Freed Watch - 550 Wellington

The glass is going up at the 550 Wellington site of one of Freed's 7 West Toronto condo developments.  At the same time, soon parking will no longer be available at the Travel Lodge around the corner at 621 King W for another development.  News to follow.

[caption id="attachment_3042" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="travellodge - 621 King W"][/caption]

Parkland Acquisition at 50 St. Joseph Street

Interesting info of how a park comes into being at a condominium development.

from the cities report, sections pasted together after redaction of general text -

50 St. Joseph Street. Through the development, the City will be obtaining a substantial amount of parkland equivalent to approximately 30% of the development site area. The parkland will be obtained through
three methods. 1)The developer is required to provide a statutory parkland dedication.
Another portion of parkland is being secured as a Section 37 contribution, through a....Acquisition sub-project, 50 St. Joseph Street, in the amount of $600,000.00, funded from
the Parkland Acquisition - Toronto Local Reserve Fund, (XR2053) to complete the
acquisition of parkland for the site. Section 37 agreement. In addition the City will make a direct payment to the owner of the land in order to complete the proposed parkland acquisition





Funding the Parkland Acquisition at 50 St. Joseph Street Feb 08/Full report [opens in new window]

City of Toronto's page for the project [opens in new window]

Are condo developers taking over park development in West Toronto?

The artist rendering plan of the West Toronto condo development above is only an example of the park like setting most west end condo developers are placing in the their multiplex  building projects.

Look at all the park like features included for the use of their customers, in the above example they even include a putting green and a water fall, and a “community” BBQ area.  All of these are great recreational park features, present in many public parks.

Developer efforts made in this manner are great for those who purchase the condos in their development. They will have many of the amenities present in public parks right there at the foot of their building  to use. Greater access and ease of use than using the same conveniences in a public park, which is the worrying part – will private developer parks contribute to the breakdown in ground level community support to public parks.

Why put effort into a community park if the one outside your door is there for me, many people will ask. Of course there are many reasons, such as community cohesion, but thoughts such as these require contemplation and effort which many people do not have the time for in a city that people have come to expect good city parks.

Developer parks something coming upon the west end fast without much realization.

Posted by Robert

Victoria Royce Presbyterian Church stained glass coming down

The Victoria Royce Presbyterian Church stained glass windows are coming down this week and are destined for another church, we are told by the company removing the glass. The Junction loses a real important artifact that helped set the grammar of ornament on Annette St. Yet at least it's going into another church.

A tip came in from blog reader Hamish so we scooted right over there. Here are some images of the removal.



Picture Credit - Robert



An update will be posted, once we can get more info.

Village by High Park interests CPR Rail alot

Village by High Park condo development the biggest the junction has seen to this date attracts a lot of interest from the neighbourhood. Well almost everyday it has one neighbourhood member, taking a very close look from their property line.



Also there is some angled drilling taking place today.

Posted by Robert