innsertnamehere

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Big proposal to replace a large office block on the East Mall.. this is directly south of the Valhalla Square development.

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All of this is being built on the land that those three office towers occupy ? Or has more land been purchased to build all of this ?
 
My goodness, the rate we keep losing employment lands is starting to get quite a bit out of hand. Those offices were pretty much vacant, but nevertheless it doesn't mean that we have to keep losing whole swaths of land to residential uses.

The Globe did an interesting piece on this matter a couple weeks ago:

Toronto land zoned for employment use is shrinking
 
This isn't an employment zone though - it's mixed use. This is a significant office loss, but it's crappy, mostly empty suburban space far away from transit. I'm not too concerned.

Now whether this level of residential density should be being put this far from transit.. that is another matter.
 
It just continues the slow trend of the death of suburban 416 office development/space that's been ongoing for 20 years or so now. This node, airport east and south (the Toronto side) has the highest vacancies in the GTA from what I recall, over 20% at some point. Most of the companies in this area have moved further west into Mississauga or downtown.
 
This is Kingsett and its likely nothing more than a rezoning exercise to flip to a builder. That said if I was the local Councillor, or planning staff, no way I would allow them to walk away without office replacement of some sort. maybe not as much as currently there but complete elimination will do nothing to help the area.

Also the peripheral green space is going to be a windswept and non-engaging blank space, with traffic whizzing nearby and 3 undefinable edges which do not make this cozy or inviting. Need to have it better related to buildings and internal uses of the site, we are creating a vacuum of grass and concrete here, not a park.

That said its all a rezoning exercise and this is all preliminary at best so none of this matters anyways.;):D
 
I would slide all of those towers one notch counterclockwise. The southwest tower should be in the southeast corner of the podium, allowing the rooftop terrace to get afternoon sun, then move the tall tower so that its south wall becomes the north face of the podium terrace (with a stepback two or three storeys up to stop wind racing down the wall from hitting the terrace), and then slide the north tower to the left so that there's more separation between it and the Valhalla Square development. That arrangement also makes for greater separation between the centre and north towers, and still allows the south tower to look past the other towers.

I'm sending Quadrangle an invoice for that.

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This isn't an employment zone though - it's mixed use. This is a significant office loss, but it's crappy, mostly empty suburban space far away from transit. I'm not too concerned.

Now whether this level of residential density should be being put this far from transit.. that is another matter.
Thanks for pointing that out, nevertheless it's concerning that such a huge influx of residents (as currently proposed) would come to this area.

As you stated, the transit in this area is practically non-existent but Kingsett will most likely get away with around 30-33 stories minimum, since the precedent has already been set.

I'm looking forward to seeing even more cars zoom by in the area, it's going to be great!
 

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