Always striking to me how this area (and many others) has a bunch of buildings built back in the past century, the fabled time when we used to build apartment buildings, and then we just... stopped? For decades and decades. There was plenty of space here, right by transit, and there was already established precedent to build density here, but the city (and province/country) just went on autopilot for decades thinking everything was just going to keep being the same in the end of history and nobody had to ever build or plan or invest in creating anything ever again.
 
Always striking to me how this area (and many others) has a bunch of buildings built back in the past century, the fabled time when we used to build apartment buildings, and then we just... stopped? For decades and decades. There was plenty of space here, right by transit, and there was already established precedent to build density here, but the city (and province/country) just went on autopilot for decades thinking everything was just going to keep being the same in the end of history and nobody had to ever build or plan or invest in creating anything ever again.
What do you mean? There was a large apartment building scheme in the 60s and 70s funded by the government in partnership with developers. These are our tower in the park sites which, to this day, provide the bulk of--reasonably--affordable rentals in Toronto.

Then came the 80s boom and many condos were built. These buildings are quite recognizable if you know the style to look for.

The 90s recession paused pretty much all resi construction.

After that, the economy improved and we saw continuous high density development during the naughty noughties.

Finally, low interest rates in the wake of 2008 created a truly remarkable development cycle.

So apart from the 90s, we've been building apartment buildings nonstop since the 60s. Yes, a lot of sprawl was built as well.
 
As seen from Royal York north of Dundas this morning:
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A little closer
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It's only a derrick:

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Any idea of potential retail to be located in the base of the buildings (if any)?
They're looking to put a Rabba-type convenience store just beside where you come up the stairs from Islington. Not sure what else.

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