Trends in Highrise Construction

[Archivist]

Here's another way of looking at high-rises over time. Below are lists of the "Top 5 Neighbourhoods" for floors of high-rise construction for five-year periods since the mid-1950's. What I find interesting about this is the number of different neighbourhoods that were once a beehive of activity. "Downtown" I have defined as north of Queen, from the Eaton Centre through the Bay Street Corridor, and "Downtown East" is the area east of Yonge that is not Cabbagetown, or St. Lawrence, or Regent Park, etc.

Period 2005-2009 (including likely buildings to be completed, 2009)
1. Entertainment District - 508
2. North York Centre - 369
3. Harbourfront - 348
4. Church-Wellesley - 307
5. Downtown - 262

Period 2000-2004
1. North York Centre - 523
2. Entertainment District - 226
3. Bloor-Yorkville - 206
4. Downtown East - 184
5. Avondale - 180

Period 1995-1999
1. North York Centre - 281
2. Scarborough Centre - 124
3. Newtonbrook - 76
4. Bloor-Yorkville - 76
5. Downtown - 66

Period 1990-1994
1. Downtown East - 216
2. Downtown - 197
3. Financial District - 178
4. Harbourfront - 160
5. Entertainment District - 142

Period 1985-1989
1. North York Centre - 294
2. Downtown - 226
3. Financial District - 178
4. Harbourfront - 173
5. Downtown East - 106

Period 1980-1984
1. Bloor-Yorkville - 274
2. Downtown - 224
3. Financial District - 176
4. Wynford - 165
5. Church-Wellesley - 131

Period 1975-1979
1. L'Amoreaux - 284
2. Financial District - 221
3. Downtown - 199
4. Rexdale - 174
5. Islington - 171

Period 1970-1974
1. Elia - 492
2. Financial District - 329
3. Church-Wellesley - 312
4. Bloor-Yorkville - 261
5. Flemingdon Park - 242

Period 1965-1969
1. Davisville - 293
2. Don Valley Village - 274
3. Deer Park - 269
4. High Park - 266
5. Financial District - 226

Period 1960-1964
1. Downtown East - 139
2. North Toronto - 117
3. Deer Park - 115
4. Forest Hill - 67
5. St. Jamestown - 59

Period 1955-1959
1. Deer Park - 150
2. Financial District - 114
3. Regent Park - 70
4. The Annex - 60
5. Church-Wellesley - 57

 

[Edward Skira]

How do you define Newtonbrook? Not much was built around Yonge and Cummer at that time save for a few buildings just north of the hydro fields. If you count around Finch wouldn't that be NYCC?

 

[Archivist]

I have Newtonbrook as a long strip south of Steeles, north of Willowdale, and not including Fisherville. There aren't really well established boundaries for Neighbourhoods in Toronto, but I consulted widely when making these distinctions. But your point is well taken that neighbourhood boundaries are not well established in Toronto. East York was particularly vexing, because on many, many maps it shows as a single blob which didn't work for me at all, especially since some neighbourhoods (like Leaside or Crescent Town) are quite distinct and well known. East York is the only place I resorted to completely making up a neighbourhodd name, which was "Central East York" (the bits with the hospital and the library that were refurbished). I remember badgering someone at a party because I discovered they lived on Dawes Road. "What neighbourhood would you consider yourself as living in", I wanted to know. "None - there isn't one", was the reply. Not good enough, and eventually it became Woodbine Gardens.

This and this would have been my sources for Newtonbrook, but I did hive off Fisherville.

 

[adma]

So, Finch as the dividing line between Willowdale/NYCC and Newtonbrook. (Makes sense, since a lot of what's around Finch Station--like, the cluster to the east--seems 1995-1999ish.)

 

[Archivist]

Interestingly, not one map that I found had "North York Centre" as an entity separate from others, though in my mind it is clearly distinct from Willowdale and other established neighbourhoods up there. It even has it's own subway stop, for goodness sake!

I think one of the problems is that the former cities all had individual ways of defining residential neighbourhoods, and that work was never really re-imagined after amalgamation. Scarborough was the best, most consistent place of all, in terms of how they drew boundaries between neighbourhoods. Toronto wasn't bad. But after East York, North York was the worst of all. Just look at this map and ask yourself how many neighbourhoods in the former North York make any sense at all.

The other major problem I encountered was the maps drawn to show residential neighbourhoods omitted parts of the city that were largely industrial, so I found very few maps that covered all the territory of the city, which was my need for TOBuilt.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

If tobuilt data is the base for these groupings, I've noticed some discrepancies. Newtonbrook, for instance, includes the condos along Pemberton next to Finch station, but buildings north of there (like Luxe) are included in Willowdale, and the North American Life Centre across the street is included in North York Centre.