cd concept
Senior Member
Is that what is going to happen in ten years two lane street on Yonge st.?
Toronto YC Condos -- Yonge at College | 198.42m | 62s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza
- Thread starter urbandreamer
- Start date
Is that what is going to happen in ten years two lane street on Yonge st.?
ADRM
Senior Member
That's a very long way from anything close to resembling reality, but it sure would be swell (or even zero lanes reserved for single-occupancy vehicular traffic). It'd be a huge boon for all of the developments along here if it were to happen and, one would assume, would also spawn/accelerate further redevelopment.
ADRM
Senior Member
maestro
Senior Member
Yeah, Mostly Big Box housing projects going up. The intimacy is being stripped away in one huge swoop and people pat themselves on their backs because they can't see past the chipped paint, low end retail and lack of skyscrapers. There was opportunity here to developed something different than more 500 unit, high end, dormitories on sprawling divisible podiums. There's room for 5 St Joseph and so on but, c'mon, do we really want every project to be 40 plus storeys with 10+ units per floor?
TransitBart
Senior Member
On the Union Station thread, everyone is decrying the deadness of Aura's PATH connection. Is this building planned to join the PATH?
Automation Gallery
Superstar
Say what you want but development in this section will always be large due to the extraordinary price of real estate, In other words, not much around there to purchase cheap and build small
Miscreant
Senior Member
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I'm sympathetic to what you're saying. In fact, I largely agree with you. I'm not convinced that a lot of this building boom we've had in the last ten or so years is going far enough to build or preserve neighborhoods. And Yonge St., as it stands right now, definitely has some of that feel: low-rise building, independent shops, etc.
So I'm not uncritically in favour of what we're seeing. On the other hand, though, I do admit that I'm a huge skyscraper geek and love big buildings. It was that version of myself that was posting above.
TheKingEast
Senior Member
Toronto reminds me of myself. I started to get into art a few years ago. So i found some cheap reproductions of Warhol and Basquiat, Harring prints that I liked and framed em. I hate bare walls so I bought a lot of prints. Then as time went by I started to really get into it. Went to galleries, shows, homes or real collectors, etc. I got into original art...and then started regretting all the stuff I bought previously. Now I'm slowly replacing the cheap preroductions with original art. Much more expensive, but much better quality and just an overall better look.
Long story short, this is how I view Toronto. Basically, quantity over quality. We'll turn around in 30 years and scratch our heads(again) about wtf we were thinking with this overindulgence in crap just to cover some "white walls". We seem to be creating places to sleep, not places to actually live.
maestro
Senior Member
The extraordinary value of real estate is in part to developers gambling on being able to recreated Yonge with large scale, anonymous towers on sprawling podiums. Stronger zoning and a more comprehensive heritage policy would maybe have led to a much more creative rejuvenation of Yonge Street. Small infill has recently occurred on Yonge. These have become vulnerable to larger assemblages with the rapidly rising property values. There's already a few completed not too long ago that are set to be demo'd for a large tower development.
I guess I always envisioned Yonge remaining as a retail street with the potential for larger, grander multi-level retail and art buildings. Boutique hotels and apartments buildings could fill in the voids as secondary uses. Instead, the future reminds me of an updated Bay Street.
Ramako
Moderator
I'm just trying to get a sense of what you mean by this. Can you provide an example? Only similar streetscape I can think of in Toronto is Bloor.
Benito
Senior Member
UrbanFervour
Active Member
I wholeheartedly agree with those who lament the super-sizing of Yonge Street. Without fine-grain retail, the street will become more akin to Bay Street. Large-format chains. Endless, soulless walls of glass. Very boring. This is our "main drag" so its a shame Canderel was ever let anywhere near it. Just look at the sh*t they've already dumped on the area: Residences of College Park & Aura. Two of the most ill-conceived, anti-urban, ugly developments I can think of. Sad.
This is especially upsetting because a more sensitive planing framework and innovative developers could really transform & evolve Yonge into a very special and "iconic" for the city. instead it will probably just become more Condo-generica.
This is especially upsetting because a more sensitive planing framework and innovative developers could really transform & evolve Yonge into a very special and "iconic" for the city. instead it will probably just become more Condo-generica.
ADRM
Senior Member
I definitely share the sentiments around the problematic loss of finer-grain retail and hope that trend improves, though I do think the current situation isn't as overlty dire as some are making it out to be. Yes, there's been a lot of large-scale development action along Yonge between Bloor and Gerrard, especially, though even if you add up all of the recently-completed, under-construction, and proposed developments along the stretch in question, you're still talking about a very small minority of the total streetscape up and down Yonge -- there's still ample opportunity for more conscientious developers to make a more positive impact.
I share the pessimism that that's actually in the offing, but my point is that the neighbourhood isn't gone just quite yet (or, really anytime particularly soon). Still lots of time, if not obviously the will at the moment, to make it special.
There are also a few exceptions to the rule both completed and contemplated: think of the fantastic Ryerson Student Centre, the proposed pedestrianization and improvement of parts of the Ryerson campus, and of course Yonge + Dundas, Toronto's pedestrian Mecca (in volume though not in built urban form).
Here's hoping that the Planning Department and interested councillors somehow manage to squeeze a legitimately great Yonge St. realm plan through the awful cadre of city-haters known as Toronto Council.
I share the pessimism that that's actually in the offing, but my point is that the neighbourhood isn't gone just quite yet (or, really anytime particularly soon). Still lots of time, if not obviously the will at the moment, to make it special.
There are also a few exceptions to the rule both completed and contemplated: think of the fantastic Ryerson Student Centre, the proposed pedestrianization and improvement of parts of the Ryerson campus, and of course Yonge + Dundas, Toronto's pedestrian Mecca (in volume though not in built urban form).
Here's hoping that the Planning Department and interested councillors somehow manage to squeeze a legitimately great Yonge St. realm plan through the awful cadre of city-haters known as Toronto Council.
agoraflaneur
Active Member
LUVIT!
Senior Member
It has been years that Yonge St has beeen interesting. Some of the buildings are interesting but the feel of the street has been deteriorating for years...decades. The new condos will replace some of the old but most,are set back behind the existing facades. These will house hundreds of people. I agree and lament some of the losses but I think the Yonge strip has been a let down for a long time. I look forward to the new buildings going up.