Vaughan RioCan Colossus Centre Redevelopment | ?m | 55s | RioCan | Hariri Pontarini

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Where the density is
Nothing official on the radar yet, but lots of development activity by SmartCentres occurring on the three other quadrants surrounding Highway 400 & Highway 7, and RioCan has been rather public about their intentions to shift towards residential mixed-used with their RioCan Living brand.

What instigated the creation of this thread is that RioCan apparently felt the need to project a massing model over their lands in Vaughan in one of their recent investor presentations, suggesting that they are thinking about the long-term future of these lands beyond pure speculation.

Originally purchased in 1998, RioCan Colossus Centre in Vaughan, Ontario, is an excellent example of the value inherent in RioCan’s portfolio. Positioned in one of the fastest growing areas in Canada at the important crossroads of Highway 7 and Weston Road, and close to the newly opened Vaughan Metropolitan Centre transit station, RioCan Colossus Centre is ripe for intensification to service rapidly growing demand for mixed-use properties in the area. - RioCan 2019 Annual Report
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A road bridge over the 400 south of Highway 7 would really help to tie this area in with VMC, glad it's being considered.

Glad that the Costco is being left as is, there is no way they can afford to get rid of it. As for the actual neighbourhood, they need to be putting in more than just a few open grass lands if they want this area to be a complete livable community. Throw in a grocery store in a podium, turn an interior block into an elementary school, that kind of thing. Unfortunately, I have my doubts that will happen because it's more lucrative to stack midrises in every conceivable spot.
 
Thought I like density there's a lot of buildings in one area for the suburbs as seen in the photos up above . We're not in downtown Toronto create some breathing space between buildings . By having fewer towers and expanding their height.
 
north-of-anything said:
A road bridge over the 400 south of Highway 7 would really help to tie this area in with VMC, glad it's being considered.

Glad that the. Costco is being left as is, there is no way they can afford to get rid of it. As for the actual neighbourhood, they need to be putting in more than just a few open grass lands if they want this area to be a complete livable community. Throw in a grocery store in a podium, turn an interior block into an elementary school, that kind of thing. Unfortunately, I have my doubts that will happen because it's more lucrative to stack midrises in every conceivable spot.
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It should get dedicated pedestrian/cyclist space.
 
WislaHD said:
From the Q3 report:

Same massing rendering as before, but now we have details that they are contemplating 10 million square feet of mixed-use density.

As the current health crisis continues, I wonder if that accelerates plans here if Cineplex continues to bleed money.

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In fairness to the proponent, it's only a massing rendering............

But I do think the emphasis on fairly extreme height, and what appears to fairly large blocks; isn't conducive to what most people want, or what makes a downtown great.

The first thing is that I don't think anyone should be developing 50 acres; generally not in SFH suburbia either (where I recognize several hundred to over 1,000 acres is common).

But that leads to everything many here deride about suburbia.

Excessive uniformity; a corporatist vibe.........

The first object here, outside of laying an intelligent grid plan is to divest the site to at least 10 different builders.

The blight of suburbia is not corrected merely by adding height and density.

And fixing the problems, once you're building 40-storey buildings is infinitely more expensive that fixing the SFH stuff.
 
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Docs have been posted. What a massive project. Between this and what Mitch is building next door in the VMC, this part of Vaughan is going to be a real big mess. Too much, too fast and no transit, no connectivity, no human scale. Just density….
 
From the Docs:

Architect is Hariri Pontarini

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Hold it........Hariri can do some good stuff. And.... it's very early days yet. But what gives with the nearly monochromatic colour scheme across how many towers? 20'ish?

Come one now......

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Ok, this Park's plan is downright goofy:

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I get the idea of a major space in the northern and southern halves of the site, and of a buffer against the highway.

But 4 interior Parks?

You're just creating spaces that are too small to be effectively programmed, while too large to be intimate.

*****

I don't see at first blush an easy way to link people to all of the documents.

But I can link the Planning Report which probably has both the best info and images:

 
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It's like a mishmash of every other large-scale utopian redevelopment plan we've seen in the past five years. All glass, no class. Also agreed on the interior parks - it's clear those were just stuck in there to fulfill a parkland requirement, you can envision where towers were meant to be placed on most of them.
 
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