East Bayfront meeting tonight

This is a note from Waterfront Toronto about the East Bayfront project, which we've written about in the past. It's Queens Quay East, starting just after the Redpath plant. We can't make it tonight but hope one of you will and report back.

East Bayfront is a 22-hectare site that extends from Jarvis Street to Parliament Street and from Lake Shore Boulevard to the water’s edge.  East Bayfront is planned to be a new vibrant, waterfront community with mixed-use development, continuous access to the water's edge, public transit and a series of new parks and open spaces.


On July 8, Waterfront Toronto is holding a public meeting to present plans and discuss key features of East Bayfront including its water’s edge promenade, Parliament WaveDeck and evolving design for the innovative stormwater management system. 

A presentation will be made by world renowned landscape architect Adriaan Geuze of the West 8 + DTAH design team.  In addition, updates will be provided on construction activities and upcoming groundbreakings for Sherbourne Park and Sugar Beach. 

Workbooks will be distributed and public feedback will be solicited.  Members of the project team will be on hand to answer questions and share ideas.

PUBLIC MEETING: 
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Novotel Hotel, Champagne Ballroom
45 The Esplanade, Toronto
6:30 p.m. (Open House)
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (Presentation)

All hail the Simcoe Wavedeck, be careful on the waves

So today, the Simcoe Wavedeck was supposed to launch but maybe they needed another day to get things today. With all that last minute work, we finally see how they intend to deal with those high 'waves'. We always thought they were a little dangerous looking, but knowing how careful Toronto can get, they installed railings that should pretty much keep most people away from the waves. We can see how now people are going to go up there for pictures.

Anyhow, here's the 'launch' notice for Friday.

Please note the Simcoe WaveDeck opening
scheduled for Thursday, June 11 will now occur on Friday, June 12 at 10:00
a.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Waterfront Toronto together with the Government of Canada, Province of
Ontario and City of Toronto will officially open the Simcoe WaveDeck on
Friday, June 12.
The Simcoe WaveDeck is the second and most dramatic urban dock being
built along Toronto's central waterfront. This uniquely Canadian structure
features an informal public amphitheatre-style space with impressive curves
that soar as high as 2.6 metres above the lake.

Webcams let you keep track of Waterfront Toronto's work

Waterfront Toronto has a few neat webcams set up so you can track the progress of the Simcoe Wavedeck, the East Bayfront construction on Queens Quay East and of the West Don Lands.

It's pretty neat, because it also has an archive function that lets you look at pictures from past days. For example, here's a picture of the Simcoe Wavedeck on April 9.



And a picture from this past weekend, May 31.



View all the webcams here

Simcoe Wavedeck to open next week

Just in time for the Luminato finale, we guess, but the Simcoe Wavedeck (across from the Rabba) is set to open next Thursday, the Post reports.

The whimsical wavedeck bridge under construction at Lower Simcoe Street will be open for public use next Thursday, says Adriaan Geuze, the Dutch mastermind behind the city’s gradually improving waterfront.

“They animate your eyes. They make Queen’s Quay literally kiss the water,” he exclaimed today, of the wooden bridges that imitate rolling waves.

Here's a picture of the almost-completed deck, taken from a webcam set up by Waterfront Toronto.



And how it looked in early April when we snapped this shot

Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association meeting

Got this little notice about the BQNA's upcoming annual meeting at the Harbourfront Community Centre.

BQNA Annual General Meeting - Thursday May 21st
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The BQNA will report on its accomplishments of the past year, share its plans for the coming year and introduce its executive for 2009-10. Our guest speaker will be Waterfront Toronto CEO John Campbell to talk about the improvements coming to Queens Quay and our parks and public spaces.

Thursday, May 21st, 7-9pm at HCC, Medium Assembly Room.

Uh oh, is the cash still coming our way?

Toronto Star recently reporting that the big $500 million pegged for waterfront development may not all get to the project.

The Star picks it up:

The federal government may be unable to spend all of the $500 million it has committed to the overhaul of Toronto's waterfront before it lapses, according to an internal report obtained by the Toronto Star.

Nearly $200 million is at risk, the report warns, because of unrealistic timelines, too much legal caution and the shuffling of federal responsibility for the project through six ministries since 2000.

A March 31, 2011 funding deadline is fast approaching and if it isn't met, the blame will be on all three levels of government, who have collectively turned 800 hectares of environmental contamination into a bureaucratic wasteland, said the June 2008 report, released only now to the Star under the Access to Information Act.

It's no secret that things have taken a long time to get rolling on this waterfront development. It was November 1999 when the city, province and federal government announced the landmark agreements. It was so long ago we're talking Lastman, Harris and Chretien.

The city has a chronology here which just shows how long things have taken. We think that things have speeded up considerably in the past few years and the plans for the Queens Quay redevelopment seem on track, if not still needing approval by the city later this fall. Sure, we've got the Spadina Wavedeck and the other wavedecks should be completed this summers. And yes, the East Bayfront project is well under way.

In short, it's laudable that Waterfront Toronto's got its act together, but it would be a tremendous shame that the fact it could have the rugged pulled out from underneath them because it took a long time to get started.

A look at the Lower Don Lands as plans unveiled

The video above was released by Waterfront Toronto and gives an interesting view of what the Lower Don Lands will look like in the future. We're talking about Cherry Street, which you'll reach if you keep on going east on Queens Quay.

As we wrote earlier, Waterfront Toronto released its vision for the Lower Don Lands last week.

From the National Post

Plans to transform Toronto’s industrial Lower Don Lands into a vibrant neighbourhood may be the impetus for a conservation project that local activists have been promoting for nearly 30 years: the naturalization of the Don River’s mouth.

Waterfront Toronto today revealed preliminary schematics for the Lower Don Lands redevelopment, which includes reopening the mouth of the Don River and allowing it to meander its way into Lake Ontario between the Keating and Shipping channels.

---

Waterfront Toronto will unveil the plans to the public this weekend, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Lawrence Hall, 157 King Street East.

Future of the Lower Don Lands to be unveiled

This moved a few days ago, and should be interesting to see what plans Waterfront Toronto has for the Lower Don Lands.

Waterfront Toronto is holding a technical briefing for media on May 7 to provide detailed plans for the Lower Don Lands which have been developed through an Environmental Assessment (EA) process.
The plans for the area take an innovative approach to naturalizing the
mouth of the Don River by moving it from the Keating Channel to Lake Ontario,
providing for the transformation of a long neglected area into sustainable new
parks and communities.
Jointly sponsored by Waterfront Toronto, City of Toronto, and Toronto
Transit Commission, the EA has examined several alternative planning solutions
for the 125-hectare (308 acre) industrial area located south of the rail
corridor in the east end of Toronto's waterfront.
Toronto Region and Conservation will also present the new river alignment
and innovative flood protection strategies for the Don River.

Watching Queens Quay's eastern front: East Bayside

Many of us Queens Quay dwellers venture out east beyond Yonge Street. We go east to get to the big LCBO or to the mega Loblaws at Jarvis. Some of us would venture as far as the Guvernment or maybe even visit one of the piers.

As well, any cyclist, occassional runner or, more likely, a driver who has used Queens Quay as a median to get from downtown to the Beaches knows the kilometre or so stretch from Jarvis to Cherry Street. It's vast, unhospital, and lonely. In reality, it's one of the key routes that links up to the waterfront and the last big parcels of land that's disconnecting us from the water.

Walk on the south side of Queens Quay and you'll be forced to either walk on railroad tracks right in front of the sugar factory or cross to the north side.

What is now a relatively quiet area is about to change with a project called East Bayfront, set to bring massive development. We'll save big opinions on this for later posts but it's at least worth looking at the area.

Waterfront Toronto calls it the jewel in the waterfront crown (excuse us, we think York to Bathurst ain't bad, let alone the area south of High Park -- whoops, so much for lacking in commentary).

The picture below, taken from their website and highlighted through some photoshopping, is the area in question. Right now, west of the the sugar plant, there's starting to be activity. For many years, it was used as vacant land or for some short of warehouse use. There's also that sports dome at Sherbourne.



Some randomness about the project (see website here):

-Transit a 5 minute walk (No plans yet of a streetcar line? We know there's a bus that stops in front of the Loblaws and the nearest Streetcar is north at King street or west at the Westin (a kilometre a way -- 5 minutes is a very quick walk)

-It's 22 hectares (about 50 football fields if you're wondering. American football fields)

-6000 residential units (1000 of them affordable).

-Jobs for 8000

-A 1.5K waterfront walkway

Two parks to be completed by 2010, Sugar Beach (named, presumably after the molasses smelling Redpath facility) and Sherbourne Park (named after, well, the street). We'll post renderings of both of them tomorrow.

Their sales pitch:

"Low scale development along the water's edge"

"2.5 million sq. ft. of commercial space"

The official PR line:
"East Bayfront is a 22-hectare (55-acre) site, envisioned to be a showcase dynamic mixed-use community - a place of design excellence, high levels of sustainability and strong relationships to the water's edge. East Bayfront will become an animated downtown neighbourhood where people are drawn to live, work and play.

There are two development sites (Bayside and Parkside):


Parkside pictured top right in blue, a one acre site at Queens Quay East and Lower Sherbourne Street, has 700,000 sq ft for mixed used

Who's short listed to build:

The Daniels Corporation (Canada): Builder developer that built the Eaton Centre

The Great Gulf Group of Companies (Canada): firm that builds family homes

Menkes Development Ltd. (Canada) and AEW Capital Management LP (USA): home, condo and commercial builder

Tridel Builders Inc. (Canada) and Concert Properties Ltd. (Canada): Tridel is a major condo builder (list of past condos). Concert Properties is a condo builder with most projects in B.C.

Walker Corporation Pty Ltd. (Australia) and Cityzen Development Corporation (Canada): Walker is based in Australia and Cityzen is building the Pier 27 project.


Bayside, a 13 acre site between Lower Sherbourne Street and Parliament Street has (1.7 million sq ft) of mixed-use development potential.

Short listed teams:

The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited (Canada), Monarch (Canada),
Fram Building Group Ltd. (Canada) and Albanese Development Corporation (USA): Cadillac Fairview in commercial real estate and Monarch is a condo and home builder. Fram is also a condo and home developer.

Hines (USA)

Menkes Development Ltd. (Canada) and AEW Capital Management LP (USA): home, condo and commercial builder

Walker Corporation Pty Ltd. (Australia) and Cityzen Development Corporation (Canada): Walker is based in Australia and Cityzen is building the Pier 27 project.

Heard about the Hood: Media roundup

Wrapping up what's written about the waterfront. This week, focus on the eastern waterfront

Recent coverage of the neighbourhood include a list of new year's resolutions by Toronto Star's Christopher Hume, headlined New year brings opportunity to transform the city. In it, Hume says:

The transformation of the Toronto waterfront: We know, we know, nothing ever happens on the waterfront. Sometimes that definitely seems the case, but in a city where change happens at a glacial pace, there's no point in holding one's breath. Still, the impatient amongst us are waiting anxiously to see what George Brown College plans to do with its large site south of Queens Quay east of Jarvis St. This project has the scope to alter the neighbourhood dramatically and bring new vitality to the area. The campus represents the best opportunity so far to redo the central waterfront.

Another one by Hume

Indeed, there are big plans a foot for the area between Yonge Street and Cherry, long the vast undeveloped wild 'east' of the central waterfront. The National Post focuses in on projects slated for the future.

A few excerpts:

By spring, work will begin on Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Park – the area’s main green spaces. Also coming soon is the beginning of construction on the massive West Don Lands project a few blocks north, and the possible demolition of the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway.

The projects come after many years of discussion, and raise hopes for a vital district free of the planning mistakes of the central waterfront.

More on the organization leading this charge.

Led by Waterfront Toronto – the organization that the city, province and federal government created to manage the project – designers are attempting to reshape the area south of Queen’s Quay, between Lower Jarvis and Parliament streets, into a livable neighbourhood after years of neglect or industrial use.