A milestone day at The Well. Principal excavation for the Enwave cistern has been completed, and the remaining excavators are now being lifted out of the hole.

First photo shows more of a perspective, with several pieces of equipment already up on the staging area along the Wellington Street sidewalk. The second photo shows preparation for lift out of another excavator. The final is a bonus photo, showing relocation of the west stairwell down into the site, taking place concurrently with the equipment lifts - presumably so that it can be raised up a level as the lowest level basement in this area is being complete.



Lift - 2.jpg
Lift - 1.jpg


Stairs Moving.jpg
 
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Yesterday I spent a good deal of the afternoon leading a pair of reporters from the Buffalo News around the area. We met at the Eaton Centre, and gradually walked west and south through the Entertainment District. They were here researching a feature story on how Toronto has become the boom city that it is while Buffalo has struggled over the past several decades (and has only recently begun to turn around).

Our southwestern-most point on the tour was the spot where @Red Mars and @AHK took the photos above. While they had seen all the cranes as they walked west along Wellington, they both had "audible gasps" when they saw the panorama of the pit open up in front of them.

That was great!

Anyway, we reversed course, at Queen and Spadina hopped on a 510 to Spadina station, and then the subway over to Bloor Yonge so they could see that station at the height of the evening rush. They were similarly amazed by the crowds on the TTC. After a well earned beer, I handed them off to Oren Tamir of Toronto Planning at the Yorkville Library to continue their touring.

They had started their day in Markham to see what suburbs were like here too, and walked something like 17 km total yesterday… so they had a very full day. It will be pretty interesting to see what they end up with in their story. No idea how long before it's published, but at least it'll have their take on The Well, and I'll pass on the link when their story is up.

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Red Mars said:
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The workers on this project and other outstanding project happening in the city right now are going to be the most experienced and well-trained workers on the planet. Most are young and have amazing futures ahead of them. With these proven skills and experiences some will be able to write their own tickets and work anywhere in the world
 
ProjectEnd said:
Agreed, transit is a problem, and not one unique to Toronto. NYC sure isn't building anything of significance, nor is Chicago. Only LA and Mexico City are really working on their networks at this time.
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And Montreal- if you count their REM project. Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver also have things lined up, so I would still argue that the transit problem definitely still has a Toronto element of 'transit greed'. I find that in many other American cities, transit debates seem to circle around NIMBY and tax issues (the actual mode is irrelevant), but in Toronto, people seem to let the perfect get in the way of the good- they want subways even if they don't make sense.

That being said, I'm definitely holding out hope that RER can be incrementally improved into a metro-like system in the future, while our legacy surface systems can be dramatically improved in a short period of time, for a relatively low cost.
 
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innsertnamehere said:
Chicago is our biggest "competitor" - but with its stagnating population I fully expect Toronto to skyrocket past it in the next two decades. Toronto's metro population should surpass it in about 20 years at current rates, The greater economic shed is probably already larger..
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Toronto is similar to Chicago in metropolitan population. People sometimes compare GTA with Chicagoland which is not an apples to apples comparison. Chicagoland should be compared with Greater Golden Horseshoe. Both have a similar area.

Last I checked GGH had 9.3 million and Chicagoland had 9.5 million people. GGH may have already surpassed Chicagoland by now. City of Toronto is also bigger than City of Chicago. I don't know if they have something comparable to our GTA.
 
interchange42 said:
Yesterday I spent a good deal of the afternoon leading a pair of reporters from the Buffalo News around the area. We met at the Eaton Centre, and gradually walked west and south through the Entertainment District. They were here researching a feature story on how Toronto has become the boom city that it is while Buffalo has struggled over the past several decades (and has only recently begun to turn around).

Our southwestern-most point on the tour was the spot where @Red Mars and @AHK took the photos above. While they had seen all the cranes as they walked west along Wellington, they both had "audible gasps" when they saw the panorama of the pit open up in front of them.

That was great!

Anyway, we reversed course, at Queen and Spadina hopped on a 510 to Spadina station, and then the subway over to Bloor Yonge so they could see that station at the height of the evening rush. They were similarly amazed by the crowds on the TTC. After a well earned beer, I handed them off to Oren Tamir of Toronto Planning at the Yorkville Library to continue their touring.

They had started their day in Markham to see what suburbs were like here too, and walked something like 17 km total yesterday… so they had a very full day. It will be pretty interesting to see what they end up with in their story. No idea how long before it's published, but at least it'll have their take on The Well, and I'll pass on the link when their story is up.

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Once Line 5 Eglinton is open, it would be great to bring the Buffalo News crew to take a look at it. They would be amazed at low long and how busy Line 5 is.

It would make the Buffalo MetroRail seem like a ghost stub in comparison.

By that time, Toronto real estate would be so expensive, Buffalo would be a much more affordable option (and could end up gentrifying very quickly from Torontonians moving to Buffalo).
 
I don't think its actually fair to compare Buffalo and Toronto. Toronto is the largest city in Canada while Buffalo isn't even the largest city in New York State. And most immigrants who come to Canada settle in Toronto while given the vastness of USA, the immigrants there get dispersed throughout the country. So it was inevitable that Toronto will move ahead of Buffalo.
 
Deadpool X said:
Toronto is similar to Chicago in metropolitan population. People sometimes compare GTA with Chicagoland which is not an apples to apples comparison. Chicagoland should be compared with Greater Golden Horseshoe. Both have a similar area.

Last I checked GGH had 9.3 million and Chicagoland had 9.5 million people. GGH may have already surpassed Chicagoland by now. City of Toronto is also bigger than City of Chicago. I don't know if they have something comparable to our GTA.
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I think at this current moment Chicago is way ahead of Toronto but Toronto is catching up fast.

Public Transportation - Chicago (Subway System twice as big as Toronto)
Parks and Public Spaces - Chicago (Larger Parks in Downtown Area such as Grant and Millennium Park)
Tourism - Chicago (Wrigley Field, Bean, Millennium Park, Navy Pier, etc.)
Higher Education - Chicago (More Universities and more in Top 100)
Arts and Humanities - Chicago (More Art Galleries and Museums)
Cuisine - Chicago (More high end Michelin Star Restaurants and local cuisine such as Chicago Style Deepdish Pizza)
Architecture - Chicago (More varied and diverse architecture)
Skyscrapers - Chicago (125 vs 63 in Toronto. Although Toronto is building more than Chicago)
GDP - Chicago (679 Billion GDP vs Toronto 303 Billion GDP)

What Toronto has going for it is:
Quality of Life - Toronto (Better quality of life than Chicago)
Crime - Toronto (Less Crime than Chicago)
Infrastructure - Toronto (Better Roads and Bridges than Chicago)
Diversity - Toronto
Population Growth Rate - Toronto

It will take time for Toronto to actually surpass Chicago in these categories but Toronto is trending in the right direction where as Chicago is regressing.
 
Please save the detailed city comparisons for dedicated threads, this thread is about The Well.

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I almost got my head torn off when I said Chicago was ahead of Toronto. Anyways truly saw the grandness of this project when I flew in last night.
 
interchange42 said:
Yesterday I spent a good deal of the afternoon leading a pair of reporters from the Buffalo News around the area. We met at the Eaton Centre, and gradually walked west and south through the Entertainment District. They were here researching a feature story on how Toronto has become the boom city that it is while Buffalo has struggled over the past several decades (and has only recently begun to turn around).

Our southwestern-most point on the tour was the spot where @Red Mars and @AHK took the photos above. While they had seen all the cranes as they walked west along Wellington, they both had "audible gasps" when they saw the panorama of the pit open up in front of them.

That was great!

Anyway, we reversed course, at Queen and Spadina hopped on a 510 to Spadina station, and then the subway over to Bloor Yonge so they could see that station at the height of the evening rush. They were similarly amazed by the crowds on the TTC. After a well earned beer, I handed them off to Oren Tamir of Toronto Planning at the Yorkville Library to continue their touring.

They had started their day in Markham to see what suburbs were like here too, and walked something like 17 km total yesterday… so they had a very full day. It will be pretty interesting to see what they end up with in their story. No idea how long before it's published, but at least it'll have their take on The Well, and I'll pass on the link when their story is up.

42
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I am surprised that reporters from Buffalo of all places are surprised by any aspect of Toronto. Out of all the location in the US, I would assume they would be very familiar with the city, but perhaps they are new to Buffalo and the region or they are like me because I have lived in Toronto for over 30 years but I have yet to visit Buffalo either.
 
Obsidian said:
I am surprised that reporters from Buffalo of all places are surprised by any aspect of Toronto. Out of all the location in the US, I would assume they would be very familiar with the city, but perhaps they are new to Buffalo and the region or they are like me because I have lived in Toronto for over 30 years but I have yet to visit Buffalo either.
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It's not the surprise aspect. There's a difference between visiting a city for fun, and visiting to research a major article. Both reporters had been here before, but in those visits they weren't being led around by various urbanists talking up the histories of various corners of our town. I've been to Buffalo a bunch of times, but if I were going to do an in-depth story, I'd seek out the same kind of help they got this time! Anyone can wander around looking at buildings, but when you want to know, for example, how it is that there's a $1.8 B project going up on a 7.8 acre site just a few blocks out of the financial core, and where the best spot is to get a look at it, you ask a local.

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