kotsy said:
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The way the southern part seems to have a pretty clean and isolated dig site makes me wonder how quickly we’ll see developer plans for the rest of the land. Might have to pull up the original plan for 5 towers before the land swap to compare when we do.

In the end, did the city actually *get* anything out of that whole land swap?
 
I’ll preface this post by saying that until plans show otherwise, we can still entertain the possibility of south and north sites becoming a complex connected by Corktown station underground.

These were the teased proposals of 57 and 20 storeys with 6-7 storey podiums, seen as a bluff in order to trigger the land swap. (And it’s funny to see folks on this site in 2011 call these heights outrageous, when they’d likely say “good start” today)

So what I’m thinking, is that they keep something like this on the south side, and then flip it on the north, so we get another tall tower right atop the station on King & Berkley. Public space flanking both sides of Front st.

And while I’m playing fantasy draft, scuttle the library move to Esplanade/Jarvis, and make it part of the underground here, with plenty of raised windows amongst gardens to give the space below natural light. (Like you see in Place Des Arts in Mtl) then work the Parliament foundations into the library as a glassed in educational space (like Pointe-à-Calliéres in Mtl).

If these plans had ANY validity in 2011, maybe they could point towards what we’ll get on both blocks going forward. Dunno, just throwing it out there. I feel like we have plenty of subway station complexes all over the place, so why not here.

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Also, this feels like a million years ago.


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jxmyth_ said:
The way the southern part seems to have a pretty clean and isolated dig site makes me wonder how quickly we’ll see developer plans for the rest of the land. Might have to pull up the original plan for 5 towers before the land swap to compare when we do.

In the end, did the city actually *get* anything out of that whole land swap?
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There was no swap here, the Province expropriated the First Parliament Site.
 
jxmyth_ said:
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urbantoronto.ca

Excavation Begins at First Parliament Site | UrbanToronto

After the City of Toronto acquired the First Parliament Site lands in the summer, work has begun on removing the asphalt in preparation for an archeological dig.
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There were several land transactions. As you quote above, the first was the City and the Bresler (sp??) family swapped land. The family owned most of the "First Parliament site" on west side of Parliament Street (the City and the Toronto Heritage Trust owned some parts too.). The City owned the block on the east side of Parliament occupied by the Library Processing centre). There was a swap/expropriation so the family got the whole block on east side of Parliament and the City owned most of the First Parliament Site and made elaborate plans for it. (The Heritage Trust owned the small area at NW corner of the site.) SEE: https://www.toronto.ca/services-pay...ing-city-facilities/first-parliament-project/

Then, just when the City were getting set to move, the Province expropriated the City land AND the (supposedly protected) OHT section.

EDIT: Prior to all of the above, the City and TTC with the OHT swapped the former TTC streetcar turning loop on SW corner of Parliament and King for a large part of the First Parliament (Parliament/Front/Berkeley/Parliament Park) block and the car dealership moved from the NW corner of the First Parliament block to the former TTC loop (just east of Staples). The OHT created an exhibition space in the refurbished former car dealership. The car dealer (and Staples) were also expropriated for the Ontario Line.
 
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