Amare
Senior Member
I'd take 10 of these developments over any 1 development from Marlin Spring or Concord any day of the week.
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AlbertC
Superstar
From Remi Berthalon on IG:
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Remi Berthalon 🇫🇷🇨🇦 on Instagram: "This kind of view ✨ #toronto#canada#city#cityscape#travel#sunsetphotography#sky#citysunset#wanderlust#blogto#streetsoftoronto#torontophotographer#exploretoronto#landscape#sky#downtown#skyline#instapic#picoftheday#t
Remi Berthalon 🇫🇷🇨🇦 shared a post on Instagram: "This kind of view ✨...
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If you haven't seen our front page story on the winners of our yearly poll yet, if you voted for TeaHouse 501 Yonge, you will be pleased to learn that it won its height category!
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Rascacielo
Senior Member
Today. Finally! Glass canopy being installed on Yonge St frontage. Canopy on Maitland frontage looks done.
Benito
Senior Member
Slow going with the canopy installation.
Doppleganger
Active Member
I'm not sure if it's due to the general downturn in the economy or perhaps they're asking too much in rent, but the continuing lack of tenants in those storefronts has made this entire stretch of Yonge something of a 'dead zone'. It's also a real shame that they never introduced a variety of facade styles, materials and heights at street level to make individual shops more visually interesting(ie: Mirvish Village). Even when those shops are eventually all let out, it will remain monotonous and boring IMO. Aside from the north tower, which has some design merits, and the overall engineering challenges of building atop a subway line, if you factor in the way it presents to the street, taken as a whole, this project is a fail in my book.
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jaborandi
Active Member
The local pigeons have already expressed their gratitude along the back alley canopy. SPLAT Hopefully, a rigorous cleaning schedule will soon kick in.
neuhaus
Senior Member
That’s the problem with flat horizontal glass canopies, it will require constant cleaning as there will be dirt, debris and water ponding on it until it dries up leaving a dirty residue.
Parkdalian
Senior Member
I think the architecture is fine. People get pretty fussed about whether people can adapt to different architecture styles when shopping, and the answer is, they can.
What I do agree with is that these units are going to stay empty for awhile - Yonge seems impervious to retail lately. It only seems able to support low end retail, and when those buildings are torn down, the new, high-cost units sit empty. Yonge should - and used to be - our high street. But I do wonder if the continuing move to online retail + impossibly high rents everywhere will just leave this street basically empty.
Northern Light
Superstar
This is a strange comment to me.
That's not at all what's being suggested.
What's being suggested is that the same style over a full block is monotonous. Equally what's been said often is that all-glass walls at-grade lead to lots of window wrap, because 'stuff' has to go somewhere, and if there are a lack of interior walls it goes on the out (face) wall.
Equally that glass dominance reads 'cool' rather than 'warm'.
Also that by making the units appear as one unending building, the distinct retailers can be harder to pick out and less visible which does impact traffic levels and 'discovery'.
Finally, it needs to be said, if you treat shopping as only a necessary evil and your architectural expression reflects that, you will get what you paid for, a place people don't want to be, with lower footfall.
Excellence in architecture is certainly partly about function and sustainability, but it is also very much about whether it garners wide appreciation, including, and perhaps most particularly from the general non-critic public.
For further clarity, the towers here are fine, the retail/grade expression and streetscape are poor to abysmal.
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Undead
Senior Member
New build retail rents are so expensive now, it's inevitable that we'll get fewer unique, small scale shops.
In any case, I think the preference/need for at grade retail is overstated.
It'll come off as blasphemy, but I often find at grade residential "townhouse" units offer better animation than retail.
You have the fine grained, narrow units; people's belongings on patios offer some visual interest; there's a bit of walk up foot traffic and eyes on the street. Plus more housing instead of another Shoppers.
I think regulations should be more flexible with respect to at grade retail. We probably need it in every new development. Granted, we should encourage/force higher quality design at grade level, whether it's retail or not.
As for this development, I wouldn't call it abysmal. The ground level has colour, texture and fine grain. The only miss in my books are the windows being too narrow to properly display goods (but that would also detract from the fine grain).
In any case, I think the preference/need for at grade retail is overstated.
It'll come off as blasphemy, but I often find at grade residential "townhouse" units offer better animation than retail.
You have the fine grained, narrow units; people's belongings on patios offer some visual interest; there's a bit of walk up foot traffic and eyes on the street. Plus more housing instead of another Shoppers.
I think regulations should be more flexible with respect to at grade retail. We probably need it in every new development. Granted, we should encourage/force higher quality design at grade level, whether it's retail or not.
As for this development, I wouldn't call it abysmal. The ground level has colour, texture and fine grain. The only miss in my books are the windows being too narrow to properly display goods (but that would also detract from the fine grain).
dodgeram
Active Member
The streetscape is pretty abysmal. They couldn’t even throw in a single plant? This whole stretch of the building along Yonge is cold and uninviting. I wouldn’t lease a space either.
whatever
Senior Member
I also find the streetscape cold and abysmal, but It's worth remembering they were up against some constraints with the subway tunnel, the ventilation shafts, and the above grade garage.
They could (and should!) have done better here, but it also wasn't an easy site
They could (and should!) have done better here, but it also wasn't an easy site
Northern Light
Superstar
There is nothing inevitable about this. The reasons for new-build retail going more to 'chain' retail have to do with:
a) Who is doing the renting/leasing out (big property corps tend to show preference for chains.
b) Size of the unit, you're not getting most mom n' pops leasing 3,000ft2+, but units can be made smaller
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We can limit chain retail as has been discussed a multitude of times, lots of places around the world do this, and cap unit sizes, it works just fine.
It does come across as blasphemy as I don't think it makes any sense on a typical major (high traffic) road.
Townhome forms can provide a variant of animation, but to do so, you need to get people sit outside on their porch or front yard space. To do that you need an environment in which they will be comfortable doing just that.
Can you achieve that on say Shuter street? Sure, I think you can, can you achieve that on Yonge Street? Absolutely not, and not on Danforth or King Street either.
Is there an in-between space, live/work (lawyers office, doctor's office etc.) as well as stacked townhomes and other mix 'n match choices, yes; but ...
You still want convenience stores and a neighbourhood diner etc etc. and to get those some development nearby will have to design for them.
See above, I don't think what you describe is at workable in this location.
Agreed on this bit.
For me the canopy is a big miss, it takes away from visible signage space and reduces a business visible presence. Some of the units are definitely too large. The windows are actually a good size, there's just too many relative to doors and interior walls.
The absence of trees, or other plants, seating, or patios or any other engagement leaves this very wide sidewalk feeling spare and uninviting.
emphurent
Active Member
Just wanted to note that two of the ten units are leased currently. Though it seems the Mirco retail on Alexander Street was amalgamated, a noticable symptom of non differentiated storefronts (while that may be the intended effect to make leasing easier, it's not great for an interesting vibrant street.)
