Friday, March 5, 2010

WATERFRONT UPDATE BY BRAZ MENEZES

Environmental Assessment on Bay and Yonge St. ‘down ramps’ off the Gardiner
Various stakeholders from the communities affected by the ‘re-engineering’ of the down ramps, were invited for a-four hour ‘charete’ on Sat February 6th to discuss preliminary findings and explore options.

A public meeting will be called shortly to discuss the final selection of the best option based on further technical evaluation currently underway. The objective is to improve traffic flows at the various intersections, and in the process do away with the ugly concrete ramps in front of Harbour Square (the circular ramp and the long east ramp into Bay Street. Four teams, working independently of each other, all concluded on the basis of the presentations, that the best of the four options was the one that brought traffic strait down to grade at Lower Simcoe. This will also facilitate traffic turning north into Simcoe, with two lanes continuing east on Lake Shore, with options to turn north or south on York; and continuing east on Harbour Road. The EA team will provide more data on the study of traffic flows for each option (including pedestrian volumes on York, Bay and Yonge Streets.

East Bayfront Stakeholder Advisory Committee Meeting (Thursday Feb 11, 2010)

Readers are recommended to visit Waterfrontoronto’s website.

Sugar Beach

This park on the water’s edge of Lower Jarvis will be completed in the summer of 2010, at about the same time as the new Corus building will be ready for occupation.

George Brown College Waterfront Campus

An integrated health professional training campus is moving ahead of schedule. Construction is already underway. Representatives of GB College and their Architects (Stantec/KPMB in Joint Venture) made an impressive presentation. The first phase for up to 2500 students will be completed in 2012. The food facilities/ library and some other areas will be open 24/7. There is excellent integration with the public realm and the water’s edge.

Water’s Edge Promenade and Stormwater Management Facility

Construction of the boardwalk (to match that already constructed along Harbourfront Centre) is underway and will be substantially completed by 2011. Design is by the competition winners for the redevelopment of Queens Quay – West 8 and DTAH.

Parkside Development Update

At Lower Sherborne a major new park is planned. This includes a body of water that penetrates from the Lake inland to the edge of Lake Shore East. A competition is underway for naming this park. On it eastern edge a development by Great Gulf Group of Companies is planned. This is a mixed use high-rise complex, with the ground floor providing extensive commercial retail space (restaurants, etc) to maximize public access and interaction. The project was conceived by Moshe Safdi, architect for the Montreal Expo. A representative for Quadrangle Architects Limited, made a presentation. This project has still some ways to go to finalise design, planning approvals, and secure financing. Project completion is scheduled for 2015.

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