Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
The Daily Photoist: November 23, 2009
Transit City and Transit Cities
Drake, you ho, this is all your fault. The Ontario Municipal Board has approved a high-rise residential project on Queen Street West at 48 Abell Street, just steps from the Gladstone and everything hipsters cherish about Toronto's arts scene. Developers intend to build 7 condos in total with affordable housing, and the ratio of "normal people" to "artists with cool hair" will be thrown into upheaval. Unfortunately, there's not much that we or neighbourhood-preservation groups like Active 18 can do. The condo developers officially have the green light.
Been outside yet? It's icy and cold! There were almost 100 highway accidents before 6 am, and over 50 flights from Pearson have been cancelled. Traffic is slow and people are falling over on the sidewalks. Squirrels are sliding off power lines and falling to their deaths. In traditional Iroquoian folklore, this is seen as a herald of the imminent apocalypse.
Toronto-based company Comwave Telecom Inc. claims the rights to the iPhone trademark in Canada, to the dismay of both Apple and Cisco. Right, Comwave. Because you didn't know that one day Apple would invent a product called the iPhone and they'd come knocking down your door with millions of dollars to buy the trademark. It seems the iPhone battle has only just begun.
The Star's front page reports that welfare rates have only increased from $957/month in 1995 to $1,008/month at present, despite inflation and doubled gas prices. Unacceptable!
Ontario Lieutenant-Governor James Bartleman is campaigning for donations of gently used books for First Nations students in Nunavut and the North West Territories. The book drive is intended to encourage literacy and "develop the self-esteem that comes from an education." If you've got 'em, take your quality picture books and pre-teen fiction to a police station by January 31 and send them up North.
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In traditional Iroquoian folklore, this is seen as a herald of the imminent apocalypse.
Funny that you say that. When I got to work today someone said he had watched a movie about the last day of the world this weekend, and today's crazy weather reminded him a lot of the movie.
I will miss the current structure at 48 Abell. It's produced a lot of useful and interesting things over its lifespan. It's adaptability and live-workability will not be duplicated. This OMB decision marks the end of an era.
I love when a developer or builder says they want to build affordable housing. Ah, yes, condo developers, builders and landlords are all well-known for their altruism.
Biggest lie ever told.
I was only just looking at leasing out a unit at 48 Abell a couple months ago. That's rather distressing to hear that such an interesting building that's fostered a lot of great things will now become... a condo. It's almost fitting that the Tall Poppy for this month is Brad J Lamb.
Ah, gaudy condo sales centres.
It turns out Mr. Woolfitt will retain ownership of the West Side Lofts sales centre and turn it into a gallery after all the condos are sold. Out apartment will be converted into housing for OCAD grad students.
Sad to see 48 Abell go, but I expect it won't be in my T-time.
Mr. Woolfit said at a public meeting several months ago that the westside sales centre is useless for permanent use, and will have to be torn down and replaced with another, bigger Alsop building.
Many a great halloween party happened in 48 Abell....
It's ridiculous they can build the towers so high when there's nothing nearby anywhere near that height.
In old Montreal, I believe in order to develop an empty lot, you have to look up what was there during the time period the neighbouring buildings was and recreate (at least) the facade.
Toronto has no respect for its own architectural history. It's embarassing.
Lay off the whining. Toronto has a problem with good architecture, not with density. The city's density is a joke when compared with places like New York, and last I heard there are still a few creative folks living there. The OMB is a disaster because it looks at... well, I'm not even sure what they have in their 8-ball, but it certainly is not urban scale, architecture and good streetfronts. This particular project does have good architecture, and Queen is the busiest streetcar line in the city. So get over the height phobia, which is crippling Toronto in general, and go fight bland precast slabs instead.
PS - If you really want to live in a place where buildings don't top six stories, I hear Sudbury has lots of apartments available.
I really don't think you can call every project planned for the neighborhood "good architechture." This isn't one project, it's four or more.
The iPhone name is pretty pathetic itself. We don't call 'em "icomputers" or "i-Mp3 players" do we?
This is so typical of people in Canada, we just build shit without looking at the greater picture, it reminds me of what happened to Oakville in the late 1990's. When the city councilor Steven Sparling allowed so many new homes to be built, yet there were no new roads and as a result highway 5 turns into a parking lot during rush hour.
Given all these new condos, did anyone think about the roads, schools, public transit and so forth? How the hell is the local infrastructure supposed to support this massive increase in population density...
Dumb fucks....
No, not every project is good architecture but Alsop is a good architect and this particular project is not your average bland box. Perhaps my point was missed. I would fully support an architect peer review board (like Vancouver) to assess the quality of each development and ask for changes. My comment was that height-phobia and NIMBYism have no place in a successful city. OR is Toronto failing and in decline, thereby validating your comments?
As for what is so typical of people in Canada, it is not that we "build shit without looking at the greater picture". Toronto actually has better planning professionals than most cities and is a major exporter of planning expertise (albeit in the private sector more than the pathetic public governance). The problem is that Canada is a poor country relative to the US, and when your per capita GDP is about the same as Mississippi and you have to buy the same building materials as Americans the cost cutting gets vicious.
In any case, "did anyone think about the roads, schools, public transit and so forth?" By definition all of these are already thought of because THIS PROJECT IS IN THE CITY. It's not terribly intelligent to compare greenfield overdevelopment in the suburbs to brownfield infill in the city. Without more residents the downtown schools will close as they have in the past, the roads will not get maintained due to a lack of voters complaining, and the TTC will continue to lose money. The Queen line is the busiest streetcar line in the city and has the capacity to be as serious a mode of rapid transit as any LRT line in American cities (if stops can be cut and cars kicked out of the tracks, of course).
Now, if someone wants to argue that the height is a problem in an area not served by rail transit, or that the architecture is not massed in an attractive way, I welcome the debate. But please refrain from making comments that lower the intellectual standard of these pages.
I can't tell you why the developer agreed to partner with St. Clare's Multifaith housing, but I can tell you that St. Clare's has a distinguished record of projects, which actually have helped to house the poor and homeless at a time when the government has all but fled the housing business, and few private entities have stepped up to fill the void. So while I can't speak for the honesty of the developers, I can tell you they have a solid partner.
"Now, if someone wants to argue that the height is a problem in an area not served by rail transit, or that the architecture is not massed in an attractive way, I welcome the debate. But please refrain from making comments that lower the intellectual standard of these pages."
These were among the chief arguements of the city and the community. I can understand why people here are so frustrated.
Just for the record, Alsop is responsible for one project. The other two or three are blandish boxes. (Incidentally, the Alsop buildings are also the shortest and furthest from the street.)
Now that these initial ones have been approved, there are another 5-10 waiting in the wings. It's a pretty big problem that the OMB prevents the city from doing its own planning.
Dave,
1, I used to live in the area that is in question, so these are not just random ravings.
2, The Queen St street cars as it is now already at full capacity, can you keep adding more cars to the line? Have you ever had to use it during the weekends and rush hour? It sound like you assume that you can just keep adding more and more capacity to the streetcar lines, but guess what there is something call the law of diminishing returns.
3, "Without more residents the downtown schools will close as they have in the past, the roads will not get maintained due to a lack of voters complaining, and the TTC will continue to lose money. "
Are you really sure about this point? schools only get built if there are families moving into the condos, but it is widely known that the new condos are being bought up by empty nesters and young professionals and thus I doubt your whole point about new schools getting built since the demand is not there. Also given how crappy the TDSB is the people who can afford the condos that have kids probably have enough molaa to send the kids off to a private school or move out to the suburbs.
4, As for the roads, have you ever considered the fact that the roads in downtown cannot be expanded, yet at the same time these condos will end up adding hundreds of more cars into the traffic flow...
5, Also the standard that I use to judge city planning professionals is a very high one to me excellent city planning would be like the people who maintain Hong Kong.
6, I grew up in Oakville and I have seen how careless development has nearly destroyed a good town. I hate to see it happen to Queen West, since I lived in that area during my University years. This is not about lower intellectual standards and what not. This is about defending your own home turf.
The developer of 48 Abell does not own the building or the land. The owners of 48 Abell hired Verdiroc who brought in St. Clare's to work on the affordable housing project. Verdiroc just opened a new affordable housing builing which is completely full with a long waiting list. Check out... http://www.verdiroc.com/121parkway/index.html.