Toronto St Lawrence Market North | 25.3m | 5s | City of Toronto | Rogers Stirk Harbour

[holographic plastic]

Here we are knocking on July's front door, and still diddly squat happening on the subject property. It there any verifiable news on an actual start date for construction?

Agreed, this is taking ages to begin.

 

[A Torontonian Now]

Taken August 10:

 

[innsertnamehere]

still an empty site.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Looking at that photo above my first thought was wouldn't that site work well as a plaza with street vendors or cafes lining it instead of a covered complex? Maybe enhance the surrounding buildings with some nice plantings and architectural lighting.

 

[ponyboy]

TrickyRicky -- I think that would be smart -- retain the view of the heritage buildings to the north and south by making this a plaza that can be animated in a variety of ways -- temporary markets on the weekends, performances, etc. They should put the new courts in another building elsewhere, and construct a permanent south market extension where the temporary market is.

This new market could be three levels, and escalators could bring shoppers to the bridge level and a barrier free walk to the original market. Loading/unloading could be made one level below this new structure in a basement that also goes under the Esplanade so it can service the original market. A large underground parking garage should be built on the rectangular green space from Jarvis to Frederick (new park on top after it is done), which would solve the traffic headaches of accessing the other green P lot on Market St. A pedestrian tunnel would be built under Jarvis. Some or all of the existing huge parking garage could be sold, and the Church St extension under the rail corridor could become a reality. I realize this cascade of things probably won't happen, but I've thought about it and it seems like a good way to solve a number of problems in the area. We are regular shoppers, and park in the Green P lot on Market, so we see the problems all the time.

 

[LUVIT!]

I agree this would make a great plaza. However I very much doubt it will be on a plaza with St James park so near and the planning stage completed.

 

[interchange42]

The building is going ahead as planned, these guys are just talking up fantasies.

42

 

[DSC]

The building is going ahead as planned, these guys are just talking up fantasies.

42

Well, I sure hope so but after the tender documents stated that "time is of the essence" it is not good that the City are still working on the legal stuff with the contract, which was awarded to Bondfield in early 2018. Shovels in the ground and all that!

 

[AndreaPalladio]

They cut all the weeds on the site today. Whatever can it mean?

 

[mburrrrr]

Saturday before.....

 

[DSC]

They cut all the weeds on the site today. Whatever can it mean?

It means that neighbours complained! (Property Standards, and all that!)

 

[AndreaPalladio]

But it had such a great Rome, c. 1350 vibe going!

 

[FrankWoolley]

Very strong rumors around City Hall today that the contract awarded to Bondfield for the North St Lawrence Market has fallen through. It was awarded in February 2018 and the City lawyers have been involved ever since.

The bidders were:

Table 2: Summary of Bids received for Tender 85-2017

Firm Name Bid Amount (net of HST)

Bondfield Construction Company Limited $79,753,000

Walsh Canada $88,032,746​

Contained within this bid amount is a contingency of $3,625,000 included by Facilities Management to address any unforeseen requirements which may arise during construction.

City staff reached out to the three (3) prequalified bidders who did not submit a bid to understand the reasons why they chose not to submit. All three, EllisDon Corporation, Ledcore Construction Ltd., and Graham Construction and Engineering LP indicated that they did not submit a bid because they had already secured other projects or were otherwise experiencing resource constraints. The full list of approved biders was: • EllisDon Corporation • Ledcore Construction Ltd • Graham Construction and Engineering LP • WCC Construction Canada, o/a Walsh Canada • Bondfield Construction Company Limited

This will certainly slow this project down even more and not good that the next lowest (only other) bid was $9 million higher. I suspect they wil; retender in hope some of the hold outs from Round 1 bid this time.

As an aside, Bondfield are the contractors for Union Station and that seems to be moving VERY slowly recently - are they in trouble? If so, so are we!!)

 

[DSC]

Strangely enough I was just reading that Bondfield are running very late on the new hospital in Cambridge:

“This is not acceptable and our community deserves better.”

Mayor Doug Craig’s simple but stinging assessment of inexplicable delays in Cambridge Memorial Hospital’s $187-million expansion was delivered in a letter to provincial Health Minister Christine Elliott last week as he and other city officials attended the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa.

Work on the 240,000-square-foot addition to the hospital's patient care wing is 22 months behind schedule and the contractor, Bondfield Construction, is now saying it’ll be fall before hospital staff can initiate a two-month move into the new wing.

This after a spring move-in date was rescheduled to Sept. 7

Source https://www.cambridgetimes.ca/opinion-story/8858670-hospital-renovation-delays-a-frustrating-fiasco/

 

[ponyboy]

Here is pano I took today. This space would make such a nice piazza in my view.

http://www.tropicalisland.de/italy/... Rome - Piazza Navona panorama 3008x2000.html