Building buildings is really hard.
It's hard for countless reasons, but one reason in particular is that it can be difficult to please everyone. Take parking, for example. This is often a primary concern when you're trying to develop something new. Too little parking and people might be concerned that cars will start flooding the surrounding streets in search of a spot. Too much parking and people might be concerned about traffic congestion. So it can often feel like you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.
I thought of this as I was reading through Alex Bozikovic's recent opinion piece in the Globe and Mail called, "Yes, in my backyard: How urban planning must shift to meet our postpandemic challenges." In it, he mentions a small missing middle-type infill project at 225 Brunswick Avenue here in Toronto. A century-old office building located in a residential neighborhood, a small developer has been working (with Suulin Architects) since 2018 to convert it into seven apartments.
Here are a few photos:
This is the kind of infill housing that planning staff and many councillors are trying to encourage across the city. And yet, the year is 2021. This developer is on year three in a process that will, maybe, deliver a total of seven new rental homes. There are also many other examples that we can point to in the city that have faced similar challenges, like this one here on Gerrard Street East. While not nearly as interesting architecturally speaking, it would have delivered 10 new homes proximate to transit. Maybe that will still happen. I can't say for sure.
I'm not going to get into the specifics of any one proposal, but two things are clear to me: (1) Our city, and many other cities around the world, have a need for more missing middle-type infill housing and (2) our system is greatly flawed if it takes years and years to ultimately green light the delivery of only a half dozen or so new homes.
Time equals money. And when we make the process this difficult it means that many developers aren't going to bother (because the math probably doesn't work) and that the ones who are successful will need to absorb a bunch of unnecessary costs in the end pricing/rents of their homes (i.e. make the homes more expensive than they need to be).
225 Brunswick is exactly the kind of project that I would love to work on: a small-scale adaptive reuse project where design is clearly a priority. But with a 3-4 year entitlement timeline (perhaps longer?), it's simply not worth it (though I do commend the efforts of the project team). I'm sure many others feel the same way that I do and that's unfortunate when you're trying to build a more vibrant, inclusive, and competitive global city.
It is starting to feel like 2021 could be a turning point for "missing middle" type buildings here in Toronto. Momentum seems to be growing and there's increasing interest in finding ways to make this scale of housing more feasible -- everything from duplexes to low-rise walkup apartments.
This week Councillor Bradford published a great op-ed in Spacing Toronto as a kind of call to action: Let's make this year the year. In it, he provided an update on a pilot project that will be taking place in his ward -- Beaches-East York -- this year:
We’ll be setting out this spring to find a city-owned site and the right partners for the project. From there, the work will be to go through every step of the development process, from design to construction. This Pilot is about accomplishing two key tasks. One, building housing that meets the Missing Middle typology while aiming to incorporate the affordability and sustainability elements Toronto needs. Two, through undertaking that development process, to identify the execution issues so we can bring forward the policy corrections that’ll make what we achieve in the Pilot build replicable across the city.
With the continued run-up in single-family home prices, it really is starting to feel like we're at a tipping point. Something is going to need to change. People continue to move to Toronto from all over the world. Perhaps this year will be the year. To learn more about the pilot project, take a look at this update report.
Within Toronto's urban structure you have regular streets and you have things known as "Avenues." (This is among a bunch of other stuff such as Centres and Employment Areas.) What this Avenue designation does is tell you that it may be a suitable location for a new mid-rise building, which is something that I have written a lot about on this blog. Here in Toronto, this means that you would then need to consult the "Mid-Rise Building Performance Standards." Indeed, if you dust off these standards and turn to the introduction, you'll find the following: "The Performance Standards are intended to provide simple, straightforward guidance for those seeking to develop midrise projects on the Avenues."
But if you want to find some of the most truly unremarkable streets in this city, you need to look at the arterial roads that didn't quite make the cut to be an Avenue. I don't want to generalize, but they are generally exceedingly ugly. You can't help but feel like Toronto has simply outgrown the low-rise building typologies that, in most cases, still remain on these streets. In some cases, they're also directly adjacent to a subway station, which is kind of like running a great big movie theater with only a handful of seats inside. Maybe one day they'll grow up to be Avenues. But don't hold your breath. So what's another possible solution? Toronto-based PHAEDRUS Studio has an idea. It's called the Hi-Lo Hybrid.
Initially designed for a specific client and a specific site, it also happens to be something that could be deployed all across the city. What they have shown here is a 5 storey infill building on your typical long and narrow Toronto lot. As designed, it could house 4-8 units, as well as some non-residential uses, on a lot that previously only had 1-3 units. It would make a lot of sense for some of the ugly streets that I'm talking about. But let's be honest: it would be almost impossible to get approved. One of the biggest issues would probably be the adjacency/overlook issue that it generates with the neighboring backyards. It's probably also too tall.
One of the main reasons why, I think, laneway suites work and are now permissible as-of-right in Toronto is that they replace existing garages. (ADU's for the Americans.) They reallocate space that was previously used for cars to humans. And so the incremental height / density is not all that great. They, for the most part, preserve precious neighborhood character. What the Hi-Lo Hybrid proposes is not so incremental. It's bold. It would be a massive fight. I know that and you know that. But bold is generally what you need when you're trying to do great things and when you're trying to shape the future. And so with that, I'll leave you all with some words from the late American architect, Daniel Burnham.
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty."
Building buildings is really hard.
It's hard for countless reasons, but one reason in particular is that it can be difficult to please everyone. Take parking, for example. This is often a primary concern when you're trying to develop something new. Too little parking and people might be concerned that cars will start flooding the surrounding streets in search of a spot. Too much parking and people might be concerned about traffic congestion. So it can often feel like you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.
I thought of this as I was reading through Alex Bozikovic's recent opinion piece in the Globe and Mail called, "Yes, in my backyard: How urban planning must shift to meet our postpandemic challenges." In it, he mentions a small missing middle-type infill project at 225 Brunswick Avenue here in Toronto. A century-old office building located in a residential neighborhood, a small developer has been working (with Suulin Architects) since 2018 to convert it into seven apartments.
Here are a few photos:
This is the kind of infill housing that planning staff and many councillors are trying to encourage across the city. And yet, the year is 2021. This developer is on year three in a process that will, maybe, deliver a total of seven new rental homes. There are also many other examples that we can point to in the city that have faced similar challenges, like this one here on Gerrard Street East. While not nearly as interesting architecturally speaking, it would have delivered 10 new homes proximate to transit. Maybe that will still happen. I can't say for sure.
I'm not going to get into the specifics of any one proposal, but two things are clear to me: (1) Our city, and many other cities around the world, have a need for more missing middle-type infill housing and (2) our system is greatly flawed if it takes years and years to ultimately green light the delivery of only a half dozen or so new homes.
Time equals money. And when we make the process this difficult it means that many developers aren't going to bother (because the math probably doesn't work) and that the ones who are successful will need to absorb a bunch of unnecessary costs in the end pricing/rents of their homes (i.e. make the homes more expensive than they need to be).
225 Brunswick is exactly the kind of project that I would love to work on: a small-scale adaptive reuse project where design is clearly a priority. But with a 3-4 year entitlement timeline (perhaps longer?), it's simply not worth it (though I do commend the efforts of the project team). I'm sure many others feel the same way that I do and that's unfortunate when you're trying to build a more vibrant, inclusive, and competitive global city.
It is starting to feel like 2021 could be a turning point for "missing middle" type buildings here in Toronto. Momentum seems to be growing and there's increasing interest in finding ways to make this scale of housing more feasible -- everything from duplexes to low-rise walkup apartments.
This week Councillor Bradford published a great op-ed in Spacing Toronto as a kind of call to action: Let's make this year the year. In it, he provided an update on a pilot project that will be taking place in his ward -- Beaches-East York -- this year:
We’ll be setting out this spring to find a city-owned site and the right partners for the project. From there, the work will be to go through every step of the development process, from design to construction. This Pilot is about accomplishing two key tasks. One, building housing that meets the Missing Middle typology while aiming to incorporate the affordability and sustainability elements Toronto needs. Two, through undertaking that development process, to identify the execution issues so we can bring forward the policy corrections that’ll make what we achieve in the Pilot build replicable across the city.
With the continued run-up in single-family home prices, it really is starting to feel like we're at a tipping point. Something is going to need to change. People continue to move to Toronto from all over the world. Perhaps this year will be the year. To learn more about the pilot project, take a look at this update report.
Within Toronto's urban structure you have regular streets and you have things known as "Avenues." (This is among a bunch of other stuff such as Centres and Employment Areas.) What this Avenue designation does is tell you that it may be a suitable location for a new mid-rise building, which is something that I have written a lot about on this blog. Here in Toronto, this means that you would then need to consult the "Mid-Rise Building Performance Standards." Indeed, if you dust off these standards and turn to the introduction, you'll find the following: "The Performance Standards are intended to provide simple, straightforward guidance for those seeking to develop midrise projects on the Avenues."
But if you want to find some of the most truly unremarkable streets in this city, you need to look at the arterial roads that didn't quite make the cut to be an Avenue. I don't want to generalize, but they are generally exceedingly ugly. You can't help but feel like Toronto has simply outgrown the low-rise building typologies that, in most cases, still remain on these streets. In some cases, they're also directly adjacent to a subway station, which is kind of like running a great big movie theater with only a handful of seats inside. Maybe one day they'll grow up to be Avenues. But don't hold your breath. So what's another possible solution? Toronto-based PHAEDRUS Studio has an idea. It's called the Hi-Lo Hybrid.
Initially designed for a specific client and a specific site, it also happens to be something that could be deployed all across the city. What they have shown here is a 5 storey infill building on your typical long and narrow Toronto lot. As designed, it could house 4-8 units, as well as some non-residential uses, on a lot that previously only had 1-3 units. It would make a lot of sense for some of the ugly streets that I'm talking about. But let's be honest: it would be almost impossible to get approved. One of the biggest issues would probably be the adjacency/overlook issue that it generates with the neighboring backyards. It's probably also too tall.
One of the main reasons why, I think, laneway suites work and are now permissible as-of-right in Toronto is that they replace existing garages. (ADU's for the Americans.) They reallocate space that was previously used for cars to humans. And so the incremental height / density is not all that great. They, for the most part, preserve precious neighborhood character. What the Hi-Lo Hybrid proposes is not so incremental. It's bold. It would be a massive fight. I know that and you know that. But bold is generally what you need when you're trying to do great things and when you're trying to shape the future. And so with that, I'll leave you all with some words from the late American architect, Daniel Burnham.
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty."
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