Sometimes on this blog, I like to write about things that I wish would happen. For example, back in 2014 I wrote this post calling Toronto's Bloor-Danforth subway corridor a "land use crime scene." And in it, I called the intersection of Bloor & Dundas West one of the best connected mobility hubs in the region. Then earlier this year, I quoted a post by Reece Martin where he referred to this same node as "the second-best transit node in the country" after Union Station.

I'm fairly confident that these posts did absolutely nothing. But today, I am happy to report that my friend and former colleague, Adrian Tarapacky (now VP of Development at Fairway Development Group), has submitted a rezoning application for a new tall building at 2475 Dundas Street West. The site is just north of Bloor Street West, at the intersection of Glenlake Avenue, and it's exactly the kind of development I was wishing for when I wrote the above posts.

Here's a rendering of the proposed podium:

And here's the context:

Any developer will tell you that it's not easy assembling this many parcels, which is likely one of the reasons why the street/area remains this underdeveloped. So great work, Adrian. I look forward to you bringing more vibrancy to my neighborhood and the second-best transit node in the country. I also know that you have impeccable taste in lunch sandwiches, so I look forward to seeing what happens with the ground floor retail spaces.

If you'd like to learn more about the development proposal, here's an article from UrbanToronto.

A recent development proposal at 1925 Victoria Park Road (Toronto) by Well Grounded Real Estate (developer) and Partisans (architect) is noteworthy for a number of reasons:

• The 12-storey, 168-suite residential mid-rise building is proposed to be built out of mass-timber.

• It is targeting Toronto Green Standard Tier 4, which is a voluntary, difficult-to-achieve, and expensive sustainability target. It is the equivalent of net-zero and I believe the only projects to date that have achieved this level in the city are public projects.

• The circulation spaces are exterior single-loaded corridors that face an internal courtyard. This approach is very common in some cities, but almost non-existent in Toronto. Usually because someone will cite our winters as being a problem and because double-loaded corridors are typically the most efficient (rentable area / gross construction area). But the benefits are that you don't need to heat/cool these corridor spaces and you open up the possibility of suites with windows on both ends.

• The design doesn't generally follow the typical "pyramid-shaped confection" that has come to define Toronto mid-rise buildings, though it does seem to generally conform to the 45 degree angular planes that we love to obsess over. Instead, it is starting to resemble a typical European courtyard building. Good. For some more commentary on this, check out John Lorinc's recent piece in the Globe and the Mail.

This is unquestionably an ambitious project. And ambition is what cities need. So I am pleased to write about it today on the blog. If you'd like to learn more, check out their project website.

Image: Partisans

I am usually known for my optimism for the future. But I am having a difficult time deciphering whether the new 170-km-long vertical city that Saudia Arabia just revealed (see above video) is a legitimate development proposal, a new metaverse project, or a dystopian spoof about how we're all going to live in beehives once autonomous everything and artificial intelligence takes over.

The Line, as it is cleverly called, is intended to form the basis for a new and allegedly livable city called Neom. This is a city that is intended to lead Saudi Arabia into some sort of glorious post-oil future. And the plan is for it to eventually house some 9 million people; all within a 170-km-long mirrored strip that is 200m wide, 500m tall, and accessible end-to-end in 20 minutes via high-speed rail.

I would love to see the development pro forma for this one (if it even exists), but I certainly don't need it to determine that this thing is never going to be built -- certainly not in its current incarnation.

Sometimes on this blog, I like to write about things that I wish would happen. For example, back in 2014 I wrote this post calling Toronto's Bloor-Danforth subway corridor a "land use crime scene." And in it, I called the intersection of Bloor & Dundas West one of the best connected mobility hubs in the region. Then earlier this year, I quoted a post by Reece Martin where he referred to this same node as "the second-best transit node in the country" after Union Station.

I'm fairly confident that these posts did absolutely nothing. But today, I am happy to report that my friend and former colleague, Adrian Tarapacky (now VP of Development at Fairway Development Group), has submitted a rezoning application for a new tall building at 2475 Dundas Street West. The site is just north of Bloor Street West, at the intersection of Glenlake Avenue, and it's exactly the kind of development I was wishing for when I wrote the above posts.

Here's a rendering of the proposed podium:

And here's the context:

Any developer will tell you that it's not easy assembling this many parcels, which is likely one of the reasons why the street/area remains this underdeveloped. So great work, Adrian. I look forward to you bringing more vibrancy to my neighborhood and the second-best transit node in the country. I also know that you have impeccable taste in lunch sandwiches, so I look forward to seeing what happens with the ground floor retail spaces.

If you'd like to learn more about the development proposal, here's an article from UrbanToronto.

A recent development proposal at 1925 Victoria Park Road (Toronto) by Well Grounded Real Estate (developer) and Partisans (architect) is noteworthy for a number of reasons:

• The 12-storey, 168-suite residential mid-rise building is proposed to be built out of mass-timber.

• It is targeting Toronto Green Standard Tier 4, which is a voluntary, difficult-to-achieve, and expensive sustainability target. It is the equivalent of net-zero and I believe the only projects to date that have achieved this level in the city are public projects.

• The circulation spaces are exterior single-loaded corridors that face an internal courtyard. This approach is very common in some cities, but almost non-existent in Toronto. Usually because someone will cite our winters as being a problem and because double-loaded corridors are typically the most efficient (rentable area / gross construction area). But the benefits are that you don't need to heat/cool these corridor spaces and you open up the possibility of suites with windows on both ends.

• The design doesn't generally follow the typical "pyramid-shaped confection" that has come to define Toronto mid-rise buildings, though it does seem to generally conform to the 45 degree angular planes that we love to obsess over. Instead, it is starting to resemble a typical European courtyard building. Good. For some more commentary on this, check out John Lorinc's recent piece in the Globe and the Mail.

This is unquestionably an ambitious project. And ambition is what cities need. So I am pleased to write about it today on the blog. If you'd like to learn more, check out their project website.

Image: Partisans

I am usually known for my optimism for the future. But I am having a difficult time deciphering whether the new 170-km-long vertical city that Saudia Arabia just revealed (see above video) is a legitimate development proposal, a new metaverse project, or a dystopian spoof about how we're all going to live in beehives once autonomous everything and artificial intelligence takes over.

The Line, as it is cleverly called, is intended to form the basis for a new and allegedly livable city called Neom. This is a city that is intended to lead Saudi Arabia into some sort of glorious post-oil future. And the plan is for it to eventually house some 9 million people; all within a 170-km-long mirrored strip that is 200m wide, 500m tall, and accessible end-to-end in 20 minutes via high-speed rail.

I would love to see the development pro forma for this one (if it even exists), but I certainly don't need it to determine that this thing is never going to be built -- certainly not in its current incarnation.