Whenever we are lucky enough to explore a project under construction, half of the shots we get are of the project itself, while the other half are the views that residents in these projects will have once they've moved in. Last week we took you around Toronto Community Housing's Block 32, and today we are bringing you the other half of the shots: the views from this prominent site in the Railways Lands.
The view to the east is pretty spectacular: the CN Tower rises over CityPlace's condominium towers and the Rogers Centre. The bald patch of land in the lower right corner should someday be home to another condo tower (another TCH project there was cancelled) along with new schools for the area's burgeoning population. Over the the left side, we see unfinished portions of Concord Adex's Parade, where the bridge linking the two towers will soon be attached. The next photo below shows that portion of the building in greater detail. (You can click on any photo to get a larer view.)
Plans are to raise the bridge into place early this summer. Below, meanwhile, the south view takes in the lake beyond the islands and Harbourfront area condominiums. Panorama is the most prominent building below, nestled close by the Gardiner Expressway.
This side of the Gardiner Expressway is the excavation site for Concord Adex's Quartz and Spectra condominium projects, now four weeks of digging deeper since this photo was taken. Behind it to the right we can see the north end of the future Loblaws at Bathurst and Lake Shore poking out from underneath the Gardiner.
Taken from just a few floors above grade, we get another angle on the Spectra/Quartz excavation here.
To the west, Onni's Garrison At The Yards condominium is currently rising at the corner of Bathurst and Fort York Boulevard, the first of three phases for The Onni Group in this area. Garrison is a mid-rise project, while second phase 'The Yards at Fort York' will be highrise. It's excavation pit is hidden behind the Gardiner Expressway past the extreme left of the photo. The following phase at this site, Local at Fort York will round out the trio.
Behind the Garrison at The Yards crane we see the excavation pit for Plazacorp's York Harbour Club. This building will join West Harbour City, seen on the left, with its Art Deco inflected design. Between York Harbour Club and the recently completed WaterParkCity buildings seen at back is a wedge of land that should become the highly anticipated June Callwood Park in 2012.
The development of this area should knit Fort York better into the city's physical fabric and collective conciousness. The Fort, now celebrating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, should find improvements coming its way soon including a new Visitors Centre - which we hope will be open in time for the 200th anniversary of the Battle or York in April 2013 - underneath the Gardiner Expressway.
Looking into the distance beyond Fort York are the rising condos of Liberty Village, while beyond that lies Humber Bay and a myrisd of projects in that area. The crane on the skyline is perched atop Star Tower at Empire Communities' Beyond The Sea project in Etobicoke. Finally, on the horizon can be seen the towers of Mississauga's City Centre area, with the distinctive vase-like shape of Cityzen and Fernbrook's Absolute World most prominent of that group.
A GO Train passing under the Bathirst Street Bridge brings our attention closer in again. The City plans to replace the bridge with a wider structure in the coming years, while a search has started to find designers for Mouth of the Creek Park which will connect Fort York at left under Bathurst to the Northern Linear Park which runs beside the tracks past CityPlace to the Rogers Centre.
The GO Train, on the Lakeshore West corridor passes the point where the Georgetown/Milton corridor splits off. The triangle of land between the rail corridors has been much in the news lately for the Fort York Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge which was to be built across the point to conect the city north and south of it. The award-winning plan was cancelled last year, but a modified version of the design should be back before Council shortly though, as the link has many championing it.
Further down the Georgetown/Milton corridor as can see a car crossing the tracks at Strachan Avenue. Work has commenced to create a grade separation here, and one can see where the tracks have been shifted south so that the north side can begin to be lowered soon. Yellow drills are in place to ceate an excavation wall.
To the north of this area we see another crane, this one constructing the Minto 775 King West condominium, which is now above grade.
Minto has another project planned for the area a bit closer to our vantage point, in conjuction with Freed Developments. Their project at Bathurst and Front will sit on the land west of Tridel's red-edged RĂŞve condo, seen at the right of the image.
Finally, we will take a look at the project closest to Block 32, Context Development's Library District Condos. Designed, as is Block 32, by KPMB Architects, the 29-storey tower along the east edge of the site will be joined to Toronto 100th public library branch in the southwest corner. A ten-storey TCH building will sit at the northeast corner, while Mouth of the Creek Park will make up the northwest corner.
From up above we get a look at the footings of several components being formed.
A bucket of concrete is lowered towards a form.
A drill works on caissons.
When complete, Library District Condominiums should look like this:
The multitude of projects throughout the article can be viewed in UrbanToronto's dataBase, amongst over 280 projects total now. The dataBase entries are linked below along with associated Forum threads for those onterested in joining in on the discussions.