Toronto One Bloor East | 257.24m | 76s | Great Gulf | Hariri Pontarini

AoD, having just replied to you in another thread, I will simply echo your comments, and say that it will be especially important how these new buildings meet the street to create a livable and interesting streetlife rather than the shear number of towers or people moving in.

As long as we keep the character of Yonge as a low scale and inviting streetscape (with renovations of course!), I don't see that being a problem, and in that context, I see more people living close by as a positive for the life of the city.
 
agora:

Thanks. It's not a critique of these buildings per se - because I do think they serve an important purpose (and some actually look good) - but our expectations of what they can do vis-a-vis revitalization of what's there now might not be realistic. Higher density is IMO a necessary but not sufficient condition.

AoD
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
I think one shouldn't expect taller towers to automatically rejuvenate the strips immediately around them. I mean, if you look it empirically - just how much did Uptown, CrystalBlu, 18 Yorkville did for the retail within the area?
AoD
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Sorry to go OT, but anecdotally, the shops in the Manulife Building seem busier than they have ever been. Bloor Street Market seems to be doing really well. I'm now waiting in line every time I go there. Their renovation probably helped things along as well.
 
greenleaf:

No worries. Thank you for that observation - it is pretty clear to me that the improvement/increase is uneven in the area since I don't particularly recall the Yonge side experiencing that impact.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
agora:

Thanks. It's not a critique of these buildings per se - because I do think they serve an important purpose (and some actually look good) - but our expectations of what they can do vis-a-vis revitalization of what's there now might not be realistic. Higher density is IMO a necessary but not sufficient condition.

AoD
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I think that two things are needed: You need the people, and you need the destinations. Putting up condos in an area is all well and good, but if all that's around there is a subway (restaurant) and a starbucks, will you really have vibrant street life? Sure, you'll have busy streets at 9am and at 5pm, but that's about it. What these towers need, and what a lot of the towers that you mentioned above lack, is some true ground floor retail that will draw people out of their condos. And no, a subway, a starbucks, and a bank don't really count. I'm talking some actually interesting and unique restaurants or shops. Otherwise, the only street life that you'll have 'after-hours' is people walking to and from another area that they used to go walking around (Queen West or Yorkville for example).

If you want to draw people onto the street from those new condos, you need to have something worth coming out for.
 
gweed123 said:
Putting up condos in an area is all well and good, but if all that's around there is a subway (restaurant) and a starbucks, will you really have vibrant street life?
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A Starbucks is enough to draw me (and a lot of other people) out of my condo.

There is street life and then there is funky street life. The sad truth is that most new condo developments -- populated as they are by striving bourgeois types -- are never going to have interesting or unique restaurants or shops in their early years. And this will be particularly true of One Bloor East.
 
Sometimes these sterile areas just need time to evolve or entrepreneurs willing to take a chance on a something other than standard condo retail dreck. See Lumiere as an exciting example on Bay Street plus what has evolved in older condos like 24 Wellesley W., The Liberties (Bay/Gerrard), The Lexington (Carlton w. of Church St.), Paxton Place (Charles & Church), The Ellington (Carlton/Yonge), 555 Yonge/8 Wellesley E. (Yonge/Wellesley) as a few examples I can list in/near my nabe.
 
And I'll probably get flak for it, but I'd add Verve to that list. It might just be a Rabba's, a dry cleaner, and a cafe, but it went a long way to fill the void on Wellesley between Jarvis and Sherbourne.
 
^^^Calgary the backwater frontier town that has adopted the strange practice of burying their telephone and power lines (you know the quaint , quirky look that quite a few UT posters find so endearing )? Is that the Calgary you are alluding to?
 
Register123 said:
^^^Calgary the backwater frontier town that has adopted the strange practice of burying their telephone and power lines (you know the quaint , quirky look that quite a few UT posters find so endearing )? Is that the Calgary you are alluding to?
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I'm a Torontonian and i believe that we have something to learn from every city , Calgary, Vancouver , Montreal, ect... We are not too proud that we cant look at the great things other cities do. It helps us to improve our home.

Psssst Calgary might also have something to learn from Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal ect......
 
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