[DavidC]

Those of us who bought into the project have to wonder about all the snobbish whining about this project here on UT. I'm looking forward to moving into the place in late October. While I've only been there in the daytime, with lots of street noise from Keele or Dundas, I haven't noticed much train noise. It's not like trains can go roaring through Toronto, remember. Be cool, all. Later,

 

[junctionist]

It's the Crossways of our time. And I like the Crossways' urban form better...

How so? The Crossways had virtually no context to relate to save for the dull industrial warehouses just north of it on its isolated corner and the result was a couple of big high-rise towers. I like the Crossways too, but how does it compare to a complex of brick-clad midrise buildings and a high-rise which terminate a Victorian neighbourhood?

Some people say that the design is cheap because it was built by Options. But the masonry and details seem to equal plenty of much more expensive towers built in similar styles. Heintzman Place has a lot of soundproofing on the side facing the tracks. The building also has solar panels on the roof.

 

[urbandreamer]

Those of us who bought into the project have to wonder about all the snobbish whining about this project here on UT. I'm looking forward to moving into the place in late October. While I've only been there in the daytime, with lots of street noise from Keele or Dundas, I haven't noticed much train noise. It's not like trains can go roaring through Toronto, remember. Be cool, all. Later,

Snobbish? I live in a high rise rental, so how can I possibly be a snob? While I don't have money in the project, as an observer and photographer of the structure going up over the past 3 years, I think I have the right to criticize it!

Clearly you haven't seen and heard those GO trains roar by! A friend of mine lives in a Victorian near the tracks, but further away than this condo, and my oh my! Those trains roar by, probably 50 miles per hour! Walking my friend's dog in a parkette that parallels the tracks, I'm often caught by surprise by these fast moving beasts!

Then there's the slow rumble of the freight trains at night--usually around 1:30am.... They crawl by (I can hear and feel the shake all the way down near Keele and Bloor--I live in a highrise too!) for maybe 5-10 minutes at a time. (Fittingly I hear and feel the damn thing now as I type this post!)

I agree Crossways is a good comparison--a hulking oppressive brick building overpowering a stable Victorian/decaying industrial neighbourhood, minus the cool mall interior.... I'll find a photo I took from the north side--I pass by this site at least 3x weekly now, so get to admire the sheer oppressiveness of its north face often.

Finally, there's a rumour in the 'hood that when Canada Bread closes (north of the tracks), the land is being sold to GO to be used as a station--convenient perhaps, but also rather noisy (the GO train's whistle is a jolly good alarm clock in the morning.)

 

[DavidC]

Snobbish? I live in a high rise rental, so how can I possibly be a snob? While I don't have money in the project, as an observer and photographer of the structure going up over the past 3 years, I think I have the right to criticize it!

Urbandreamer, I wasn't talking about you specifically when I used the word "snob" to describe people who are so negative about this project. To be honest, I was thinking of people living in luxury condos built on prime land, who might think this sort of project must be bad, as a matter of principle, given how it's being established.

Clearly you haven't seen and heard those GO trains roar by! A friend of mine lives in a Victorian near the tracks, but further away than this condo, and my oh my! Those trains roar by, probably 50 miles per hour! Walking my friend's dog in a parkette that parallels the tracks, I'm often caught by surprise by these fast moving beasts!

I am going to point out though, that your position relative to the tracks is rather different then what mine will be. I'll be living several floors up in a highrise building that has been designed to dampen the sounds from the existing railroad tracks. Your experiences seem to have mostly been on or close to the ground, and or in rather old buildings.

Then there's the slow rumble of the freight trains at night--usually around 1:30am.... They crawl by (I can hear and feel the shake all the way down near Keele and Bloor--I live in a highrise too!) for maybe 5-10 minutes at a time. (Fittingly I hear and feel the damn thing now as I type this post!)

How old is the highrise you live in? Remember what I pointed out above, please.

I agree Crossways is a good comparison--a hulking oppressive brick building overpowering a stable Victorian/decaying industrial neighbourhood, minus the cool mall interior.... I'll find a photo I took from the north side--I pass by this site at least w3x weekly now, so get to admire the sheer oppressiveness of its north face often.

Sure, the north side of the site is nothing to write home about (or maybe it is! ), but you can thank the likes of NRI for that little cluster-[ph]uck of an arrangement.

Finally, there's a rumour in the 'hood that when Canada Bread closes (north of the tracks), the land is being sold to GO to be used as a station--convenient perhaps, but also rather noisy (the GO train's whistle is a jolly good alarm clock in the morning.)

What's wrong with the Crossways building? Some of us may want to be close to a GO station, what's wrong with a train alarm clock anyway?

-David

PS: Given a choice, what sort of place would you live in, eh UrbanDreamer? With a hnadl like yours, I'm sure you've got an idea...

 

[urbandreamer]

My dreamer home? A gorgeous c.1800s bank barn in Virginia surrounded by rolling hills and forests, with a stunning modern interior "loft" and isolated from everybody.... I will design all the custom furnishings myself. From the outside, it'll look rustic and somewhat rundown; from inside....

My urban home? A custom designed (by me of course ha) 10s loft building with 20-50 foot ceilings on each floor; and several dozen 150SF (designed by me, the efficiency master ) pied-a-terres scattered throughout cities that interest me.

Finally, a nice Knaus V-liner RV for road trips.

 

[AnnetteMeetsJane]

To those who have bought into the project:
I am glad that you like the fact that your future condo is larger than the ones you could afford elsewhere. I rejoice with you that you don't have a swimming pool, if that is what makes you happy. However, remember that your prospective on your new condo building is different from those of us who have no intention of ever stepping foot inside it.
I pass this building almost each day, and judge it from my own (in my case, not very educated) subjective perspective, using the measure of whether I think that this addition adds to or detracts from the neighbourhood. This might make me opinionated, but it doesn't make me snobbish I think that your new condo building is very big and not very interesting to look at. However, I hope that you are very happy living in it, that you spend lots of money in the local shops and contribute to a pretty cool neighbourhood. I am sure that the Junction community welcomes you! The developer hopes that he makes at least as much profit as he planned off of you, and the entire city is looking forward to you contribution to the tax base

Hang out and enjoy passing opinion of everyone else's building

Adma: +1

-AmJ

 

[DavidC]

Hi Adma,

I take your points, and I now feel my ears burning over the "snob" comment, but it did seem that way, going through the thread. Lots of people making 'snippy-seeming" comments about this project. I think it's great that there is a company that develops low-cost housing.

-David

 

[SixPoints]

Clearly you haven't seen and heard those GO trains roar by!

I go by here several times a week on that Go Train and there's no way that you will be able to keep your windows open with a train roaring by. The first train should zoom by at about 7:10am each morning. Urbandreamer's correct about the slow rumble of the freight trains at night but you'll get used to it eventually.

 

[DavidC]

SixPoints,

Some things to remember: One many of us will be above the trains, two: the building foundation has been built to dampen vibrations, and three: and finally, the windows on the north side cannot be opened and we can thank NRI for that, also, it's because of NRI that there are no balconies on the north side either. OK? Ears still burning from the "snob" comment.....

-David

PS: Flame on....

 

[AnnetteMeetsJane]

David - It was me, not Adma, who wrote post 216. (It is easy to tell the difference between Adma and I - Adma actually knows what he/she is talking about )

I guess that the NRI doesn't want people dropping things on their trains and track from a great height. People get used to all sorts of noise - I think that I would prefer the noise of a train moving along rather than a jet taking off or landing. Each to their own...

-AmJ

P.S. No-one is flaming you - some of us just don't particularly like the building you are going to live in. UT is full of threads of people posting that they don't like this or that building, with the possible exception of the Absolute World thread where it is hard to dislike the building so people don't like the location instead.

 

[DavidC]

Hi AnJ,

Sorry for the mix up. But I do agree with "modding up" Adna's last post. I see nothing wrong with the Crossways. I thought the issue with NRI had more to do with people trying to see what NRI was doing, also, keeping the smell from NRIs operations out of the Condo was another issue, IIRC.

I understand nobody is intentionally flaming me, but honestly, it can seem that way. That's especially true for something you've been waiting several years for. I originally signed up for this building in 2007., back when there was still the Canadian Tire store on the site.

-David

 

[adma]

If it's any consolation, I've lived in places I haven't been terribly hot for. And I don't absolutely mind the Crossways either; just reflecting its reputation of being too "70s ghetto brickwork" for some people to handle...

 

[Parkdalian]

If it's any consolation, I've lived in places I haven't been terribly hot for. And I don't absolutely mind the Crossways either; just reflecting its reputation of being too "70s ghetto brickwork" for some people to handle...

And just to make this discussion even more complicated: I like HP - I think its monolithism works - and I hate Crossways because it seems so arrogantly anti-street minded with its tower portion and then tries to make up for it with that wacky mall you can't access without walking up or down some stairs. Crossways feels like its taking the worst parts of Modernist tower-in-the-park sentiment and mixing it with a half-baked urbanism. I'd prefer one or the other.

 

[junctionist]

If it's any consolation, I've lived in places I haven't been terribly hot for. And I don't absolutely mind the Crossways either; just reflecting its reputation of being too "70s ghetto brickwork" for some people to handle...

You don't have a good points against this complex do you? Even in terms of the Crossways, "70s ghetto brickwork" sounds the kind of comment made by forum newbies before you shoot them down.

 

[adma]

You don't have a good points against this complex do you? Even in terms of the Crossways, "70s ghetto brickwork" sounds the kind of comment made by forum newbies before you shoot them down.

That's why I put the term in quotes and said "for some people to handle".

But I actually quite like the Crossways towers because of their 70s folded-brick skyline boldness, something which strove beyond the cliche brick'n'concrete shaft formula (cf. its east-end counterpoint, Main Square). That there wasn't more like it in Toronto probably has something to do with the post-1972 Crombie pall on high-rise construction; and that it came to feel a bit seedy might have something to do with its being apartments in an age of rent control and the momentum shifting to condos and co-ops...