system of pedestrian paths. A new bi-level bridge provides access and views of the city and river along the public waterfront. The design will connect communities with a network of routes and paths and will become a catalyst for redevelopment of the Toronto’s formerly industrial center. The design strategy for the park and infrastructure will become an international model for innovative waterfront development.
Weiss/Manfredi weaves new ecologies, communities, and public spaces around the renaturalised Lower Don River
www.worldarchitecturenews.com
Wandering Ecologies establishes a new identity for a formerly industrial region of Toronto, where recreational, living, and cultural activities are free to wander and overlap, creating a new model for sustainable waterfront expansion on the eastern edge of the city. Urban life and nature are reciprocal conditions that together can transform Toronto’s Lower Don Lands into a new cultural and ecological paradigm. City and water, infrastructure and ecology, destination and retreat: the essence and potential of Toronto’s Lower Don Lands resides in celebrating these multiple ecologies.
Organised around the newly designed meandering Lower Don River, the park creates settings for recreation and civic life. The naturalised river creates wetlands and habitats for avian and aquatic species and provides opportunities to engage the water through kayaking and fishing. Public spaces are linked along the southern bank of the Don River Meander and lead to a boardwalk and pier outlook that will become a focal point of the park, providing a vantage to view the Toronto skyline and functioning as a year-round setting for festivals and events. The Valley functions as both flood spillway for the Don River and also as a setting for organised recreational activities.
The design strategy proposes a network of routes and paths that accommodate public transit, parkways, local roads, bicycle trails and an extensive system of pedestrian paths. A new bi-level bridge provides access and views of the city and river along the public waterfront. The design will connect communities with a network of routes and paths and will become a catalyst for redevelopment of the Toronto’s formerly industrial center. The design strategy for the park and infrastructure will become an international model for innovative waterfront development.
Jayomatic
Active Member
Is anyone else feeling a little uneasy about the planning around this future neighbourhood? While it does the best of job recreating the original Don, I wonder if the neighbourhood seems too small to become a vibrant destination.
It's too bad they couldn't be a little more creative with the water flow. After being in Amsterdam for over a week, having water alongside residential streets really creates a beautiful effect.
It's too bad they couldn't be a little more creative with the water flow. After being in Amsterdam for over a week, having water alongside residential streets really creates a beautiful effect.
junctionist
Senior Member
I agree. Having canals in urban spaces (not just surrounded by parks, but by architecture and establishments) is quite beautiful, and we can and should incorporate them into future plans for communities near the lake.
Torontovibe
Senior Member
This is the perfect opportunity to create a unique neighbourhood where waterways and canals can be used to play a major role and give the area a strong identity, and yet, it's not being done. The channels are already there, so it wouldn't cost that much extra to extend them right through the neighbourhood and use them not only as a design feature but also for recreation and possibly even transit. It would be cool to have boats as part of our TTC service. Anyway, I just see this as another lost opportunity to create a special, one-of-a-kind neighbourhood in Toronto, instead of the same old boring ones we already have. Where is this "creativity" I keep hearing Mr. Mayor talking about???
EnviroTO
Senior Member
That was an entry that lost the design competition so I'm not sure why you are highlighting it.
By renaturalizing they are attempting to create a solution that helps reduce the amount of sediment deposited in the harbour, increase aquatic plant life, and increase the amount of fish. The current situation requires requent dredging, is suceptible to floods, and provides an unnatural environment for aquatic life.
The current proposal still keeps the Keating channel so the opportunity to create an urban canal environment still exists.
greenleaf
Senior Member
I found this report among the Planning and Growth Management Committee meeting decision docs for October 7.
Presentation from John Campbell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Waterfront Toronto and Chris Glaisek, Vice President of Planning and Design, Waterfront Toronto, on the Lower Don Lands Project:
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/pg/bgrd/backgroundfile-24154.pdf
Presentation from John Campbell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Waterfront Toronto and Chris Glaisek, Vice President of Planning and Design, Waterfront Toronto, on the Lower Don Lands Project:
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/pg/bgrd/backgroundfile-24154.pdf
grey
Senior Member
Canals are a great idea, but I'm more concerned about the buildings.
Even if this neighbourhood is auctioned off to multiple developers, wouldn't it be ideal if these blocks were subdivided into 1,800's style lots like our older neighbourhoods and have some sort of rule against the same developer purchasing and merging adjacent lots?
As I see it, this could result in a greater variety of buildings, rather than the long, hulking, monotonous street presence I'm seeing from a lot of new condos and townhouses around the city. For example, even if one developer builds a row of stinking faux-vic townhouses, they're limited to a small section of the street. Imagine how boring it would be if one developer bought a whole acre of space, merged it all and built one big boring podium, or didn't merge it, but built 18 cookie cutter designs in a row?
There is probably some huge flaw I'm not seeing here, like density requirements and height restrictions making this impossible for any developer to make a profit on lots that are too small... The lots don't have to be 1,800's small, but maybe the size of King West and Wellington St just west of Spadina --- and NOT further down King West, where you run into really wide developments like Summit and DNA and the new proposed phase of DNA, which are the exact opposite of what I'm suggesting; buildings that take more than a 60 seconds to pass on foot at a leisurely pace.
Basically, how can the City ensure that the end result of the built form and massing actually matches the rendering, and not just more of the same thing we're getting everywhere else? It seems like they have the right idea, but I can't help but envision DNAs and big swaths of Liberty Village Townhouses all over the Don Lands.
Even if this neighbourhood is auctioned off to multiple developers, wouldn't it be ideal if these blocks were subdivided into 1,800's style lots like our older neighbourhoods and have some sort of rule against the same developer purchasing and merging adjacent lots?
As I see it, this could result in a greater variety of buildings, rather than the long, hulking, monotonous street presence I'm seeing from a lot of new condos and townhouses around the city. For example, even if one developer builds a row of stinking faux-vic townhouses, they're limited to a small section of the street. Imagine how boring it would be if one developer bought a whole acre of space, merged it all and built one big boring podium, or didn't merge it, but built 18 cookie cutter designs in a row?
There is probably some huge flaw I'm not seeing here, like density requirements and height restrictions making this impossible for any developer to make a profit on lots that are too small... The lots don't have to be 1,800's small, but maybe the size of King West and Wellington St just west of Spadina --- and NOT further down King West, where you run into really wide developments like Summit and DNA and the new proposed phase of DNA, which are the exact opposite of what I'm suggesting; buildings that take more than a 60 seconds to pass on foot at a leisurely pace.
Basically, how can the City ensure that the end result of the built form and massing actually matches the rendering, and not just more of the same thing we're getting everywhere else? It seems like they have the right idea, but I can't help but envision DNAs and big swaths of Liberty Village Townhouses all over the Don Lands.
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unimaginative2
Senior Member
I completely, completely agree with you, Grey. I think you're absolutely right. If there is a flaw in that approach, it's the tax system. Since these buildings wouldn't benefit from the capping in place in most traditional commercial neighbourhoods, the tax bill would likely be crushing on small, human-scaled buildings.
That's part of the reason we have all of four restaurants on the waterfront: if I wanted to open one, there just isn't anywhere to do it. All of the buildings are massive adn the kind of places that would only rent to a chain, if any restaurant at all.
The Keating Channel precinct, if done correctly, has more potential than almost any site on the waterfront. A narrow canal would be absolutely ideal for restaurants and shops in a pedestrian-oriented environment. It has huge, huge potential.
A string of DNAs and Liberty Village townhouses would be hugely disappointing.
That's part of the reason we have all of four restaurants on the waterfront: if I wanted to open one, there just isn't anywhere to do it. All of the buildings are massive adn the kind of places that would only rent to a chain, if any restaurant at all.
The Keating Channel precinct, if done correctly, has more potential than almost any site on the waterfront. A narrow canal would be absolutely ideal for restaurants and shops in a pedestrian-oriented environment. It has huge, huge potential.
A string of DNAs and Liberty Village townhouses would be hugely disappointing.
TrickyRicky
Senior Member
Grey,
I couldn't agree more. I have often posted a similar view. The division of land ownership and individual responsibilities is perhaps the most essential factor in determining the character of a neighbourhood. While they have there place I feel many of our new developments and most of our master-planned areas are not interesting human environments. This is because they do not allow for individual opportunity and input. They are homogenous professionally managed and designed zones. These have their place. But a mixed use neighbourhood can't just be a mix of uses, it must also be a rich mixture of ownership and opportunity. Design and aesthetics while important are not key factors.
I couldn't agree more. I have often posted a similar view. The division of land ownership and individual responsibilities is perhaps the most essential factor in determining the character of a neighbourhood. While they have there place I feel many of our new developments and most of our master-planned areas are not interesting human environments. This is because they do not allow for individual opportunity and input. They are homogenous professionally managed and designed zones. These have their place. But a mixed use neighbourhood can't just be a mix of uses, it must also be a rich mixture of ownership and opportunity. Design and aesthetics while important are not key factors.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
That's the biggest problem I have with the Pier 27 project. It's one developer building a handful of massive uniform buildings on a site that's two blocks long.
The Keating Channel renderings are looking worse and worse. Instead of a dense, small-scale precinct with restaurants, patios and shops lining the canal for its entire length, much of the stretch seems to be massive buildings and vast windswept plazas. Sigh.
The Keating Channel renderings are looking worse and worse. Instead of a dense, small-scale precinct with restaurants, patios and shops lining the canal for its entire length, much of the stretch seems to be massive buildings and vast windswept plazas. Sigh.
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junctionist
Senior Member
I am also quite concerned about the Keating Channel plans. There's so much potential there.
In terms of small businesses like restaurants, if open public spaces are available in these new 'hoods, I can see an entrepreneur going the pavilion route seen in this thread.
In terms of small businesses like restaurants, if open public spaces are available in these new 'hoods, I can see an entrepreneur going the pavilion route seen in this thread.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
I'd love to see those in some of the spots, but is the city going to designate spots for those? And will they go to local independent businesses rather than Tim's and Starbucks?
The Keating Channel will have only one pedestrian bridge across, cutting off the one side from the other. It also seems to have only two long buildings actually fronting the canal on only a quarter of the frontage. I'm envisioning an Il Fornello and a Firkin taking up the entire space.
The Keating Channel will have only one pedestrian bridge across, cutting off the one side from the other. It also seems to have only two long buildings actually fronting the canal on only a quarter of the frontage. I'm envisioning an Il Fornello and a Firkin taking up the entire space.