Building development that recognizes and grows a community is a great goal and often is missed. Not with The Village by High Park development being constructed On Keele St just north of Dundas St. West. partnership of the Options for Homes corporation and the builder Deltera. Through the study of the communities past built history and current needs of the prospective buyers they have designed and are constructing a building which will not only serve the people who will live in the a building but one that with attend to the community though a integrated visual appeal. During the blogs tour of the construction site last week I was stuck by the partnerships adept understanding, reworking and adaption of historical elements of local buildings there cut lines and brick facades with the addition of new methods of design and construction. The partnership is creating a new building greatly suited to the community both past and present.
All of this corporate effort is greatly enhanced and in this authors opinion , handsomely aided and made manifest by the choice a senior site superintendent with deep historical connections to the area. Deltera’s senior site superintendent Sean McCaffrey is a direct descendant of Samuel Nordheimer the owner of the Nordheimer Piano factory pictured below.
Unfortunately, the Samuel Nordheimer Piano factory building no longer exists in the Junction. (2nd image below) Yet what a great visual image it gave to the community and would still have added had it survived. We no longer have many of buildings and businesses built by the visionary industrialists that made the Junction great during it’s manufacturing origin.
Mr McCaffrey who invited the blog to tour the site gave a great amount of useful and interesting information and insights about the project which we will in the coming flow of posts about the project communicate to you. Also he has taken interest and understands how important this 1st major addition to the Junction community in many years will help redefine the community. All be… I felt the same feeling of visionary development and thoughtful effort in him that his forbearer Samuel Nordheimer must applied to his work in the Junction.
As regular readers of the blog will remember, the blog followed closely Mr McCaffrey, Deltera and their team of masons as they historicity rebuild the return wall of the CPR subway Bridge this past summer. That is just one example of the thought and commitment being put forward on the project more will follow in the coming posts.
Below is our 1st series of images related to the text above and below these images the blogs 1st images of the inside of the site – hope they excite all of you as much as they did this author.
Tomorrow audio and images related the environment efforts of the development and image essay on the flow of construction.








3 Comments
Excellent work sir!
I'm very curious about this project and enjoy the nuggets of history you provide in this blog. You must have been able to take some images of the Junction from a vantage point never seen! I remember in one of your earlier posts about this project you pointed out the very fact that some of the views here would be most interesting (south west looking towards High Park and south east looking towards Downtown. I'm eager to see a view in the direction of the CN Tower! Keep it up, and look forward to the rest in this series!
Fantastic stuff! The Nordheimer family home looks like quite the building, too. Is that in Parkdale?
When is this condo development scheduled to be completed ?