A lot of people have been asking me if I know anything about the thirty acres of vacant land that STILL sits undeveloped at the base of the Bayview Extension.

I had been planning to write about the development, and then along came this article from The Globe And Mail.

Great!  Now I can catch up on my sleep…

Carolyn Ireland
From Friday’s Globe and Mail  

Standing at the windblown apex of the overpass as cars whizzed by on a recent afternoon, Mr. Wex leaned over the railing and pointed out the progress that marks the desolate landscape below.

Behind the blue construction hoardings is the site of River City, which will one day combine lofts, condominium towers and townhouses in an area of parks, stores and cafés on the banks of the Don River.

The way the buildings are designed, he explains, it’s almost as if the cars travelling over the ramps will be running through the complex.

“The ramps are both very interesting and also a challenge.”

Mr. Wex handed that challenge to Montreal-based architectural firm Saucier + Perrotte and, with his Urban Capital partner Mark Reeve, submitted their design to an international competition run by Waterfront Toronto.

“I think the thing that won it for us is we understand the beauty of industry and nature,” he said.

Mr. Wex pointed to a bulldozer crawling over a massive mound of earth. That berm will protect the finished dwellings from the river, should it ever swell beyond its banks. Dodging six lanes of traffic, Mr. Wex reaches the opposite side of the overpass and points out the sites for two more phases.

A park created in the underpass will connect the buildings.

The site where Peter’s Taxi Ltd. and a gravel parking lot now stand will eventually become part of the new neighbourhood. The Victorian-era smokestacks of the Distillery District are just down the road.

Cities around the world are grappling with brownfield redevelopment. Mr. Wex points to the remarkable result at Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park in Germany, which has become the prototype for architects and planners who aim to rejuvenate the abandoned yards and rusting factories that exist in many cities.

In Duisburg, architect Peter Latz and his colleagues allowed nature to reclaim the industrial land surrounding a decommissioned metal works.

Visitors now climb Blast Furnace No. 5. for a panoramic view. Cooling tanks, railway tracks and slag heaps have all become part of the landscape.

“It’s a gloriously beautiful park,” Mr. Wex says. “They didn’t take any of the industry down. There’s this hard infrastructure and then parkland and prairie.”

Some proponents of similar plans in other cities have had trouble selling the schemes to local politicians.

Mr. Wex says the design he presented had to meet the environmental and community goals of Waterfront Toronto. Many of the units will be family-friendly.

Waterfront Toronto chief executive John Campbell says his team was looking for a developer who wouldn’t churn out the “same old sausages” for the West Don Lands renewal.

“We’re not peddling real estate: We’re here to build a community.”

He says the Saucier + Perrotte design addressed that vision with units that can accommodate families as well as young singles.

“They really impressed us with the thinking they put into this design.”

The development, which will have four phases, will comprise 900 loft-style condominiums, penthouses and townhouses.

In Phase 1, a five-storey building will hold about 100 units. Phase 2 will be a 14-storey building with about 230 units, and a food store below. The second structure will be connected to the first by a three-storey, industrial-looking glass bridge.

Phase 3 will consist of four glass mini-towers that combine to make an 11-storey building sharing a courtyard with Phase 1. Phases 4 and 5 will be towers of 24 and 10 storeys with boutiques and restaurants at their bases.

Work will start next spring, with the first residents able to move their furniture in 2012 if the current schedule holds.

Mr. Wex says the Saucier + Perrotte design emphasizes the interplay between light and dark with expanses of glass and metal panels.

“They’re very much about drama.”

At the same time, the industrial aesthetic of the buildings will contrast with the soft land forms and gardens, he says.

The team led by Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte – whose firm was honoured this year for architectural excellence by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada – has undertaken designs in Nigeria, Japan, China and the Middle East, including Mecca.

The firm has experience with preserving the cultural heritage of cities: Their plan for refurbishing the Port of Montreal and Silo No. 5 is not a break with the past, they explain, but a recognition of the way industrial labour has enriched the area.

At West Don Lands, Mr. Wex is also overseeing the renovation of an old foundry that will hold a model suite. He has no plans to clean up the grimy bricks of the building’s exterior.

The developer, who lives in Toronto’s Beaconsfield neighbourhood, says this type of infill project is a niche for Urban Capital, which has built condos and lofts in such previously undeveloped areas as Ottawa’s Byward Market and Montreal’s industrial areas.

River City will help connect disparate neighbourhoods in downtown Toronto.

“This is stitching the city together from really strong areas like Leslieville through to the Distillery and Corktown.”

The builder says cities are finding new ways to combine industry with housing and parklands.

“I’m not a fan of sprawl,” Mr. Wex says. “The way we develop cities is important for our environment and our economy. We’ve been bad at it for 30 years.”

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I’m not so sure I’d use the words “Don” and “River” to market a new condominium development.

I remember a grade seven field trip down to Serena Gundy Park during which a couple of girls in my class decided to actually SWIM in the polluted Don River!  I was twelve years old at the time, so there was only one sensible thing to do…….join in.  Oh, we had a good ten minutes of tomfoolery and splashing about during which I’m pretty sure one of the girls accidently touched my leg, but Mr. Montgomery soon came along and broke it up.  Apparently everybody in Toronto knew how gross the Don River was except for us crazy kids…

Anyways…

I’ve been waiting for this development to actually break ground for years now.  It’s been five years since the bottom of the Bayview Extension was blocked off and cars were diverted to King/Queen/River Street, yet it seemed like there was really no plan in place for the land behind the barrier.

Well the bulldozers are coming in by the dozens and “River City” is apparently only a few years away.

The plan isn’t just for a few condos, but rather an entire community.

Normally, I would balk at the quote in the article above: “We’re not peddling real estate: We’re here to build a community.”

And while I do laugh at the notion that the developers are here to do anything BUT make money selling real estate, I do believe that this will be a fully-functional community by the time the project is finished.

Perhaps this is going to be like The Distillery District without all the history?