Church & Wellesley - Yorkville - Annex : Development News

Bloor's own mink mile is finally getting a patio.

Charles Khabouth and Alessandro Munge have joined to put together La Societe,  a French restaurant that will occupy the space of the former Dynasty Chinese restaurant on the mezzanine level of the Colonnade, spilling out onto the street in the upscale rental building's open-air plaza on the south side of the street.

The restaurant, with what its PR people are calling its "authentically Parisian" menus, is set to open June 14.

With any luck, they'll evolve into something authentically Torontonian.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Andrea Cooper

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The density of Yorkville's Hazelton Avenue will be increasing in a couple of years if things go right for Alterra and Zinc.

A new design for the existing building at 36 Hazelton, the former St. Basil's Catholic school built in 1914, was unveiled last week. The resulting condo will, in the way of such things, be called 36Hazelton.

"36Hazelton represents a unique response to context; combining cutting-edge contemporary architecture with a heritage address, while blazing new trails in the evolution of urban living," said architect Les Klein, principal of Quadrangle.

And he's not just blowing smoke on the evolution front. In addition to massing this building mostly out back, one of its features will be what they're calling a wine lounge, with 22 separate cellars for residents who like such things, and an adjoining tasting room for their friends.

Units will be between 1,073 and 4,693 square feet. Landscaping will be done by Holbrook and Associates and the interiors by the Chapman Design Group.

If things go as planned, the building is expected to open for occupancy in the fall of 2013, when it seems Mark Wahlberg will be moving in.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Molly Watsa

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Seaton Village is about to try out a new kind of traffic calming.

Ever since last year's construction on Bathurst north of Dupont prompted people to find alternate routes, Barton, a formerly quiet residential street running east-west between Bathurst and Christie, has gotten busy.

"About a year and a half ago we got a request from a number of parents at Palmerston school, most of whom walk their kids to school along Barton," says Councillor Adam Vaughan. "They were wondering what we could do to get a handle on the traffic situation."

Barton already had speed bumps and reduced speed limits, and residents didn't want no-turn signs reducing their own access to the street. So on a walk through, the councillor noticed the parking patterns on the street, which alternated north and south every block. It reminded him of a idea that had been presented at a pedestrian conference he had attended in The Hague.

"We decided to zig zag every half block," he says, "so there were essentially pinch points created mid-block that made people slow down."

The only expense associated with the plan is the $60-$70 per block needed for signs, which will be going up this week.

Vaughan says they'll revisit the situation next year to see how it's working, but he's confident they've found a solution that may end up being a model to the rest of the city.

"Jane Jacobs said it in one of her books," he says, "the only thing that slows cars down is other cars."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Adam Vaughan

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Victoria College's Wymilwood student union building is doubling in size, thanks to a donation from two monied alumni.

The new structure, with an extra 20,000 square feet of space added on to the original 1952 building designed by Eric Arthur, will be named the Goldring Student Centre, after donors Blake and Judy Goldring, who contributed $4 million to the new project.

This year is the college's 175th anniversary.

The building, designed by Moriyama and Teshima, will add a new quad, a renovated cafe, room for 20 student clubs, an assembly space, a two-storey lounge and lockers.

"It will double in space, but not all the current space is within student use," says Victoria president Paul Gooch, "so they'll actually get significantly more space."

Gooch says that in addition to the student population roughly doubling since Wymilwood was built, it currently exists on several levels, none of which is connected by elevator, so the expansion will also make the space more universally accessible.

A ceremony to announce the gift and the plans was held on campus on Saturday. Wymilwood is closed, and will be until the development is completed, sometime late in the fall of 2012. Gooch expects construction to begin later this summer.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paul Gooch

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Vermont Square Park is getting an overhaul.

After years of gradual neglect, the park is being rehabilitated in two phases, the first of which is beginning in June.

"Over the 90s and the first decade of this millennium, I think that municipal services have changed, and imperceptibly our park became sort of a wasteland," says longtime Seaton Village resident Andrew Ignatieff, chair of the Vermont Square Park Renewal Committee (and Michael's brother). "If any of us thought about it, we thought the city will deal with it, and I'm sure the city thought the people can take it over and take responsibility for it, so it was in pretty bad shape, particularly in the playground where a lot of the equipment had become broken and damaged and unsafe for young children."

The cycle was broken with a call from Councillor Adam Vaughan, who suggested the park would be a good candidate for city-funded help.

The committee was struck by the Seaton Village Residents' Association 18 months ago, and after extensive neighbourhood consultations, the particular changes were agreed, including new playground equipment, and Plant Architects were engaged to design the new landscaping.

The budget for the project is $500,000. The first phase is due to be completed by August, and the second phase, which will mostly involve infrastructural improvements, will be done in 2012.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Andrew Ignatieff

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It looks like residents are having their way with the design of the upscale condo proposed for 128 Pears at Avenue Road near Yorkville.

When people from the neighbourhood complained about the 11-storey design, which exceeds the as-of-right height restrictions by 24 metres, the developer and architect altered the plans to try to address at least some of the concerns.

As a result, the building's upper floors will be set back, the front balconies may be replaced by Juliet balconies, or eliminated entirely. People were also worried about shadows, as they often are, and the developer is creating a 3D model to show how the building's shadows will behave.

According to the most recent city guidelines, the condos themselves will be family friendly.

"The number of suites proposed is 45," Councillor Adam Vaughan said in his newsletter to constituents, "and adjoining rooms would have break-out panels for the option of enlarging the space. Forty percent of the units would be three bedroom."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Adam Vaughan

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The James Cooper Mansion in finished.

The Tridel project, best known for the Second Empire house at Sherbourne and Linden that used to house the Knights of Columbus and is now the most distinctive part of this 32-storey condo, is finished and people are moving in.

"We preserved a century-old Victorian mansion, connected it to the modern high-rise, and the mansion is now the condominium common area amenities space," says Jim Ritchie, Tridel's senior vice president of sales and marketing.

With more than a quarter million square feet of residential space, this tower, which had been praised by the Star' Chris Hume, is adding some long lost vitality to a Toronto strip that was once one of its most desirable. Just south of Rosedale and close to both the Sherbourne subway station and the Yonge and Bloor nexus, it's an obvious candidate for revival.

Work began back in 2007, when the James Cooper Mansion itself was moved closer to the street so that the heritage house could be incorporated in its entirety into the project, rather than simply donating its facade.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jim Ritchie

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The city's ritziest mall is getting a makeover.

Hazelton Lanes, responding to the expansion of two of their anchor tenants, who I turn are responding to an explosion of condo residents in the neighbourhood, are undergoing $10 million in renovations, to be completed by October.

The biggest mall-wide change will be the conversion of the south atrium into what Lanes vice president Edward Liu calls the Oval Square, designed by architect Johnson Chou Inc.

"There's an opportunity to take advantage of our rotunda space, that was formerly an ice rink, and create a community space to use on a year-round basis," Liu says.

The mall, with about 60 tenants in 165,000 square feet of rentable space, was originally developed by Richard Wookey and opened in 1976.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Edward Liu


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The neighbourhood public meeting to discuss an application to add more businesses to the Dupont strip between Spadina and Christie was held on Monday.

It concerned a particular application, to divide up the space inside an exiting building at 555 Dupont Street just east of Manning, between Bathurst and Christie, the former home of Leal Rentals.

The applicant, Sorensen Gravely Lowes Planning Associates Inc., represented at the meeting by Ming Lau, specified a bike store, an art gallery, a day nursery, an art supply store, a several fashion-related shops in their proposal to the city.

"Some seem happy because that particular site has got graffiti on it, barking dogs," says Rebecca Hewitt, Councillor Adam Vaughan's assistant in charge of the northern part of his ward, speaking before the meeting. "I'm expecting there might be some concern about increased traffic. We'll see."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Rebecca Hewitt

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Toronto is finally able to take its espresso standing up.

After the briefest of renovations, the Yonge and Bloor location of Crema Coffee Co. has become the first cafe in the city, as far as its owner knows, to have a stand-up, standalone espresso bar.

"It's so people will have a place to stand and have a quick espresso," says Geoff Polci, "basically like they do in Italy."

The walnut-top bar was installed on March 25 by Tom King of Discrete and Discreet, cost a total of $800.

Polci plans to install another, possibly larger one at his location in the Junction over the summer.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Geoff Polci

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Starting on April 4, the authors of a city-sponsored report on the future of Toronto the Vertical will present their findings to the public in search of comment.

The meetings are taking place in the three wards --- 20, 27 and 28 -- covered by the report.

"There will be information up on boards," says the city's Tall Buildings project manager Helen Bulat, that will give people the opportunity to look at what's being proposed, and speak to the representatives of the architecture firm of Hariri Pontarini and Urban Strategies, Inc., "then there will be a Power Point presentation that highlights what the report is about.

"The point," she says, "is to get feedback � on what is it we have to do with these tall buildings to make them more palatable, in terms of their relationship with one another and their relationship to the street and surrounding parks and so on and so forth their impact on views, their impact on historical buildings and existing development "

The first meeting will be held in the parish hall of St. Basil's church at 50 St Joseph Street on the St. Michael's College campus, the second at Palmerston Library on April 7, and the third at the St. Lawrence Community and Recreation Centre's gym at 230 The Esplanade on April 11.

Anyone who wants to have their say but can't make it to any of the meetings can write in to [email protected].

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Helen Bulat

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Skirt, a women's clothing store with shops in Waterloo, Guelph, Peterborough and London, opened its first Toronto location on Feb. 8.

The storefront at 476 Bloor, just east of Bathurst, the 1,200 square foot shop needed about $40,000 worth of renovations to transform it from the All Things Tea shop into a boutique catering to 18-30-year-old women.

"It was quite a bit of work," says manager Carmen Mitchell, who worked closely with owner Walter Engel on the opening. "We replaced the floors, we replaced all the lighting, we switched the door entrance at the back, knocked out of a few walls and a bathroom and extended the back room for storage."

The work was handled by contractor Mark Muller.

The company, which started up in the late 90s, though most of the shops have opened over the past two years, also operates seasonal stores in Grand Bend, Port Carling and Bala.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Carmen Mitchell

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The 700 square foot space that once housed Light Options on Avenue Road has re-opened as a high-end German bedding boutique.

H.C. Sanders, elsewhere known as Sanders of Germany, a 125-year-old company, moved into the 122-year-old house at 102-104 Avenue Road, which it shares with Richard Wengle Architect, in November.

The shop, which also has a basement and underground parking, is the first entry into the Canadian market for the Bramsche-based drapery company, which got into the bedding business in 1993 and has also recently branched out into the South African and Ukrainian market.

The company launched its Canadian operations with a party at the Thompson Hotel, attended by the Sanders family, headed by CEO Hans-Christian Sanders.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jo Ann Baguioro-Thompson

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One of the largest houses on Admiral Road, the Annex nexus that's home to an Atwood, a Clarkson, a Ralston Saul and a Weston, belongs to the Salvation Army, and its massive renovation is close to complete.

The house at number 78, built in 1911 and acquired by the Salvation Army in 1966, is part of the religious organization's Homestead program for substance abusing women.

The renovation was funded largely through donations, including one for $1.5 million from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation. The renovations are comprehensive, according to Major Elizabeth Price, Homestead's executive director.

""The heating, plumbing and electrical systems will be updated," she says in a release. "Every part of the building requires access to stairs, which prevents us from servicing women with mobility issues. A small elevator will be installed. Program spaces will be more accessible, larger and brighter. The building will be environmentally friendly. We will be able to partner with more agencies. Residential space will be cleaner, safer, and brighter and will maintain a home-like environment."

The renovation began a year ago, and is expected to be completed shortly.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Elizabeth Price

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Qi Natural Food has opened a new location double the size of its first.

The 2,000 square foot shop at Bloor and Christie expanded into a second, 4,000 square foot location at 572 Bloor West, called Herbs and Nutrition, just east of Bathurst in the old Payless Shoes space.

Owners Joanne and Yong Nam Hur have put their son, Ken, in charge of the new location.

"It's a full grocery store," says Ken Hur. "We're going to have lots more household items. We have a produce section, which we didn't have room for before, and a larger bulk section as well."

Though Hur says the renovation was not extensive, limited to re-flooring and the removal of some drywall and installing new lighting, the work took two months, before the store opened in December.

The Hurs signed the lease for the new space last summer.

Qi has another location at on Eglinton west of Bathurst.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Ken Hur

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or being renovated, a park in the works or even a new house being built in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to [email protected].