The people upset about the osgoode hall trees are my favourite kind of people. They’re housed, wealthy, face little to no adversity - to them this fight for these 5 trees is a radical act of activism.
I'm starting a thread of modest Toronto proposals that should probably be allowed as of right but instead have to go through a very long and tedious approvals process.
We will start with this beautiful little 11 unit rental infill project by Comn Architects at 100 Beverly.
Toronto planning at work - a builder puts forward a v modest and thoughtful proposal from a talented architect. What happens next? Almost a year later they must resubmit the application but with a whack of arbitrary and unnecessary setbacks due to "concerns" from planning staff.
if you bought a house in toronto between 2005 - 2015 you should be forced to search and apply for a rental apartment once annually as a way to stay grounded
I love torontonians because they will cry and wail about some trees in a quasi-public space that are getting cut down calling it "environmental terrorism" but you ask them to go down to 1 car per household and all of a sudden that's completely unacceptable.
Despite an agreement with the City of Toronto to wait for an independent review of plans for Osgoode station, the provincial transit agency has given notice to cut down trees on the historic property.
@McAllister_Mark
gathers reaction
Missed stop bc I fell asleep and apparently the end of the line is a just a giant concrete plaza with slow jazz playing on all the speakers. Nobody is here
Get a grip. Honest Eds was a terrible discount store wrapped in memorable signage. Millionaire Mirvish made the choice to sell to Westbank - nobody tricked or swindled them.
We can't have seating or nice trees there - it needs to be a desolate windswept space so that Union can license it to TD twice a year for some stupid pop up event.
City planning will spend years fiddling with the massing of a new building but when it comes down to the fine details like materials, there’s not a single care. I want developers to know that people hate grey/monochrome, & I want the city to know their priorities are out of sorts
In Toronto we want the new subway line - but we don’t want to see any construction, we don’t want anything to visibly change, we want traffic to flow like it’s 1974, and we want the line to open tomorrow.
It is so interesting watching the influencer marketing campaign for The Well backfire. Comments point out how every video is the same, there are no stores open, indigo / shoppers / sweat and tonic isn’t enough of a draw and how prince street pizza is not worth 45 mins in the cold
My 1948 building beside the subway is doomed. I’m just waiting for the application to go in. I’ll make it out ok but a lot of my neighbours will be absolutely fucked. It’s nuts what we’ll do in Toronto to protect some houses, but flattening affordable apartments is totally fine.
New app from
@kingsettcapital
&
@BDPQuadrangle
for 135 Isabella Street. Existing, 10 storey, 80 unit, building would be demolished for new 69 storey, 770 unit structure. It's ridiculous that good-sized apartments like this are vulnerable, but stick built houses are kept in amber.
Another tower with a bricky bottom & generic white top because Toronto Planning & Urban Design refuses to allow us simple buildings with cohesive materials. When will they learn that making the tower white doesn't make it look shorter? It just makes every project look generic.
Design options are out for the new Keating Channel pedestrian bridge!
Maamawi' Bridge
Entuitive, Schlaich Bergermann, Grimshaw Architects, Two Row Architect, O2 Planning + Design with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
147 Spadina by Hallmark and Audax has settled with the city at the OLT. Normally not huge on these Neo-traditional buildings but I think this will work really nicely along Spadina.
2022 proposal for block 13, west don lands. red and yellow brick, colourful and interesting
WaterfrontTO: "too much colour"
2024 redesign, more boring and two shades of grey
toronto's ambitions summed up
Toronto is spending *years* to re-legalize what was once legal by right (over 50 years ago).
The neighborhoods that inherited the built form of a city once allowed to grow up to medium density are now considered its best.
Dave is right - but lets also give some credit to the humble plexes of Torontos outer burbs. We mustn't fall down the victorian trad hole and let aesthetic preferences get in the way of much needed housing.
These changes will have little to no impact on how the building is perceived from the street - one whole year to move a 26 unit building though to the next stage of planning. I am begging staff to please allocate these resources to really problematic files that deserve the hours.