Canadian City Proposals

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by esquire

Pretty well the entire city is NW!

Thanks, btw loving the Edmonton proposals on this page. The black tower looks very Toronto.

But sorry one last question about the street names.

If there are roads named buy # and Ave/Street isn't it redundant adding NW or SE?

[TorontoDrew]

Had to bump this as my street naming questions probably helped jump the page over to fast.

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Vaughan Transit City

[ciudad_del_norte]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Thanks, btw loving the Edmonton proposals on this page. The black tower looks very Toronto.

But sorry one last question about the street names.

If there are roads named buy # and Ave/Street isn't it redundant adding NW or SE?

That's a loaded question that seems obvious for most locals but isn't really intuitive for others.

Originally the centre of Edmonton started at 1. Street numbers increased to the west, and avenue numbers increased to the east. The city grew and it became apparent that numbers were needed to the south and east. So they just added 100 to everything. So now downtown is more or less centred on 101 Street and 101 Ave (Jasper).

This worked for a while but eventually we ran out of numbers going south and east. So additional quadrants were added so numbers could included for the portions of the city that go past 1 st or 1st Ave. Instead of negative numbers, the avenues start increasing to the south in a different quadrant. So the cast majority of the city is in the NW quadrant, with the SE, NE, and SW occupying the fringes of the city where we ran out of numbers.

Just in case that wasn't confusing, its not uncommon for people to drop the "100" when referring to central locations. For example, 103 street is also "3rd street".

Basically, Edmonton has the same system as Calgary, but instead of the being divided through the center of the city the quadrant division is more or less aligned with the ring road in the southeast. NW on the address doesn't mean you are in the northwest portion of the city, it just means you are in the main part of the city north of Anthony Henday. In practice, most people don't use the NW signifier except on legal documents because it is assumed. Also, many of the new suburbs that are in the SW quadrant have curvilenear named streets anyways, so in most cases the quadrants don't matter and its common practice to ignore them entirely. By virtue of the city boundary, there is no space for any SE addresses and there is hardly anything currently existing the NE quadrant besides some industrial and agricultural (for now).

It's confusing, but also has little practical impact on orientation for the the majority who just never interact with anything outside of the NW.

[TorontoDrew]

Wow, I'm so lucky we only need to worry about east or west of Yonge here.

[theman23]

I don't understand the obsession with building 50 story buildings in places like Vaughan. I also don't understand why anyone would ever want to buy into these buildings.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by theman23

I don't understand the obsession with building 50 story buildings in places like Vaughan. I also don't understand why anyone would ever want to buy into these buildings.

I think 1BR 600ft2 units in suburban towers are the 21st century version of what a “starter home” was for boomers in the 70s.

The biggest selling point is access to a highway interchange and subway station. These places score low on neighbourhood charm and physical space but they’re still okay for job accessibility.

[GeneralLea]

It's utterly disappointing to see what's in store with Vaughan. These proposals offer a bleak glimpse into the future of the "downtown". I legitimately hope some critical planning principles are put into place for Vaughan....although I don't know what kind of planning process they have.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by theman23

I don't understand the obsession with building 50 story buildings in places like Vaughan. I also don't understand why anyone would ever want to buy into these buildings.

It makes sense on transit hubs. That whole area is named transit city so it's directly marketing those who may want cheaper housing but have a connection to their job downtown.

[craner]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Tall and narrow is how you get that city feeling, kudos to Edmonton.

YUCK !

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by GeneralLeeTPHLS

It's utterly disappointing to see what's in store with Vaughan. These proposals offer a bleak glimpse into the future of the "downtown". I legitimately hope some critical planning principles are put into place for Vaughan....although I don't know what kind of planning process they have.

source: http://urbantoronto.ca



And this is where it is being built. In one of those lovely parts of the GTA with no sidewalks.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7991434,-...pYtx-3nByQCyFjHMlpT1Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

What's being proposed is a massive improvement.

[GeneralLea]

I've seen the rendering, but I'm unsure of how they really plan to achieve what's proposed.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by theman23

I don't understand the obsession with building 50 story buildings in places like Vaughan. I also don't understand why anyone would ever want to buy into these buildings.

You pay a huge premium when you buy a place in a tower. Your parking space alone costs 50 000 dollars. It’s not necessary to pay 50 000 dollars for a parking space in the suburbs.

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by craner

YUCK !

That photo is of Istanbul, probably one of the most beautiful cities I've had the fortune to lay eyes on.

[Innsertnamehere]

the crazy thing is that it isn't necessarily even cheaper - Expo 5 (the 60 storey brick tower that Cortel is building) recently launched in vaughan with price per square foot in excess of $800, with the upper floors being over $900. That's only $100 or so less than downtown.

The units do tend to be slightly larger, and the condo amenities tend to be worlds better than downtown, but still.

The main market of these I think are people who grew up in Vaugan who want to stay close to family but who also still want an easy way into the city. The promise of an eventual urban location is nice for them too. And yes, typically as a first home.

The parking ratios in some of these buildings are surprisingly low too, Transit City 3 has only one parking space for every 3 units. It's pretty crazy to me as to why someone would want to live in that location without a car.

I personally could have ended up a buyer myself, I used to work in Vaughan and travel north to cottage country almost every weekend, but have lots of friends downtown. I could really see it having been where I bought my first place if I hadn't gotten a better job downtown.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

It makes sense on transit hubs. That whole area is named transit city so it's directly marketing those who may want cheaper housing but have a connection to their job downtown.

Higher densities makes sense around transit stations. There's no need for 50 storeys at the densities being built in places like Vaughan and Burnaby. You have towers spread out on large block podiums. 50 storeys isn't cheap to build either.

It's all investor driven and future generations just have to live which these decisions.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

source: http://urbantoronto.ca



And this is where it is being built. In one of those lovely parts of the GTA with no sidewalks.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7991434,-...pYtx-3nByQCyFjHMlpT1Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

What's being proposed is a massive improvement.

It doesn't take much to approve upon big box hell mixed with light industrial. I don't see a whole lot that excites me in this glossed up rendering. Repetitve large boring blocks.

[someone123]

A couple of proposals for North End Halifax. These both involve building on underused portions of lots behind heritage buildings.

Originally Posted by someone123

Source

Originally Posted by someone123

[hipster duck]

[QUOTE=Innsertnamehere;8465371]the crazy thing is that it isn't necessarily even cheaper - Expo 5 (the 60 storey brick tower that Cortel is building) recently launched in vaughan with price per square foot in excess of $800, with the upper floors being over $900. That's only $100 or so less than downtown./QUOTE]

Putting aside that prices in Toronto are exorbitant all around, suburban new condos being about 80% of the cost of downtown new condos of similar size sounds about right.

On the supply side, I don't see the cost of construction really being a huge difference, and the difference in land acquisition costs may not seem so noticeable to the buyer when they're spread out over hundreds of units.

On the demand side, a 20% difference is still significant for a first time buyer - especially if that translates to $100,000 (plus a 1.5% Land Transfer Tax savings if you don't buy in the City of Toronto).

I think a lot of younger, first-time buyers like urban living, but not enough to pay a 20% premium and, as you said, if they have family/friend ties to the suburbs that kind of seals the deal.

Finally, if you or your spouse are not part of the 20% of the GTA's labour force who works downtown, then living downtown is kind of hard to justify unless you're a die-hard urbanist.

[dleung]

As an owner of 2 downtown condos, I can't imagine saving only 10-20% to live in the suburbs. With a fixed budget, I'd choose 550 square feet downtown over 700 square feet in butt-fuck Vaughan any day. All those people paying downtown prices to live at Yonge/Eglinton are suckers

[WhipperSnapper]

New townhouses with no yard by Bathurst and 14th (or is it 16th?) In Richmond Hill are selling at a million when you can buy an older, smaller home but on a much bigger lot in the city for roughly the same. York Region is incredibly overvalued including Vaughan City Centre.