I was there too and I agree that the plans are both exciting and look as though something may actually happen. Concerning your comments on whether WT listen to the comments I think you need to remember that this is a cumulative process and what was discussed last night was a refining of what was discussed at the last meeting, in July if I remember right. I doubt any single comment will change the core of what they proposed last night but the fine details are probably still up for changes.

On your comment about them asssuming the Gardiner is still up I think you need to remember that the decision to STUDY its removal is quite recent and from what I saw of the plans they would actually not change much if the Gardiner was not there as they are planning for Lakeshore to be moved further north and this is near enough where the Gardiner now runs. They must deal with what's there now but I think it would be quite easy (and FAR better) to do minor changes to accomodate the removal of the Gardiner.
 
Keating Channel Precinct Plan

The public is invited to attend the open house and work shop for the Keating Channel Precinct Plan, Lower Don Land's EA, the Don Month and Port Land Flood Protection On Saturday May 9 at the St Lawrence Hall from 10 am to 3 pm.

Open house is from 10-11am.

The Keating Channel Precinct Plan will see building ranging from 6-20 stories with 8 towers over 20 only. Buildings not to be square.

Layout of the building will be built as a wind break to the waterfront as well allowing 5-7 hours of day light.

The plan is to have this EA completed by the fall so it can go to council for approval as well drawing up new bylaws and zoning standards by year end.

Lake Shore Blvd will be 6 lanes. Bike lanes will connect to the existing one on the north side and run to the core.

New north-south streets will be 80m apart.

New underpass for Cherry St with transit on the east side as well wide sidewalk. A wall will separate transit from 3 lane traffic as well 2 bike lanes. A west sidewalk will be separated from traffic.

Keating Channel will be lower, allowing people to enter the water as well small boats. The light poles will be in the water.

New walkway Trinity St bridge to the park area will be something if it comes off.

New bridge only for LRT crossing the channel with subway stairs to the channel.

Transit stops will be 300m apart.

New bridge for Munitions St.

The Martin Goodmen trail will see railing separating it from both side.

Moving to Green buildings.

Far too many things to put here.

Come on out have a say as where is plan is to go before the 4th and final public presentation this summer.
 
Last edited:
News Release + Link to Pics by WT:

Waterfront Toronto Presents a Revolutionary Vision of Sustainability for the Lower Don Lands and Details of the Area's First Community

Toronto, May 7, 2009 – Waterfront Toronto unveils detailed plans for transforming the Lower Don Lands, a 125-hectare (308-acre) industrial area located south of the rail corridor in the east end of Toronto’s harbour, into new sustainable parks and communities.

As part of waterfront revitalization, Waterfront Toronto has taken bold and innovative approachs to naturalize the mouth of the Don River and to transform the Lower Don Lands, a critical link between the new waterfront communities emerging in East Bayfront, the West Don Lands and the Port Lands.

The plans would see the mouth of the Don River moved from its current location at the Keating Channel near the Don Roadway to Lake Ontario on the eastern side of Toronto’s inner harbour. The river would be re-routed through the middle of the Lower Don Lands between the Shipping Channel and the Keating Channel. This will result in the Don River once again becoming a major feature of Toronto’s waterfront and the centerpiece of new mixed-use neighbourhoods and parks and green spaces in the Portlands.

Waterfront Toronto’s plans were developed through a comprehensive Environmental Assessment (EA) process which has included the examination of several alternative planning solutions. The plans are rooted in planning designs developed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) as part of the international design competition for the Lower Don Lands held by Waterfront Toronto in 2007.

“What excites me about the plans for the Lower Don Lands is that it provides a new type of neighbourhood for Toronto, says Waterfront Toronto President and CEO John Campbell. “The plans are models for new sustainable communities. They will create a new destination for Toronto where the city, lake and the river interact in a dynamic and balanced relationship – an urban estuary.â€

“How often does a city re-locate the mouth of a river, restore the river to a condition that nature would applaud, create a new park along its edges and build the most carbon neutral new urban neighbourhood possible?†says Michael Van Valkenburgh, Principal of MVVA and the consultant team lead for the project. “The Lower Don Lands project proposes an approach to an urbanized river which no city has taken before.â€

Creating sustainable communities is a fundamental objective for Waterfront Toronto. To ensure that its plans for the Lower Don Lands were based on innovative and multifaceted approachs to sustainability, Waterfront Toronto created an integrated design process that utilized the expertise of landscape architects, urban designers, hydrologists, ecologists, climate engineers, environmental specialists, sustainability specialists, and economic advisors.

The Lower Don Lands plans take a holistic approach through the introduction of urban development, native ecologies, and public infrastructure in the transformation of the area into vibrant, mixed-use communities lined by generous promenades and traversed by a series of bridges for vehicles, transit, cyclists, and pedestrians.

As part of Waterfront Toronto’s broader sustainability goals, the Lower Don Lands plans prioritize transit as a mode of transportation creating dedicated space for high frequency light rail transit. In addition, extensive multiuse trails in the area will act as major connecting links with the Don Valley Trail system, the Don Greenway, and the Martin Goodman Trail, maintaining continuity and enhancing the public realm.

Sun and wind movement studies have been used to shape the orientation of buildings and street blocks in the plans for the Lower Don Lands. This will not only further the development of an energy efficient indoor building climate but will also provide for a more comfortable experience in the public realm by maximizing the natural cooling effects of summer breezes and shade while offering protection from winter winds.

“By working with and understanding climate, a more comfortable and sustainable city can be created at less cost to the environment,†says Campbell.

The plans for the Lower Don Lands envision a mix of 75 percent residential and 25 percent non-residential space.

The first community to be developed in the Lower Don Lands will be the Keating Channel neighbourhood, the area that runs from East Bayfront to the Don River and from the West Don Lands to Villers Street. The precinct plan for the area consists of 25 blocks that will feature a variety of built-forms and architecture that support a diversity of experience and use.

The public will have an opportunity to review the plans, ask questions of the design team and provide input at a public meeting on Saturday May 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Lawrence Hall, 157 King Street East.

At the meeting Waterfront Toronto will present detailed plans for the Lower Don Lands and a draft precinct plan for the Keating Channel neighbourhood. Toronto and Region and Conservation, the agency assisting Waterfront Toronto with the EA for the new mouth of the Don River, will present the new river alignment and innovative flood protection strategies for the Don River.

"We are pleased to partner with Waterfront Toronto, their design team led by Michael Van Valkenburg Associates, our EA consultant team led by AECOM, and the City of Toronto in developing this concept design for the naturalized mouth of the Don,†said Brian Denney, Chief Administrative Officer, Toronto and Region Conservation. "This project integrates our key goals of naturalizing the mouth of the Don while removing the risk of flooding to the most vulnerable area in our jurisdiction.â€

The original design for the Lower Don Lands upon which current plans are based has already received recognition from the international design community. Waterfront Toronto together with MVVA received the 2008 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Sustainable Development Award for the concept design of the Lower Don Lands. The project has also won the American Society of Landscape Architects 2008 Honor Award in Analysis and Planning.

The Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto created Waterfront Toronto to oversee and lead the renewal of Toronto’s waterfront. Public accessibility, design excellence, sustainable development, economic development and fiscal sustainability are the key drivers of waterfront revitalization.

-30-

Media Contact: Sheri DeCarlo, Waterfront Toronto 416-214-1344 x 279 sdecarlo@waterfrontoronto.ca



http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/dyna...84fe8a7c8648&fourth=4a03188ca005c&templatein=

AoD
 
Looking at these images, the Keating Channel plan is incredibly disappointing. For me, that was the most exciting part of the entire waterfront redevelopment. From those original MMVA renderings, it looked like we were getting a real thriving neighbourhood with outdoor restaurants and the like on both sides and frequent crossings. These renderings suggest the standard row of set back condos on one side and grass on the other. The whole thing won't be remotely human-scaled.

Compare page 4 of the original plan to the current plan:

4a032339f1903.jpg
 
maybe this is the preliminary drawing? On the left side, the industries are still there. Is the right side suppose to be condos and the left side stays industrial? Looks like they're going to build a bridge? Or is that already there?

The render guy doesn't look so happy about it.
 
Wooden light poles will be sticking out of the water? That will look odd. (but original) I hope the area is not overloaded with electrical wires and streetcar cables/wires.
 
Looks terrible. Looks like a polluted waterway in some small town with a massive out of scale tower in the background.

Fail. Try again.

It can't be that hard to have these channels become something extra special. For example, limit building heights along them to a max of 10 stories to reduce the wind tunnel effect. Put the condos back about 40ft to provide room for nice large patios with walkways along the waterside. Remove parts of the channel walls to create ponds along the channel. Try and work with artists who specialize in lighting to add some colour and playfulness to the area during evenings. Imagine a circular shaped condo or mixed use building with a sunken circular skating rink that could be all lit up at night for night skating. In the summers maybe they could add some fountains in this area to filter water and add a nice place for people to have a drink on the steps.

Picture a much smaller version of this from Foster & Partners
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/1406/Default.aspx
 
Last edited:
Looking at the limited images available on the media package, I would say that most of the frontage on the Keating Channel is in fact low-rise buildings, which very likely will have ground-floor commercial space facing the water. The one image posted by unimaginative shows a small zone where this isn't the case; the lone tall building right on the channel placed near the bridge as a sort of "gate post," which is an organizing principle used through all of the new waterfront neighbourhood plans. It vaces the silos, which in turn serve as a gateway for the other side of the channel, as the streetcar line passes between them. The buildings in these renderings are little more than massing place-holders, and the sparse render folk are just going about their business rather than having, perhaps improbably, the time of their lives beneath the Gardiner.

Although there have been changes to the plan, there's no dramatic change to this part of it, and nothing to hop up and down about.
 
I see that, yeah, but the rendering doesn't show any kind of life. Those low-rise buildings off in the distance are set way back. Either side of the channel is lined with a wide concrete plaza. Those preposterous renderpeople dipping their feet into the channel will never, ever happen. What happened to the lights and benches and restaurants? If they were going to be there, why isn't anything included in this new rendering?
 
The open house was much more impressive.

I went and took a look today. Didn't stay for the discussions, but saw the presentation. The emphasis was on the Keating Channel and the promontory park.

Best: the Trinity street underpass and bridge will connect the park nicely to the Distillery District.

Worst: I fear TKTKTK will be proven right on the DVP spilling straight into LSB. With only three lanes in either direction from Don Roadway to Jarvis, it'll be a parking lot every morning. The flyover is going to get a LOT more traffic.
 
The "wide concrete plaza" appears to be 4-5 metres wide and is either a generous sidewalk or a combined cycle/rollerblade/pedestrian path. To the right of it is a park. The area in the older rendering with the restaurants, lights, etc., is on the other side of the channel. If the "photographer" of this imagined scene turned and looked over his left shoulder, he would see it, about 200-300 metres away. If they succeed in cleaning up the Don, people will dip their feet in the channel. If they don't, they won't.
 
Jayomatic said:
Looks terrible. Looks like a polluted waterway in some small town with a massive out of scale tower in the background.

Fail. Try again.

It can't be that hard to have these channels become something extra special. For example, limit building heights along them to a max of 10 stories to reduce the wind tunnel effect. Put the condos back about 40ft to provide room for nice large patios with walkways along the waterside. Remove parts of the channel walls to create ponds along the channel. Try and work with artists who specialize in lighting to add some colour and playfulness to the area during evenings. Imagine a circular shaped condo or mixed use building with a sunken circular skating rink that could be all lit up at night for night skating. In the summers maybe they could add some fountains in this area to filter water and add a nice place for people to have a drink on the steps.

Picture a much smaller version of this from Foster & Partners
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/1406/Default.aspx
Click to expand...

Agreed. It looks awful. It seems those wooden poles are a homage to the ugly wooden utility poles littered around the city.
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
I went and took a look today. Didn't stay for the discussions, but saw the presentation. The emphasis was on the Keating Channel and the promontory park.

Best: the Trinity street underpass and bridge will connect the park nicely to the Distillery District.

Worst: I fear TKTKTK will be proven right on the DVP spilling straight into LSB. With only three lanes in either direction from Don Roadway to Jarvis, it'll be a parking lot every morning. The flyover is going to get a LOT more traffic.
Click to expand...

The goal is to reduce trafficf and look 50 to 100 years out. Other than peak time, 60% the road space is unused. Don't feel sorry for the people caught in traffic using single seat. There is only 2 lanes out side of peak.

There needs to be transit on this road for the long haul and bypassing the area. Some of the building will be over 500m from transt on the Lake Shore.

The ramp to the Gardiner wast of Jarivs will be like what there now at the east end.

The Lake Shore Bridge over the Don will be twice as long campare to what there now. It will be raise also.

Centre poles will be used for the LRT ROW.

The emphasis was on the Keating Channel and the promontory park as it will be the first areas built first.

River Park Precinting (Lower Don) plan should be out this fall or eary 2010.

Wind tunnel testing will be done for the new buildings.

Some people are calling for a high section of the Gardiner to stay as an viewing platform.
 
I wonder why they don't do a 2 use on one bridge like other countries have done. Instead of having 2 bridges, have one. Bottom section for trains and top level for cars and pedestrians.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top