CityPlace, Toronto
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CityPlace is the name given to a large section of former railway land in Downtown Toronto, Canada. The term is more recently being used for a large multi-tower condo development near the Toronto lakeshore and central business district. The development has many more towers to go, including the tallest, Signature tower. It is the largest residential development ever attempted in Toronto.
CityPlace was created by an arm of Canadian National Railway real estate with the purpose of redeveloping surplus railway yards. The CN Tower was the first structure to be built as part of the master plan to see the area be converted into non-industrial uses. Several master plans over the past few decades had been created.
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[edit] History
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Toronto as the trading port for Upper Canada had reached its heyday of railway transportation in the 1880s. After Canadian nationalism took off at Confederation in 1867, fierce competition in railway industry had received huge national support, consolidated into a few large railway companies which recreated the landscape of the old dock area: large land was acquired as railway switching yards and locomotive maintenance, a few railway stations were in operation. The great railway time, with construction of Union Station striking its final chord of harmony, declined quickly after the Second World War, when the automobile industry took off.
By the 1960s, large parcels of railway land in Toronto had become obsolete. Passenger services had become a Crown Corporation and a money-losing business (See VIA Rail Canada). Construction of the Gardiner Expressway made it even easier to transport goods to and from the city.
The dominance of highway transportation pushed most companies away from downtown Toronto and into the suburbs, finding lower property taxes and better road transportation networks. The area has seen a massive decrease in the amount of heavy industries in the area, thus reducing the number of serviceable industries. And nowadays, the nature of manufacturing and industry in Toronto has completely changed as a result of globalization and the Information Age. Local companies no longer rely on bulk shipped goods. Most of the former factory buildings along the railway lands have since been converted into residential loft or office buildings hosting information industry, art and design workspaces. The bulk of rail traffic for the past 30 years has been passenger.
Some of the factors that led to the decrease of train use into downtown Toronto included:
- Construction of the CN freight bypass through York Region and the accompanying MacMillan Yard in Vaughan
- Introduction of Intermodal transport business model
- Decrease of shipping through the St. Lawrence Seaway (demise of the Portlands)
- The rise in use of air travel for personal transportation.
- Changes in manufacturing and industry in downtown Toronto (for example the demise of slaughter houses, heavy industrial factories)
- The change of business models that emphasized road transportation
Major city building projects became extremely popular in the 1960s. Cities were eager to create new city centres, that promoted financial business over raw manufacturing and industrial use. For example in Montreal, (then Canada's largest city and major rival to Toronto) had a large number of major urban projects under-construction or in works. Many of these projects would see older historic neighbourhoods torn down, and rebuilt with 'modern' buildings.
Seeing that the land if developed properly, could prove to be lucrative to CN Rail, the company began to explore new uses for their properties. One of the first proposals was for a new tower to be built, surrounded by a neighbourhood of office and residential towers. The only element of this first plan was the broadcasting tower - the CN Tower.
The City of Toronto had long sought to redevelop the areas into commercial office space. In the 1980s the city created a masterplan of the area that would see it be a southern extension of the 'Financial District'. The area was to be comprised of mostly financial towers. But completion of the BCE Place and Scotia Plaza towers contributed to a glut of office space on the market. A further economic downturn in the early 1990s caused the plans to be shelved. The city then proposed that the West Rail lands be used as the athletes village for the failed 1996 Summer Olympic bid. This helped shift the idea of what to build in the area. The city was very interested in getting the lands developed and revised the masterplan for the area changing it to a residential neighbourhood to the west of the Rogers Centre.
One of the first more recent major developments to be located on the CN Railway lands was SkyDome completed on June 4th, 1989. The stadium development helped to develop a network of roads, parks and infrastructure into the area. The land was further developed with the expansion of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the building of the Air Canada Centre arena.
Today the lands have been nearly completely developed, with the remaining parcels of land soon to see construction. The latest construction project will be the Telus Tower an office building located just south of Union Station, next to the remaining rail lines, with a condo development and entertainment centre directly to the south of the site.
[edit] The Condo Development
The current CityPlace condo development was conceived by Concord Adex developments, the same company that helped revitalize a large section of former Expo 86 lands in Vancouver. Hong Kong magnate Li Ka Shing is known to have large shareholding in Concord Adex.
[edit] Project Scope
- Project Size: 44 acres (182 108.5 m²) including a 7.5 acre (30 351 m²) community park
- Residential development is divided into 10 street blocks, numbered from 1 to 10. Each street block contains a number of residential towers with its own sets of common facilities.
- Block 1 was developed first with 4 towers, namely Matrix A/B and Apex C/D, all with Front Street addresses. The street block features buildings directly facing the entertainment district and the closest walk to the Financial District.
- Block 2 features 1 building (Optima) only, directly behind the Rogers Centre, fronting on Navy Wharf Court. It features a heightened privacy comparing to the other interconnected towers. Both Block 1 and 2 were completed before 2003.
- Block 3 is the largest street block in the entire CityPlace complex, with 4 towers and a mid-rise building, as well as townhouses to decrease the tension of high density development. The project was named Harbour View Estates and was completed in 2006.
- Block 4 features 2 towers and a mid-rise, mirroring the Harbour View Estates both in location and in design. The buildings are named as WestOne, N1/N2 and The Gallery, to be completed in late 2007.
- Block 5 contains 2 towers (Montage) and a mid-rise building (Neo), which has a completion date of late 2009 to 2010; though some of their customers have been told mid 2008 (Neo) from previous projections of early 2007 (Neo), depending on time of purchase.
- Block 6 has further progressed in design as trend evolves, with 2 towers and 1 mid-rise, the project is named as Luna.
- Block 7-8 (Parade) Two 39 story towers with a 2 story bridge at floors 28 and 29
- Block 9 A park
- Block 10 the signature building *last CityPlace project, No final stage designing yet, and the estimated completion for 2011.
- Number of Units: over 5,000 residential units to date.
[edit] Public Transit
Currently, Cityplace lies on the TTC's 510 Spadina streetcar route which provides direct access to Union station or the Bloor subway line. Bremner Boulevard is being extended as the complex's only through-route and is being built with an allowance for a streetcar ROW.[citation needed] The TTC is looking into using this street as a bypass route to Union Station, and a planned LRT route to Parkdale and the Humber Bay as well as the Waterfront West Transit city LRT route will likely use Bremner to reach Union Station, allowing for a direct, frequent connection to the station in the near future.
[edit] Facts and Figures
- Renowned author Douglas Coupland has been approached by Concord Adex for a commission of outdoor installation in the CityPlace Park.
- One of the first construction projects by Concord Adex was the building of a 9-hole golf course and a driving range. The sites have now been torn up to make way for new condo towers, and a road being built on the site.
