The very slow process of replacing two of Toronto's
better designed slab apartment buildings has finally reached the demolition stage. The north tower is expected to be gone by the end of this month, and the south tower by the end of August.
The Tweedsmuir Apartments, at 310 and 320 Tweedsmuir Avenue near Bathurst and St. Clair, were completed just months before the death of their designer,
Peter Dickinson, in 1961 and have been mostly vacant for several years, with the last 25 tenants moving out last year.
The old towers had a total of about 250 rental units. The new configuration, designed by
Page + Steele and owned and managed by
Morguard, will house about 600, 350 rentals in the first and 250 units in the second tower which will, according to market conditions when it's completed, be either condos or rentals. There will be 146 units in the first rental tower set aside for tenants who had lived in the building as far back as about 1995, according to Morguard's director of development Brian Athey.
"We've worked very closely with our neighbours, especially the schools, to work out the times of days we take deliveries," Athey says. "We've co-ordinated with the school to do the heavy take-down of the south building while kids are on their break."
Demolition is expected to cost about $2 million, and construction of the first tower should begin in the spring of 2011, with a 2013 occupancy.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Brian Athey
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