Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.
The Junction House team is excited to announce that construction will start this fall and that our ground breaking ceremony will be held at 11AM on Saturday, October, 19th. Mark your calendars.
It will take place at our Sales Gallery — 2720 Dundas St W. This will be one of the last opportunities to see the award-winning Junction House Sales Gallery before it is demolished in preparation for construction.
There will be photo opportunities for everyone in attendance, and so we encourage you to bring your phones/cameras. You’re welcome to extend this invitation to family and friends, but kindly RSVP by sending an email to info@junctionhouse.ca.
We just received a bunch of photos back of our Junction House Sales Gallery. So today is photo day on the blog. (Thank you Dialogue 38 for coordinating these.)
Here’s the front “gallery” area. The artwork hanging on the wall is by local artist, Leeay Aikawa. Her work is terrific. You can see this space as you walk along Dundas Street West.
Here is the model suite pavilion and main reception area (evening shot). The bar area is absurdly long. It was designed to accommodate beers from Indie Ale House down the street.
Dialogue 38, the designers of the space, really wanted the model suite to be a “pavilion” — something akin to Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. So here’s the ramp that takes you up and inside.
Finally, here’s the model suite. The kitchen is by Scavolini. And the backsplash is a penny tile.
The sales gallery is located at 2720 Dundas Street West and is now open every day of the week except Tuesdays. The hours are 1PM to 7PM during the week and 12PM to 5PM on the weekends.
Well the second one is no longer a surprise. It is Ben Johnston and he started work on his mural this evening. Here is a photo (courtesy of Shanique Small – thank you!):
It should be completed this week if you’d like to stop by 2720 Dundas Street West. I am planning to be there this Saturday to take some photos and generally just hang out in the Junction.
I like the built form aerial photography of Jeffrey Milstein. Here is one of Stuyvesant Town in New York City:
It shows a symmetrical plan view that followed a particular dogma at the time. But it’s also a view that few people or residents would ever see or appreciate.
The above image is from his exhibition at the Bau-Xi Gallery here in Toronto (340 Dundas Street West). It runs until December 16, 2017.
On January 25, 2018, the exhibition moves to the Benrubi Gallery in New York City (521 W. 26th Street). Check them out if you’re interested.
Last week Metrolinx slashed fares on Toronto’s Union to Pearson Airport express train (UPX), by a lot. From $27.50 to $12 for people without a PRESTO card and from $19 to $9 for people with a PRESTO card. They listened to the pundits. And there were a lot of them regarding this topic.
At these fares, the UPX is decidedly cheaper than a taxi or Uber, but more than regular transit, which I think makes sense given that it’s a better overall experience. I would take this train all day long.
But the other thing that Metrolinx did was also reposition the train service as an inner city commuter service by matching fares with GO transit for non-airport trips within the city. As one example, this means that you can now go from Bloor & Dundas West in the west end to downtown Union Station for $5.30 in cash or $4.71 with a PRESTO card. This is in comparison to $3.25 in cash on the subway.
But this is huge, because look at the options for this transit trip:
UPX Train: 8 minute trip; service every 15 minutes
GO Train: 12 minute trip (additional stop); service every 20-30 minutes during peak times and roughly every hour during off-peak times (so no drinks after work)
Subway: 26 minute trip; most frequent service
This is a significant connectivity upgrade for the west side of the city. One that reinforces my belief that, next to Union Station, Bloor/Dundas West is the best connected mobility hub in the Toronto region. This now a perfect location for companies and people who need quick access to both the Financial District and the airport. Unfortunately though, I don’t think we’ve taken full advantage of this connectivity in terms of what we’ve allowed and disallowed to be built in the area to date.
I’ll end by saying that I think the pundits have been overly critical of the UPX train. Everyone loves to talk about it as a failure. But look, every organization and person makes mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. The key is to iterate and refine as you charge along. So go make some mistakes today 🙂
The article talks about some of the transit-oriented development that we’ve seen at various nodes along Toronto’s Yonge subway corridor (St. Clair, Eglinton, Sheppard, and so on). But it goes on to argue that these are exceptions to the rule. For the most part, we’ve missed the boat:
The tragic history of our massive capital investments into transit infrastructure is massive under-development.
Indeed, the Bloor-Danforth subway corridor is a land use crime scene.
His main argument is that until we expand the supply of transit-oriented land (through increased intensification), we will continue to undersupply the kinds of walkable and transit-oriented neighborhoods that many, if not most, people actually prefer. And that, out of necessity, will force people into their cars. Because affordability trumps location preference.
As one example, he talks about the intersection of Bloor Street and Dundas Street in the west end of the city. Next to Union Station, this is probably the best connected mobility hub in the region. You have the Bloor-Danforth subway line, a streetcar line, and a GO regional rail line which all feed into it. Next year it’ll also become a stop for the new express train to Pearson airport.
And yet the city has a history of opposing intensification in this location, including the old Giraffe Condominiums proposed by TAS. Does that make sense to you?
