Northern Light

Superstar
Member Bio
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
31,249
Reaction score
87,425
New Affordable Housing Proposal, 9S up in the AIC, no Docs yet:

1621406263900.png



Inclusive of 502 and 508 Spadina Avenue.

Appears to be the main Scott Mission building on Spadina, and the property to the north.

Aerial photo here:

1621406595881.png


Streetview here:

1621406657727.png
 
Last edited:
From the Planning Rationale Report:

The proposal is to replace the two existing buildings on the subject site (which essentially appear as one building) with a new mixed-use development in the form of a 9-storey mid-rise building. The Scott Mission will continue to operate in the proposed development using the podium and basement levels of the building to provide community and social services including a municipal shelter, a food/clothing bank, a cafeteria and kitchen, and other types of community/social services such as counselling, life skills training and assembly space for ministry services and worship. The new Scott Mission premises will provide an updated and larger space providing a total of 5,380m2 gross floor area which provides a net increase of approximately 1,160m2 from the existing Scott Mission buildings (4,220m2). The proposed development also includes a total of approximately 6,255m2 residential gross floor area providing 109 new deeply affordable rental units

1625478929872.png


1625478982221.png


1625479119777.png


1625479243883.png


While the architecture of the proposal is unremarkable, that could be said of the site in its current condition.

The addition of more than 100 deeply affordable housing units is to be lauded here, and that they've also managed a green roof, and a fairly intimate scale is also a positive.

My only reservation would be in regards to the new shelter space.

Obviously, there's a shelter there now, so that is not a concern, nor am I particularly phased by the growth in beds by 10.

I am, however, concerned by the style of the arrangement:

The municipal shelter is designed in a dormitory style with 10 dorm rooms in total to provide living accommodation for people in need of sheltering.

To the best of my knowledge, the City itself is no longer building larger scale dorm rooms (the above would seem to suggest 8--10 per room)

Best practice is now SRO (single room occupancy) style accommodation.

Where shared rooms are used, it's rare to see more than 4 to a room in new designs.

The reasons for this are straight forward.

Shelters are notorious for safety issues for their users, and many homeless avoid using them, even in non-pandemic times for this reason.
One person per room minimizes interpersonal conflict, while also providing residents/clients more privacy.

That said, in the world of Covid and weighing the risk of future pandemics, I can't imagine people thinking 8-10 per room would be suitable from a public health risk point-of-view.

I would like to see this aspect of the proposal revisited.
 
Last edited:


Event Information: 502 and 508-510 Spadina Avenue

Date and time:Monday, November 22, 2021 6:00 pm
Eastern Standard Time (Toronto, GMT-05:00)
Change time zone
Duration:1 hour 30 minutes
Description:
This community meeting is for an application that proposes a 9-storey affordable residential building with a total gross floor area of 11,635 square metres and a density of 5.65 times the area of the lot. The overall proposed height is 30 metres (36.5 metres inclusive of the rooftop mechanical equipment). A total of 151 bicycle parking spaces would be provided within the underground levels and on the ground floor. A total of 5 vehicular parking spaces and loading spaces would be provided on the surface level at the south-west corner of the lot. Vehicular access, including loading, would be provided off Spadina Avenue.
 
It's exciting to see such a unique and challenging site come up for renewal. With the jewel of the Daniels Building at its center, Spadina Crescent offers architects/builders a one of a kind opportunity to contribute great architecture to compliment what is really one of this city's iconic locations. Unfortunately, this current proposal is not one of them.
 
Goodness, that looks a 1000 times better than "Design" Haus down just East from this...
 

Back
Top