Today the demo company at the Options for Homes – Village by the Park removed part of the subway wall at the front Keele St. side of their project. This wall which was much higher may have served as part of the wall of the piano manufacturing plant that was on the site before the CanTire store.
More of the Junction gone, hopefully the new building ssection here will out value this section of wall. The Green Pro demo workers doing the work seemed to be doing it carefully though, which is swell.
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Is the City of Toronto about to be civilized in the area of rental housing at last. The Toronto Star is reporting that a new staff report outlining ways to tackle the problem of poorly maintained buildings in the city – including the option of licensing Toronto landlords – will go before the mayor’s powerful executive committee in November. [full article at the Toronto Star] [opens in new window]
Just look at about any street or avenue in the city and you can quickly spot the absent landlord rented building, the garbage out front, the 4 doorbells the constant move in move out cylces.
For many years the city had let absent landlords really mess up some streets, and getting the city to enforce the more basic bylaws is just impossible.
Hopefully the new bylaw will pass.
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This condo project has views, you must say between Grenadier Pond, Sunnyside and High Park. It has a tower and townhouses. The developer calls the tower a soaring and contemporary. Which they must be basing on all the glass, ok the can have the soaring bit and even the contemporary, yet is that enough for what they had to start with – a great location with 3 wonderful views, some noise from the major road, and room for quite a few townhouses.
When such a good site as this becomes a good design rather than an excellent design encompassing all the possibilities of the area encoded into the design and matched to the wishes and not just the standard needs of prospective buyers, some wondering should occur.
Is it the lack of thought and action on the developer or is it the weakness of the condo buying public, who may be unwilling to purchase a unit in a building that is greater in whole if there is some risk attached to the design.
The town homes in this project do not suffer from the problems described above of the tower they appear from the artist rendering to be well thought out and will be useful and fun to live in. Useful top floor decks will provide and the in ease of living the stacked design of the units.
One of their construction images JUL 08 Windermere by The Lake
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Options for Homes – Village by the Park development sits at the bottom of a land basin just south of the CPR main line running east west across Toronto, and there is a large concrete wall held back with tiebacks which support the Railroads tracks above. This wall may have been shown to be unsound at some period during the demo. A number of new steel beams have been driven into the ground at the top end of the site by the railroad tracks. The old CanTire store stood on the site for at least 40 years so some remedial action was probably needed just in the normal course of wear and stress that building foundations would have suffered from the train movement.
The pictures above are of the new pile driven steel beams, right now it’s difficult to get images of the original tiebacks used in the current retaining wall. Info on Tiebacks from wikipedia [opens in new window}
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The opening of the 1st part of Vine parkette’s renovation happened today with community members, Lowes employees who section 37 development funds contributed to the reno. A good size count of residents, Lowe’s employees and parks people were on hand to help.
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What you see at the end of Keele St, well at the end in the middle of Keele St
Keele St is a major arterial road in The junction and Mount Dennis areas and has the usual aspect of having a dead end right in the middle of it. And it is this dead end which has a mile of Keele St below it to the south and a number of miles of roadway above it to the north. The Keele street dead end right in the middle of all this road is so much a fun and interesting characteristic of the community.
At this end-middle there is a plot of land with a number of buildings on it belong to a company called Terrazzo Mosaic & Tile Co Ltd one of those most interesting companies that help build community such as The junction and Mount Dennis which thrive on a mix of residential and industry.
Posted by Robert
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Picture Credit – www.britinbrooklyn.com
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Village by the Park CanTire Demo complete to ground level
So it’s ready — to start another condo build in south west Toronto, as Village by the Park – Options for Homes site gets cleared of the debris of the old building on the site. The old CanTire store at Dundas St. and Keele St was completely leveled to the ground yesterday. At the same time The James Club condominium at 1135 Royal York Road, is progressing with what looks like part of building foundations beginning to rise out of the ground.
While these two projects are entirely different in the type of housing they are building, there still is a common issue of bringing people to live on land which has sat for the past decade in each of their areas. In addition the sites which are unusual local for residential us use. In the case of The James Club condominiums, you could locations for the placement of the building as in an off ramp. The Village by the Park butts the CPR Tracks. Yet these condos will build neighborhood just because of their placement by putting people feet in disused areas of the community.
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A large D class truck full of wood chips with an internal pusher to get the chips out of the truck has dropped off two loads by 12.30 pm Wednesday. 
Toronto parks which is having Lowes stores employee volunteers and the community assist in the spreading of these chips, better have quite a number of shovels.
Posted by Robert
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Randy Park, Chairperson of Post Carbon Toronto, combines hard science, economics, and knowledge of how people think and make decisions to provide you with an unbiased perspective on possible futures for energy in a talk at the Humbercrest United Church
Humbercrest United Church
16 Baby Point Road
In the sanctuary
Free admission
For more information
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Driving west on the Gardiner Expressway you can four condo cranes south of the roadway, Councillors in WTO really need to look fast and hard at the issue of the quick rise in numbers of the condos, as it will greatly affect all residents. Condominiums will be greater in number in housing units as compared to standalone homes. Yet right now the city is orientated to single standalone homes followed by apartment blocks. Is the WTO going to be ready with services for the change?
Backgrounder info: click links below
A few days ago the Globe published story – For the first time in generations, developers are now building as much housing inside city limits as they are in outlying suburbs, also it states the age of urban sprwal in Toronto may be over.
This article [opens in new window] from the magazine Canadian Architect speaks to the issue of what’s being built doesn’t challenge any precepts of basic housing. yet the City of Toronto is changing at a rapid rate.
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Village by The Park a Options for Homes affordable condo development in the Junction is moving along fast with the demo of the old Canadian Tire store. This must be a welcome relief to the many purchasers of the units who have seen the date when they will be able to move in be pushed back.
Condo developers have to take their responsibility to purchasers very seriously and act with concern for their welfare all thought the process of selling them a unit and the later building of the building itself. Pushing back an occupancy date causes purchases to have to rework their housing arrangements so they have a place to live until their unit is ready. This can be very difficult for some people. 
These pictures taken from the vantage point of the north side of the development probably provide a view that won’t be there when the building is complete.
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The Junction Parents blog has an post about Dr. Jack Newman’s Breastfeeding clinic is out of funds… again
From the The Toronto Star click the above link to visit The Junction Parents Blog for a link to the complete story and a link to the clinics site
A renowned Toronto clinic that has helped thousands of mothers successfully breastfeed their infants is pleading for financial help to keep its doors open.
The Newman Breastfeeding Clinic & Institute, which sees about 2,400 mothers a year and is a popular resource for educators and health-care professionals, has been financed privately by a family foundation since 2005.
On Sept. 30 that arrangement will end, clinic founder and pediatrician Dr. Jack Newman said yesterday. The clinic will only be able to operate for a couple of months without more money. Newman is prepared to use his own savings, but only for a little while.
Posted by Robert
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