I absolutely love this proposal. The best parts: the seamless connection with the Distillery District with the Red Brick Promenade, the fountain + urban beach, and the development being a gateway to the Port Lands. Plus, hopefully with the expansion of the Queen's Quay transit, this area will be easily accessible and active.

If the Queens Quay transit expansion actually happens, I would gladly move down there someday...theoretically.
 
+1. Downtown East is the place to be (this coming from someone who has lived in the west end his entire life lol...but soon to be a WDL resident).

And thanks for the great front page article, Devon! :D
 
The development blocks in this area still seem way too dis-jointed to me. I really love some of the elements like the park spaces though. We are still at least 20 years away from the area coming together into a more cohesive whole but to me the best case scenerio in these areas would be for them to be borderline functional neighbourhoods.
 
SP!RE said:
Yeah, but this project brings SO much more than just another several towers.

The public spaces are what I'm super excited about at this location. The buildings themselves are secondary, IMO.
Click to expand...

The buildings framing the public spaces are very important too, it helps to have nice buildings to look at surrounding the public spaces (at least on the sides not facing water). Hopefully it'll be something more interesting than blank glass at least on the lower floors.
 
I never said the buildings aren't important too ;)
 
The way the space is connected to the Distillery District not only looks great, but is brilliant in restoring a connection between the Distillery District and the waterfront, as it had historically. The DD feels constricted by the presently impenetrable railway corridor to its south. It's quite satisfying to see landscape design that is both novel, aesthetically ambitious and full of meaning in the local context. It's design that embraces the interesting local geography and history and wears it on its sleeve. Too often, landscape design achieves only one of the three elements I've praised this design for (being novel, aesthetically ambitious and full of meaning in the local context).

I can't comment on the functionality of the public spaces at this early point. However, I was disappointed not to see the silos in any of the renderings, as if they're just being ignored. I have seen photos that urban explorers have taken from the top of the silos. The industrial space is fascinating, and the skyline views are incredible.
 
I went to the West Don Lands committee meeting last week, and it was said (i think it was Pam McConnell's staffer who was representing her, but I'm not sure) that the plans for this precinct were pretty much ready, but the developers hadn't made them public yet because there were some ownership issues to sort out with the City. I'm guessing the "Silo site" and the "Waterfront Toronto site" are part of that. Probably if Claude Cormier hadn't released them we would still know nothing about this project.

By the way, is it me or the 3C project page on Claude Cormier's website has been removed?
 
FNTS:

Yup the project page is no more. Thanks for the additional pieces of info - the plans posted here does show that the Silo - which is part of this site, I think - as "blanked out". Perhaps some kind of transfer to the city/WT is in the works?

AoD
 
A look at the site in question from today:

SFFMRhd.jpg
 
It's almost unbelievable to think that this could have been a large-format retail site. Good things come to those who wait, I guess.
 
They could put the big box store in the grain elevator, wrap it in red brick and call it "Donmouth Shopping Centre."

Edit: After looking at that photograph I realized the elevators resemble a temple. So perhaps turn it into a multi-faith house of worship?

eg:
midnight: Druids
1am: Amish
2am: Shul
3am: mosque
4am: temple
5am: Tim Hortons
etc :p
 
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