Posts Tagged ‘Toronto’

Pool season has officially begun! With the hot June summer weather rolling into town, 12 outdoor pools opened their doors early this year. On Saturday June 26, the City’s remaining 47 outdoor pools opened up along with more than 100 wading pools. Outdoor pools and wading pools will remain open for the season, until September 5. It’s expected to be a hot one this year, so check out the City of Toronto’s website for a full list of pools, locations and hours of operation!

Last week I attended the 6th annual PUGs, the peoples choice awards for architecture in the City! I’m a big fan of the PUG’s since it involves the products I make my lively-hood from…Toronto Condos! The awards allow the public to vote on their favorite residential and commercial buildings from 2009! This year the PUGs were held at the AGO (last years winner in the Commercial/Institutional category) with an hour and half discussion with the  2010 mayoral candidates. Sadly none really impressed me with their vision for architecture and planning of the City, but i’ll have more on that in another post ;)

On a positive note, this years winner was quite different from last.  One St. Thomas – a 29 storey multi million dollar limestone luxury condominium, won the award in 2009.  For 2010 it was the Housing Co-Operative at 60 Richmond East designed by Teeple Architects that took home the PUG!  It’s good to see that architecture in our city sees no division in social class.   It also gives inspiration and proof to other developers and architects that good design isn’t just for the rich, but rather for all to enjoy!

So how did your condo’s design preform at the PUGS?

Read the rest of this entry »

And the award for Best Building Design goes to……….*drumroll*

RIVER CITY!!!

Congratulations to all that have been involved in making the project so special.  And even bigger congratulations goes to the purchasers who now live in the best designed building according to BILD (Building Industry and Land Development)

The first phase is over 70% sold with a variety of layouts still available.  Designed by Saucier + Perrotte, River City will be a four phased community of over 900 loft-style condominiums and townhouses, together with street level restaurants, cafes and boutiques!  I’ve been covering the project extensively since it first launched back in 2009 and will continue to as the West Don Lands transform into one of downtown Toronto’s newest neighbourhoods!

For floorplans, prices, and availability…give me a call or send me an email, I’d love to help!

Yes, it’s true, as Canadians we are rather polite people…but in Toronto we’re also quite vocal! One of the many things I love about living in the City is how involved the people are in voicing their opinions, especially when it’s about the look of our high-rises!

Like any industry, the real estate one has a bunch of awards and competitions set up to reward builders for a job well done…problem is, none of these gives out trophies for the bad or the ugly. Thankfully we also have the Pug Awards!

Founded in 2004 (by Anna Simone, principal of design firm Cecconi Simone, and Gary Berman, president of real estate financier Tricon Capital Group)  the goal of the Pugs is to give every day citizens a voice amongst the City planners and developers on what works and what doesn’t.

In total 41 projects (completed in 2009) are up for nomination. This year they’ve expanded the awards to also include projects outside of the downtown core. Pure Spirit at the Distillery, Toy Factory Lofts, the Arc and 60 Richmond East Housing Co-Operative are just a few of the 34 residential projects up for an award!

Past Pug winners include: the Art Gallery of Ontario, One St. Thomas Residences and Argyle Authentic Lofts…and for the losers we have: Hampton Plaza, Marriott Residence Inn, and Wellington Square to name a few. The Pugs will wrap up on June 16,2010 at the Art Gallery of Ontario with an award ceremony and round table discussion by several of the mayoral candidates.  The candidates will be sharing their thoughts on how tomorrows Toronto should look like!

I’ve submitted my votes and now it’s your turn to either ”Love”, “Like” or “Hate” the newest additions to the Toronto skyline!

Check out the progress at the Don River Park…what is no more than piles of dirt will soon be a 17 acre park in the West Don Lands part of the City (which is actually the East side of the City. Confusing, I know!).

In this video update, I take a look at the early evolution of the Don River Park. Once complete, the green space will link residents of River City to the future site of the Pan Am Village. See for yourself in the video above!

If you’re interested in calling River City home, give me a call or send me an email… I’d love to help!

It all started a few weeks ago while shooting some video at the River City construction site…Along one of the blue walls was an advertisement for Banksy’s new film titled “Exit Trough the Gift Shop”!!  I quickly got on the phone and made plans to see it with an old friend and fellow Banksy enthusiast… Wait wait wait!! Let me first explain who this Banksy character is. 

That in its self is no easy task since no one realllly knows his identity, so I’ll start with his story to better explain my story.  Banksy is a British graffiti artist known for his political, playful and thought provoking stencils that have mysteriously popped up in many major Cities throughout the world! He’s successfully done these murals without being caught or identified, adding to the legend known simply as “Banksy” (stop by http://www.banksy.co.uk/ for more of his works).

Now back to how he applies to Toronto.  So I made plans to watch his new film on its Friday release and came out loving every second of it. The film showed the hard and sometimes dangerous work street artists go through to put up their art. I was left with a ton of questions all relating to ones perspective of the topic, some which include “what defines art” or more importantly “what defines GOOD art”… “Is it the message” “Could it be the person making work” “The story of that person” “Does its venue give it more or less credibility?” “Does any of it even matter?” These questions could be debated for hours and probably by more authoritative sources so I’ll save that convo for another day…   

Officially Banksy has never been to Toronto or even Canada for that matter, but after watching the film I couldn’t wait for the day he would!  Thankfully for me, that day came a lot faster than I could ever have imagined.  By Sunday I was hearing stories (primarily on the Torontoist and Show & Tell Gallery) of Banksy’s work appearing in different parts of the City. With the release of the film happening the same weekend, I had my doubts about these and figured this was just a publicity stunt to create a buzz.  Unfortunately for me, I tend to get suckered into “buzz-worthy events” pretty easily.

Fake or not I had to see it…street art doesn’t last long especially Banksy’s, who’s past pieces have been known to fetch large sums of money, I’m talking 1-bedroom-plus-den-with-parking-in-downtown-Toronto kind of money!!!  For that reason, the location of the stencils was left unknown.  All “Banksy hunters” had to work with were local landmarks in photos taken by others….

All those times being stuck in downtown traffic jams were about to pay off! I jumped into the Cooper and took to the streets and back alleys hoping to find me some Banksyyy!  My first stop was by The Docks, where the back of the drive through sign was used as the canvas for one of his famous “rat” stencils!  I started snapping photos around 11:30 Sunday night as an event cleared out.  A lot of people were wondering why I was so furiously snapping photos of a spray painted rat.  Looking back, I must have looked strange with my Blackberry in one hand and camera in the other….though it was totally worth it.  By mid Monday the “rat” was removed by a team of construction workers! 

I can only wonder if those construction workers had any idea as to what the value of the billboard was worth. Here are some pictures for those who didn’t get to see it:

I took to the back alleys of Dundas and Queen St. for hours searching for others….sadly nothing, so at 3am I called off the search.  Monday morning more pieces popped up including a “Spadina Rat” and an “intimidating balloon guard dog”.  Sadly, for one of the pieces, it was too late.  The stencil on an Adelaide wall (described as “0% Interest in People”) had been painted over.  Now there was 7 confirmed Banksy’s in Toronto with 2 either stolen or painted over.  I went back on my search Monday night exploring the City to find the others before it was too late. 

Finally…SUCCESS!! Here’s what we found:

To some the pictures may be of nothing more than “vandalism” or “garbage”…yet to others (myself included) it’s the chance of a life time!  By searching down the various locations of his art, I got to rediscover the City and even visit parts I’ve never been too.  A few weeks back I visited the AGO for my first time and saw a lot of beautiful works, but I found the staff to be very protective and at times even confrontational making it was hard to truly enjoy the art.  With street art, there are no boundaries…takes as many pictures as you like, touch it, discuss it, and view it any time of the day.

This whole Banksy experience brought a lot of attention to the Toronto street art scene and even showcases our own local talent… Fauxreel (pretty sure this is one of his pieces pictured below)

 

So get off the blog and out on those streets…create your own experince and enjoy Banksy in Toronto until it’s gone for good!

A few posts back, I wrote about how much I liked the 500 and 530 St. Clair project… now that a Starbucks opened up on the main level of 500, add another reason!  I actually don’t drink coffee (per-say) but I do love their green tea and the occasional moca-frappucino!

So why is a Starbucks such a big deal??? After all, it’s just another coffee shop right?  Well yes, but Starbucks doesn’t just open a place on any corner.  It’s not very often you see a Starbucks close down, and I believe it’s because of all the research and surveying that’s done before one actually opens. I was prepared to write a whole post on the “Starbuck Effect” and the type of positive changes that one brings to an area….BUT another blogger beat me too it!  Instead of rewriting what he’s already written, I encourage you to check out David Fleming’s post entitled “The Starbucks Effect“ He pretty much sums up all the areas that have benefitted from having the popular coffee shop open up in their area!

I firmly believe that the strip of St. Clair (From Bathurst to Oakwood) will be seeing positive changes in the coming years.  It already has streetcar AND subway access, not to mention the massive Loblaw’s for shopping, and Cedervale Park for leisure.  With big name chains like Starbucks moving in, it’s only a matter of time before others set up shop!  Local residential hot spot “Ferro” also looked like it was expanding its space in anticipation for more business along the strip!

Property values aside, there is another reason why this particular store deserves attention.  It’s the first (at least to my knowledge) Starbucks in Toronto that was built to LEED standards!   LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, and a system that more and more Toronto developers trying to incorporate into their buildings.  Though ordering your moca-froca-whatever from a LEED Certifies Starbucks won’t taste and different than any other Starbucks… It is good to see the massive coffee chain reducing their environmental footprint through energy and water conservation, recycling and green construction.

Drop in to the new Starbucks; it has a very loft-like look to it with a decent combination of wood and concrete finishes!