A week ago, residents in the King-Spadina area got a chance to take a peek at an idiosyncratic new approach to the development of their idiosyncratically zoned neighbourhood.
"We're looking at a couple of blocks that have properties that are landlocked," says ward councillor Adam Vaughan. "They don't constitute development sites in and of themselves, but parcels of land and adjoining developers are proposing a way of building in the interior of a rather large block while protecting heritage buildings on King and on Wellington."
In addition to these developments having no effect on any street-facing buildings, they will also have to contend with rights-of-way that date back to the 1820s. These were put in place to assure property owners' access to fresh water, a real concern in the early 19th century. "It's almost impossible to strip a property of water access," Vaughan says.
As a result, the developments, which won't be much higher than 35 metres, or 10 storeys, are likely to include pedestrian walkways along the old water-access routes. Vaughan compares the idea to the
courtyards of Berlin, or a series of apartment buildings in Paris' Marais district that have carriageways cut through them.
About 40 local residents got an introduction to the basic concepts on Wednesday, as visualized by architects
David Pontarini,
Les Klein and
Core Architects for the Wellington site. A fuller workshop is being held on Dec. 12 to go into more detail. (You can call or email
Vaughan’s office for details.)
Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Adam Vaughan
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