Development

9-storey “co-living” mid-rise proposed for 1681 Weston Road

The owners of the vacant property at 1681 Weston have asked for permission to build a 9-storey, midrise with “co-living units”—what we would normally call a dormitory, I think.

In the application, they say the building

will include a mix of ‘traditional’ residential units and ‘co-living units’. ‘Co-living units’ are comprised of individual private rooms, including bed sitting rooms and private bathrooms, which share communal space including kitchen, dining and living space. The proposed ‘co-living units’ are fully furnished including beds, linens sofas, dining tables and fully stocked kitchen with dished, pots, pans, etc. Wifi, cable Netflix and other utilities and programming. These units have an intended minimum lease duration of 3 months and weekly cleaning services are envisioned.

The “Co-living units” are envisioned as a modern form of shared living, where like minded individuals are focused on a sense of community, and through intelligently designed spaces and smart technology, are able to live a more convenient and fulfilling lifestyle. The private bedrooms and bathrooms along with rights to a portion of the shared living space within the ‘co-living units’ will be rented out to individuals. It is intended that this type of accommodation will be desirable to people looking for single-room rental accommodation which also comes with a sense of community. It will also be desirable to people who are more transient such as students, seniors, new immigrants and people moving nationally/ internationally for work and need to be close to transit. Although this is the target market, there will be no exclusions based on age

The applicants are asking for 26 co-living units with 97 private bedrooms, in addition to 16 traditional (not co-living) rental units. They also propose commercial uses at the street level.

Huge development planned at No Frills in Mt Dennis

Choice Properties REIT is planning a very large development at the No Frills in Mount Dennis near Black Creek Drive. It is to include a building that will be, by far, the tallest in Mount Dennis, at 49 storeys.

The proposed development includes seven towers, from 20–49 storeys, “as well as a new public street, a new private street and a privately owned publicly accessible space (POPS)”. In all, 2,356 new homes are planned.

The planners say that a grocery store will remain on site.

I’m not a planner, but this is, in my view, the kind of development we can bear: close to transit and the highway, high density but not on residential streets.

It is, however, a pity that the still-new York Rec wasn’t built larger, since it’s already always busy, and this is across the street.

Greenland Farms update

Weston Asset Management, the builders behind the Greenland Farms development, have released their plans for the site. Count me among the unimpressed.

The developers would like to build two 29-storey towers from a shared podium. The towers would be built upon the façade of some of the buildings along Weston Road.

To my eye, the buildings are uninventive, large, and rather ugly. I don’t like how they assimilate and loom over the older heritage buildings—it’s too literal an image of parasitic Toronto absorbing Weston for me to stomach.

The building will have “592 residential units and 3991 square metres of non-residential space” with “174 vehicle parking spaces and 463 bicycle parking spaces” below ground.

I’m not designer, but I’d love to see a lower, broader building that looks repurposed from industry. It would be more true to our roots and look unlike the downtown glass canyons.

25 Storey building for 1705 Weston

Oldstonehenge, the owners of 1705 Weston Road, have filed their application to develop a 25-storey building on the site just south of the GO and UPX station.

The building described will have a 6-storey base and a 19-storey tower with 240 rental apartments, ranging from studio to three-bedroom units.

1705 Weston today — One of the buildings to be demolished

Two industrial buildings and one house, at 10 Victoria Avenue, will be demolished.

The building, to my eyes at least, is quite attractive, with two interesting rotations of the generally cubic form, each about one-third of the way up.