Does anyone reckon that the house originally at 250 Church Street should also be preserved? It looks like it could potentially have heritage status as well, looking like a townhome from around 1900 (plus/minus 20 years).

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It is not heritage registered, so in effect no, "no-one" thinks this should be preserved.

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What's the background of the Nishnawbe homes that is part of the parcel of land on the south side? I walked by and it looks really sketchy.

And I found this online: "A portion of this development will also be dedicated to the Nishnawbe Homes aboriginal affordable health-supportive housing facility. This means that the development will also provide 16 residential units to Nishnawbe Homes as a community benefit"
 
What's the background of the Nishnawbe homes that is part of the parcel of land on the south side? I walked by and it looks really sketchy.

And I found this online: "A portion of this development will also be dedicated to the Nishnawbe Homes aboriginal affordable health-supportive housing facility. This means that the development will also provide 16 residential units to Nishnawbe Homes as a community benefit"

They are a provider of shelter services/affordable housing.


From the above:

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Any idea if they are sharing spaces, entrances, amenities with this condo?

[Edit] Looks like there will be an entrance from the building to the shelter. And it's a few steps away from the main residential entrance. Negative from a resident's perspective.

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As usual, CentreCourt are looking to move quickly with this one:


252 Church Centrecourt’s next project

The first project to launch under Cheung’s leadership will be 252 Church, a 52-storey, 681-unit condo at the southwest corner of Church Street and Dundas Street West in downtown Toronto.

The site, which includes a heritage building and a parking lot, was assembled from private owners for an undisclosed price.

“We’ve allowed some of the people that were selling us the land to participate in the development shoulder to shoulder with us,” said Cheung. “I can’t get into any more details than that, but that’s something they found attractive based on our track record of delivering great projects and great returns to our partners.”

The building will be designed by IBI Group in coordination with GBCA Heritage Architects, as the facades of the existing building will be retained and restored at the base of the tower.

Prime location should help sales

Sales will begin early in 2022. Cheung hopes to begin construction six months after that, when he anticipates 95 per cent of the units being sold.
 

Lyle, a designer who contributed to Union Station and was the architect for the Royal Alexandra Theatre and the Runnymede Library, is hailed by OCAD assistant architecture professor Glenn McArthur as the dominant Toronto architect of the first half of the 20th century. The author of A Progressive Traditionalist: John M. Lyle, Architect said CentreCourt and its designers IBI Group and GBCA Architects have done an admirable job incorporating Lyle’s three-storey Beaux-Art Classical Sterling Bank Building into their new 252 Church project.

“It’s always going to be a challenge,” said McArthur recently. “When you’re trying to incorporate two very, very different styles, two very different materials, and with two very different goals in mind, I think given that they have to keep the building they’ve done a very good job of trying to highlight the structure by offsetting it.”

The Sterling building was designed by Lyle in 1913 as one of the first of his 50-plus bank designs across the Toronto region and beyond.

In recommending the building be included on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register, city design staff recognized distinctive features such as “decorative stone and red brick detailing on the east and north elevations” featuring “grand, two-storey stone pilasters with fluted capitals surmounted by a stone cornice.”

Entablature contains the words “The Sterling Bank of Canada.”

“That was the vocabulary that he used on a number of buildings,” said McArthur, addressing the styling. “By using two-storey pilasters, he tried to emphasize the height of the structure.”

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CentreCourt, which has launched four other residential projects in Toronto during the pandemic and currently has nine in total under construction, is targeting a mid-summer start of construction for 252 Church and possible completion 30 months later, by late 2024 or early 2025. The official launch for 252 Church is Jan. 6.

Photo circa 1975 from the article:

church252.jpg
 
If I'm looking at the render on the Front Page article correctly, the very last bit of interesting detail has been erased. The windows look like they're now a uniform size for every floor instead of getting wider as you move up the tower.

How it started → how it was → how it's going.

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(Source 1 & 2) (Source 3)

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This bit is nice I guess, looking forward to it being erased in the next iteration.
 

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