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wyliepoon

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Part two of the tour of Markham: Markham Centre and Downtown Markham

The Civic Centre of the Town of Markham (aka the Anthony Roman Centre) is located on the northwest corner of Highway 7 and Warden Avenue. Next to the Civic Centre is the Markham Theatre and Unionville High School. The complex was designed and built way before the New Urbanism that Markham is into today became trendy, and the site of the Civic Centre shows... the Civic Centre is set far back from the street, with a large pond, trees and lawns separating the building from the street. On the other side of the Civic Centre is a massive parking lot that separates it from Town Centre Blvd.

Across Highway 7 from the Civic Centre, the Hilton Suites Hotel (with a large clock, making it the landmark highrise of the entire Markham Centre area) and the Liberty Square office park (under construction) next door, are also set far back from the street. Hilton Suites is a much older building (although it looks very new) so I can understand the reason for the setback, but the same cannot be said for Liberty Square.

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Tridel Circa condos... a very unique condo tower design

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Liberty Square offices under construction

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Civic Centre, with reflection pond

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Intersection of Warden and Highway 7 from the Civic Centre park... look at the lawn separating the Civic Centre from the intersection, and the farm on the other side of the intersection!

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Markham Bicentennial monument- in the shape of a schoolhouse

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Markham Theatre and Unionville HS- clad in concrete and blue and purple glass

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Hilton Suites Hotel

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Eternal flame at the Civic Centre- barely burning today

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The other side of the Civic Centre, showing parking lots

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Entrance to Markham Theatre

Then miketoronto and I made a short stop at the Downtown Markham sales office. Downtown Markham, if built completely, will become the pièce de résistance of Markham's new urbanist development.

Mike was impressed by the size and layout of the well-furnished model suite of the Rouge Bijou, the first mid/high-rise released in the development. I liked the suite too, and I admired the Art Deco model of the Bijou.

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Exterior of the Downtown Markham sales office on Enterprise Dr (a future main street). Despite Remington Group's (the developer) use of urbanism as a selling point for DM, I was somewhat disappointed that the office is located far from the nearby Vivastation. Almost all the people who visit the sales centre drove.

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First piece of the puzzle down for Downtown Markham... the Motorola building at Warden and Enterprise.

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Grading and excavation at the Downtown Markham site. The farmhouse in the photo will be saved and integrated into a park in the project.

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Sales office interior. Urban sounds like people chatting in a cafe and birds chirping are pumped through speakers to create the sense of urbanity.

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Model of the development

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View looking east

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View from the northeast

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Models of townhomes and the Rouge Bijou, currently on sale

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Model of the Rouge Bijou
 
From your shots, there are more geese than people in Markham Centre.
 
Wow, MCC actually has more people than another place. Who da' thunk it.
 
I quite like the look of the tridel condo in the first pic. I think is perfect height for the area in general.

From the model 'view from northeast', I am having a hard time picturing it + the surronding area. From the near side, with all of the trees, it looks like a secluded community.
 
There are parts of Markham where you need a helicopter to get around.
 
With Mississauga as my point of reference I always get a little defensive about blanket criticism of the 905, but the more I see of the rest of it, the better I understand the knee-jerk negativity.

Wow. Just wow.

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I love the bench :)
 
I guess that bench, is a new style of park minimalism.

Could be worse. Like a parking lot.
 
I've biked in the area a few times and have even stopped in the shopping plaza on the north-east side of Warden and Highway 7. The No Frills and Unionville High has a lot of life at certain times, and Highway 7 can get more congested than downtown streets.
 

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