9 Mar

A SINGLE MAN – MY PERSONAL REVIEW OF THE MOVIE AND A FRIEND

Posted by homeswithharvey in Entertainment. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

I am sure most of us have had major life upsets or even tragedies which leave us to think that we will never make it through a day or any day after that. One of my closest girl friends and I, both fans of Colin Firth, decided to take it in A Single Man at last.

It was not until we were 10 minutes into the movie that I froze, realizing that my friend, had tragically lost her husband just over 7 months ago. Why in gawd’s name did I bring her to see A Single Man, a movie about George (Colin Firth), who not so long ago lost his partner, Jim in a car accident. Not only was he (or my friend) having problems dealing with the idea of life without Jim (her husband), but there is a sense in which he (she) is wondering at his (her) grief as much as he (she) is experiencing it. That is when I looked over at my dearest friend, and realized that she had been doing the same thing for the past 8 months.

George, as was she, is as sentimental as you could want to find, and being torn up by the loss of his partner is in character for them both.

But something slightly off is going on and when I realized what it was, I wondered how often those who experience the losses consider the same.

As we watched the flashbacks in the movie of George’s life, I was recalling the many oddly special moments in my friend’s relationship over the years…leisurely walks, simple meals, friends, families and special occasions when it all seemed so real or sureal.

My friend was able to be with her man to the very last moment. George,a gay man in the 50/60’s was denied the right of saying goodbye or even attending the funeral of his partner of 16 years. A 2 minute call from Jim’s cousin shared few details and offered no comfort whatsoever.

As I watched George’s reaction to Jim’s death, I could only imagine my friend’s reaction when her husband slipped away. We follow George as I have followed my friend through their curious present.

This low-key film is about the low-key wandering of a man and to some degree about the low-key wandering of anyone who has experienced the loss of a partner.

Thoughts of suicide are not uncommon after major losses. George never once really acts, speaks or thinks as though he is trying to figure anything out? But can you really figure it out? Most can only manage to feel curshed by loss. He is not…. or at least not in a way that is conscious. The thoughts he has are only about how to make it through each day now that Jim is gone…..not unlike the thoughts of anyone who has lived and shared life together. “Who am I?” George knows who he is as does my friend. Their life partners were not a total summation of who they were, so why does it feel as if everything is gone now?

As with those who have lost someone…….such an important part of their life for such a long time, we are left only to travel along with George, and put his thoughts with our own, without everything being handed to us by dialog and voiceover. Neither George or friend are wandering down such an easy road. Everyone wonders how they can make it through the day now that thier loved one is gone. Both Lynn and George talk like that too, understandably.

The thing is, those who really love us know something almost none of us get around to knowing….who we are, and once we know who we are…..that’s really all there is to know.

How did you feel about the movie? What cords did it strike for you? Coin Firth provided an academy award performance and was worthy of nomination. The movie is a definite must.

8 Mar

REAL ESTATE MARKETING GURUS SEE CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM FOR 2010 – DO YOU? YOUR COMMENTS PLEASE!

Posted by homeswithharvey in Real Estate, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , .

As Toronto’s top real estate advertising and marketing executives gathered recently for a roundtable discussion on the state of their industry, the outlook was a fair bit rosier than it was one year ago. Small wonder: The city’s
real estate market experienced a remarkable resurgence in the second half of 2009, one that made the economic downturn seem almost like a distant memory.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reported a total of 87,308 sales of homes last year, beating the 74,552 sales made in 2008. In December alone there were 5,541 sales, up 115 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Confidence has made a comeback, the Toronto Star-sponsored roundtable agreed. “There’s a cautious optimism out there,” said Linda O’Connor, vice-president and managing director of Ryan Design Inc.

“Purchasers realized that the world didn’t end,” added L.A. Inc. vice-president David Klugsberg. Things have changed, though, the participants said. For one thing, purchasers who have been wading into the waters in the past six months are a warier and wiser lot.

“These buyers are making educated decisions,” said Shakeel Walji, a partner and creative director for The Walsh Group. “They’re visiting more sales offices before they pull the trigger.

“When the market rebounded, they had already done their homework. They knew the neighbourhood where they wanted to be, and they said let’s make the decision now.”

Buyers have been coaxed back in large part by rock-bottom interest rates. “The current interest rate environment has been a real catalyst,” O’Connor said. “If rates had moved up a couple of points, we’d all be sitting around like the Maytag repairman.”

Purchasers are also being lured by the prospect of getting great bargains, she noted. “We’ve seen a lot of builders reducing prices for inventory. And consumers are thinking there are deals out there; that there’s an opportunity to ask for a little bit more.

“I don’t think a consumer has walked into a sales office this year without expecting some kind of deal,” O’Connor said. To make those deals work, however, builders are having to tweak the size of the suites; essentially offering less for less.

“People are looking for a certain price point and to attain that developers are making units smaller.” The growing number of savvy homebuyers out there these days means that it’s as important as ever for marketing strategies to hit the mark, panellists said.

With this in mind, the sales centre has undergone a significant transformation. “We used to design sales offices for consumers to come in and view product and write up a deal,” O’Connor said. “Now we design them for people to come in and lounge.
“We have bars and we even held a summer camp in a sales office last summer (at Heathwood Homes’ Traditions development in Milton, where the sales centre doubles as a community centre).

“We’re creating environments that are geared toward much more than just selling product and getting the consumer out the door,” O’Connor added. “What we’re designing now are venues.”

Real estate marketers say its equally as vital that they take full advantage of new technologies to entice potential buyers. Touch screens at sales centres, for example, are becoming essential tools to help homebuyers envision a potential living space. Such technology represents a vast improvement over the old-school one-dimensional renderings and floor plans salespeople relied on in the past to illustrate offerings.

“We used to have display boards all over the place and we’d take the (prospective buyer) through a journey … they’d walk around with us,” said Clarence Poirier, creative director for P&B Marketing Ltd. “But with touch screens, the customer never has to leave the monitor to understand everything about a project … and the salesperson can change things instantly to incorporate a consumer’s request, as opposed to saying, `We’ll have to get back to you.’ “Touch screens have made it a hundred times more efficient.”

O’Connor agreed. “I don’t think there’s a sales office we’re designing right now that doesn’t have a touch screen in it,” she said.

At the sales centre for Aura at College Park – a 75-storey condo that will be the tallest in North America when it’s completed in 2012 – O’Connor’s team has added Google Earth to further enhance the touch screen experience.

“You can fly over and see the building pop up in the middle of Toronto,” she said. “Or you can click on anything in the surrounding area and it will tell you that you’re, for example, three kilometres from the ROM.” “And if (a prospective buyer) wants to live on the 29th floor and face southeast and asks ‘What would my view be?’ They can just click and it’s there – it’s instant.”

Ryan Design has gone a step further in its adoption of new technologies to sell condos. The firm is pioneering the use of what’s known as “Bluetooth proximity marketing,” which they’ve employed for Blade in Brampton, a 26-storey condo that is across the street from a GO Transit station. To target on-the-move commuters, equipment housed in a sales centre sends out marketing messages and special offers to Bluetooth-enabled devices within a range of several hundred feet.

“People in this industry used to think, ‘If I have a website I’m okay,’” O’Connor said. “But these days it’s about how you’re getting your message out to the consumer … and every consumer is carrying a cellphone or a BlackBerry.

“So we’re incorporating technology to deliver mobile information to potential purchasers.” Technology can be a double-edged sword, though, particularly when it comes to how social media can influence would-be buyers.

The real estate marketing industry used to enjoy total control over the message, said roundtable moderator Danny Roth, who heads the PR firm Brandon Communications. But nowadays they’re competing with bloggers, as well as Twitter and Facebook, forums in which one person’s sour comment about a project can potentially have as much influence as a full-page ad in the newspaper or a spot on the radio. Do these marketing gurus see this as a threat? Roth asked. Walji said it’s the exact opposite for his firm; they embrace social media and incorporate it into their marketing mix.

“We include Facebook and Twitter in our strategy,” he said. “We want to get as many people aware of a project as possible – that’s the whole idea. The message you try and get out is positive, and hopefully it’s going to the right audience.” But he acknowledges, “it is difficult to control what people do with it after it gets out.” That said, in the super-competitive real estate industry, chatter about a rival firm can come in handy. “The blogosphere helps us to track competitors,” O’Connor said.

The new year looks to be a brighter one for Toronto real estate, leaving the turmoil of 2009 firmly in the past, or so the panellists of the roundtable, held in a boardroom at the Toronto Star, hope. But did the chaotic past year have any significant lasting impact?

“I don’t think Toronto was the root of the problem by any means, but it certainly affected us,” said Klugsberg.

“We’re doing business with a lot less people than we were last year at this time,” said Joe Latobesi, vice-president of Montana Steele Advertising Inc., which recently won a record nine gold awards at the National Sales and Marketing Awards in Las Vegas
.
“It did weed out some of these wannabe builders. And the tougher things got, the more that shops like ours that have been around for years got called.”

In the end, though, Latobesi thinks Toronto’s rapid real estate resurgence is evidence of an otherwise healthy market that was waiting for the chance to fire back up.

“Everyone was expecting something to happen to the housing market here (during the downturn),” he said. “But then nothing did, and we just jumped back on where we were.”

“We have had so much confidence in the GTA market over the last three to six months,” added Poirier. “In comparison to the rest of the world, it’s overwhelming.”

6 Mar

TORONTO WEEKEND OPEN HOUSES FOR HOME BUYERS – SAT/SUN MAR 6-7

Posted by homeswithharvey in Real Estate, Toronto. Tagged: , , .

Here is a link to some of the open houses that have been posted on Realtor.ca for this upcoming weekend. With such perfect weather, you get to see these homes in the best light. If you’d like to connect with me on Twitter, here is my feed HomesWithHarvey

5 Mar

TORONTO HOUSING MARKET CONTINUES TO SOAR

Posted by homeswithharvey in Real Estate, Toronto. Tagged: , , , , .

The average price of a home was also up by 19 per cent to $431,509.

Published on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 By Tony Wong, Business Reporter, Toronto Star

Existing home sales in the Toronto area were up by 77 per cent in February compared with the same time last year, according to figures released today.

The Toronto Real Estate Board said 7,291 homes changed hands last month compared with 4,120 homes in February of 2009.

The average price of a home was also up by 19 per cent to $431,509.

“Increases in existing home sales and average price were noted across the GTA in low rise and high rise home types,” said TREB president Tom Lebour. “This suggests that first-time, move up and down sizing buyers are all active in the existing home marketplace.”

Comparisons with the first half of last year are slightly misleading because that was the bottom of the market, caution analysts.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released a forecast this week that the market will remain heated for the first half of the year, before trending down in the second half and into 2011.

One bright spot for buyers is that listings improved by a significant 24 per cent in February compared with last year.

“Annual growth in new listings is expected to continue,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s senior manager of market analysis. “New listings growth will start to outstrip sales growth as we move through 2010. As the market becomes better supplied, we will see more sustainable single digit rates of growth.”

4 Mar

OLYMPICS – LEAVING BEHIND A THANK YOU NOTE FROM BRIAN WILLIAMS, ANCHOR & MANAGING EDITOR

Posted by homeswithharvey in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , .

This piece was forwarded to me by a friend……….and I can only hope it is quoted accurately. I thought it worthy to share.

After tonight’s broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we’re going to try to brave the blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week. Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts. For your unfailing courtesy. For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.

For your unique TV commercials — for companies like Tim Hortons — which made us laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games — you’ve made wearing your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn’t hear one car horn in 15 days — which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.

For always saying nice things about the United States…when you know we’re listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.

Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

3 Mar

60 YEARS OLD……AND STILL ENJOYING THE CHALLENGES!

Posted by homeswithharvey in Causes, Toronto. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Me and my biggest supporter

Wishing Zaidy a fond farewell at Queens Park

As we age, ever so gracefully, life continues to present its challenges which we can accept, fight or ignore. Age is sometimes a factor that affects how we might rise to the challenge, but age should never rule out the challenges of living and life.

In 2010, spurred on by my 60th birthday, a very unfit me committed to participate in the 11th Annual Friends For Life Bike Rally in support of the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation. After 5 months of dedicated, and sometimes not so dedicated training, I along with 400 other riders and crew, biked 610 km from Toronto to Montreal over 6 days.

At the end of each day…..tired, dirty, hungry and thirsty, we pitched our tents, laid out our sleeping bags, inflated our mattresses which were always over or under inflated, and adapted to using port-a-potties. If someone had asked 12 months previous to departure if I could see myself doing this, I would have laughed hysterically, and screamed NO.

With the support & pledges of friends, family and associates and complete strangers, I crossed the finish line an emotional heap feeling the bitter-sweet emotion of having achieved a physical challenge and emotional experience never imagined, having successfully raised $28,750, the most any individual rider has raised in the 11 year history of the rally.

Believe me, there were moments that I wanted to give up, but I rode fueled with the thoughts and memories of the hundreds of people that I have known over the years who have been infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and other life threatening illnesses.

I rode for a close friend who died of brain cancer shortly after I crossed the finish line. I rode with the thoughts of my brother whose Multiple Sclerosis had and continues to rapidly advanced. I rode for a lifelong friend, who at the age of 60 had his life taken away from him by Dementia. He still lives in a world that is not fully understood.

This year, I will also ride for my 4 year old grandson Noah, our newest grandchild Nathan, born January 21st at 11 lbs 11 oz. (the sumo wrestler) and the rest of the children in the world, in the hopes they will have healthy futures. As I ride, I will also remember all the lives have been affected by the devastating earthquakes and other natural disasters around the world.

There was a lot of alone time spent on the road during the 6 days of the ride. It provided me with so much time for thought and reflection, not only about me and my life and what I am doing with it, but about this world and the part we play in it. It made me question my role and responsibilities as a citizen of this world.

One of the most rewarding and meaningful aspects of last year’s ride was hearing from so many riders that my fundraising achievement has motivated them to return in 2010 with a renewed and increased commitment. It is only the beginning of March and it appears that the motivation has surfaced and the challenges are being exercised.

I too have renewed my commitment. My training has started in preparation for the July 25th departure for Montreal. My fundraising goal is twofold. First to march my 2010 achievement of $28,750. Second would be to raise the bar for everyone and surpass it.
Continuing to raise the awarenss of HIV/AIDS is also a part of my commitment.

These goals can ONLY be accomplished with partners like you. Your donation helps fund much needed services for the thousands of men, women and children still living with HIV/AIDS. The stigma attached to this devasting disease still exists. The discrimination seen and felt in the work, social and living enironments continues to create difficulty for those who are affected.

The Toronto People With AIDS Foundation offers a welcoming space to connect with those affected, access practical support services, and get assistance to navigate the sometimes complex system of care required.

The Toronto People With AIDS Foundation exists to promote the health and well-being of all people living with HIV/AIDS by providing accessible, direct and practical support services.

The Toronto People With AIDS Foundation is the largest direct support service agency for people living with HIV/AIDS in Canada. For more information, please visit www.pwaToronto.com

The PWA nees your support to continue heightening the awareness of HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS has not disappeared. HIV/AIDS is very much alive within our communities around the world. HIV/AIDS continues to affect and destroy an incomprensive number of lives each day, week, month and year.

Your financial generosity is greatly needed and very much appreciated. As a partner in this worthwhile effort, I would like to ask you if you could encourage those that you know to support us in our efforts? All of us will ride with pride knowing that we have the support of partners who care and are determined to help us surpass the challenge.

If you know of someone who is participating in the 12th Annual Friends For Life Bike Rally in support of the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation, please show them your support by visiting www.bikerally.org and providing a secure online pledge. If you don’t know anyone personally, your contribution to my goal will bring me closer to surpassing last year’s goal of $28,750.

As long as there is a reason, the ride will continue.

Warmest regards,

Harvey Malinsky

2 Mar

Response to a negative US report on the Vancouver olympics.

Posted by homeswithharvey in Olymics, Toronto. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Canada. So we are not perfect.

Do you believe?

We never claimed to be perfect,
That means we’ve learned to be humble.
We say excuse me and I’m sorry…as well as please and thanks,
Even when its not our fault we apologize.
Sure one arm of the torch didn’t rise,
But when the earthquake struck Haiti, Canadians raised their hands to say…”We’ll help.”
And yah, there is a fence around the torch,
But you can walk right up and shake hands with our prime minister and most famous Canadians.
We put Gretzky in the back of a pick up, in the rain, not surrounded by police…and he was okay,
And by the way… the great one is Canadian…and HE wasn’t complaining!
We do have security at the games, of course, but most people don’t even have a gun they have to leave at home.
The medals ARE under lock and key, but our doors and our hearts are open to the world.
It has been pointed out that some buses broke down last week…but let’s not overlook the fact that our banking system didn’t.
We didn’t get the “green ice maker” right this time…but we will, eventually,
Just like we did when we invented the zamboni.
Citius altius fortius
If you don’t reach higher how do you get faster and stronger?
Was the first quad jump perfect?
Should we not have given snowboarding to the world “in case” it didn’t take off?
So big deal…one out of four torch arms didn’t rise. Good thing we had three more! It’s called contingency planning!
But remember…the Canadarm works every time…in outerspace…and insulin turned out to be okay.
We couldn’t change the weather, but maybe we can help to stop global warming.
We don’t have the tax base of the US or the power of the Chinese but, per capita, we ponied up for some pretty kick-ass venues in the worst global recession ever.
Sure, some folks couldn’t afford tickets, but our health care is universal.
We have shown the world that we can raise our voices in celebration and song, but moments later stand in silence to respect a tragic event…together…spontaneously…and unrehearsed.
What’s more, we don’t need permission from anyone to have a slam poet, fiddlers with piercings and a lesbian singer tell our story to the world while our multilingual female haitian-born, black head of state shares a box with her first nations equals.
We’ve shown the world that it doesn’t always rain in Vancouver, that you can strive for excellence, but not get hung up on perfection.
And we’ve learned what it feels like to be picked on by some no-name newspaper guy and we don’t have to take it lying down!
So the point is not the snow, or the hydraulics or a couple guys being 5 minutes late to a ceremony,
We know we’re lucky that these are the biggest problems we’ve had to deal with in the last couple weeks.
So take your cheap shots…Guardian newspaper and cynics of the world,
We’re bigger and better than that.
What’s more we’re finally starting to believe it!

Do you believe? Comments??

26 Feb

PROFESSIONAL REALTORS! ARE THEY NEEDED?

Posted by homeswithharvey in Real Estate, Toronto, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The real estate business is not simple. It is not like buying or selling retail whereby the transaction is complete at the time of negotiation. The real estate process is more than just buying and/or selling a piece of something. The role played by a professional realtor is more complex. Documents need to be prepared. Terms, conditions, clauses and proper wording must be understood. Processes have to be properly completed before the sale is successfully completed at the time set for closing. Omitting one of the processes can jeopardize the successful completion of a transaction and could be costly to both buyer and/or seller.

On the average, closings will occur 30-60-90 days from the date of acceptance of the offer and in many cases, longer based on the negotiations. Understanding the real estate industry requires understanding of the people or entities involved and their specific roles. These include the professional realtors, lenders, insurance brokers, home inspectors, termite inspectors, and lawyers. The professional realtor will co-ordinate your contact with the service providers required to ensure smooth process. At any point in time, if there are problems with a transaction based on the findings of one of the service providers, a professional realtor becomes involved with the resolution.

A professional realtor serves as the mediator between the buyer and the seller. A buyer will contact a professional realtor to help the buyer find the house according to the buyer’s criteria and negotiate the lowest possible price. Similarly, a seller will utilize the services of a professionl realtor to find a buyer to negotiate the the highest price possible.

Professional realtors facilitate the offer process between a buyer and seller and mediate during the negotiation process, understanding and protecting the interests of their clients. When the transaction is completed, the professional realtor, just like the lawyer, bank, home inspector, mortgage/insurance broker and doctor receives his fee for service. A sales price can and will be negatively affected by the lack of or unprofessional provision of services required to complete a transaction. Professional realtors play their part in maximizing the results.

To successfully market and negotiate a property a professional realtor must be aware of real estate law including Consumer Protection Act; Competitions Act: GST soon to be HST; Home Owner Grants; Insurance Requirements; Municipal/Provincial Zoning etc. Awarenss of real estate language and other regulations that protect both buyers and sellers can be vital to any transaction. A professional realtor makes a major investment of time to ensure he is educated, prepared and qualified to work in the market place. Familiarity with the terms, conditions and language that are part of every real estate transaction is important to protect and maximize the seller’s interests and those of the buyers?

As with most other regulated professions, the focus of the press and the public should be on the values provided to buyers and sellers by professional realtors. The knowledge, experience, protection, systems, effective marketing, and administration provided by professional realtors should not be down played. The reality exists……due to the lack of training, knowledge and expertise in real estate, sellers may compromise their own interests and the maximized returns they deserve on the sale of their properties as well as the interests of the buyers.

What do you think?

25 Feb

SHOULD SELLERS CONTINUE TO USE PROFESSIONAL REALTORS AND THE MLS?

Posted by homeswithharvey in Real Estate, Toronto, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Professional realtors:
• are highly qualified professionals
• have responsibilities to consumers and are accountable in all real estate transactions
• have acquired the ability to analyze the market & provide advise on proper pricing. Proper pricing results in the highest and best possible sale price in a reasonable period of time.
• are covered by Errors & Omissions Insurance for damages due to error in judgement or practices
• are regulated by the Real Estate Council of Ontario. The security of deposits and the proper maintenance of trust accounts are amongst the many regulations that benefit buyers and sellers.
• protect both buyers and sellers from the many pitfalls and landmines that exist in the inherently complex purchase and sale of real estate
• ensure that all aspects of transactions take place in an orderly and efficient manner.
• have systems & staffing to administer all steps necessary to achieve a successful & orderly sale to completion. (i.e. advertising; appointments for showings, inspections & pre-inspections; follow up; accounting; home inspections; waivers & amendments; financing; appraisals)
• ensure the required exposure of listings contributing to the seller’s ability to obtain the highest & best price possible for the property.
• verify all listing information and accurately represent the seller, as is required by the Real Estate Council of Ontario’s Code of Ethics. Inaccuracies can manifest themselves leading to disappointed buyers and serious litigation.
• comply with governmental requirements not necessarily related to the real estate transaction. Buyers and sellers are required to identify themselves to satisfy the FINTRAC requirements (anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist legislation) to protect consumers from unscrupulous individuals and potential fraud.
• market properties with experience and knowledge to a wide network of associates and clients. Simply posting a listing on MLS is not comprehensive or effective marketing. Such methods reduce the potential of obtaining the highest and best price possible.
• have developed the skills necessary to properly negotiate on behalf of buyers and sellers. Buyers should feel confident that offers are properly presented, negotiated and reviewed by sellers who have full knowledge of the market and real estate documents, in a timely and professional manner. Improperly worded or misunderstood clauses can be costly to a seller.

20 Feb

TORONTO’S RIVER STREET PROJECT

Posted by homeswithharvey in Real Estate, Toronto, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , .

For adventurous home-buyers looking for digs in Toronto’s old industrial zones, the junction of King and Queen Streets East, just west of the Don River, is one of the city’s last frontiers. But don’t wait too long. The gruff brick factories and warehouses that dot the area, and the Victorian storefronts along King and Queen, are being rapidly changed into chic dwellings and offices for people who don’t mind, or actually like (as I do), the rugged streetscapes left to us by the great Machine Age.

But along with the overhauls, much new housing is coming on stream in the district. Waterfront Toronto, the crown corporation conducting the transformation of the city’s harbour lands, will shortly see the first residential development in the desolate 80-acre West Don Lands go to market. It’s called River City and, when built out fully, it will contain 950 units. For the record: 330 units will go up for sale in February. They will range in size from a tiny 349 square-foot studio apartment to 1,050 square-foot two-bedroom suites on two levels, and are priced at $500 a square foot.

If River City lives up to its promise, this very fresh, intelligent project will probably raise the bar of architectural excellence for innovative multi-family residential work in Toronto.

Designed by the celebrated Montreal firm of Saucier + Perrotte Architects for Urban Capital Property Group, the development will occupy a long rectangular site bounded, on the north, by King Street East, and on the south by River Square, a public meeting place lined with cafés and restaurants, adjacent to Waterfront Toronto’s new Don River Park. The eastern limit is the Don corridor, with the little Don River flowing alongside traffic and train routes. On the west side, the boundary will be a southward extension of River Street, which currently stops at King.

All the old construction on the location has been bulldozed, except for one mighty thing: the elevated traffic deck of the Eastern Avenue flyover, which cuts right through the middle of the River City site. This large, obtrusive piece of infrastructure, I imagine, would have daunted some architects. But not Saucier + Perrotte. Their proposed solution to the problem takes the form of a graceful ribbon of mid-rise architecture and courtyards that extends south from a 14-storey building on King Street, gives way to new parkland and recreational facilities below the traffic decks, then resumes on the other side, flipping up into a tower 20-odd storeys tall.

River City’s five buildings, to be phased in over the next few years, are expressions of architectural variety within a framework of sober-sided urbanism. Nothing here shouts. The mid-sized profile of the structures north of Eastern Avenue strikes the right scale in a district of warehouses and factories. (The taller tower south of the flyover will be a good match for the development schemes Waterfront Toronto has in mind for the land around Don River Park.) The expanses of grey-tinted glass in dark aluminum frames, the balanced opacity and transparency of the facades, the hard geometry of the buildings – all these design moves help ease the way of River City into its architecturally tough neighbourhood, and give it aesthetic unity.

But this complex is hardly demure. While maintaining the concord of the project by means of colour and glass textures, and an overall stringent modernism, Saucier + Perrotte have carefully chiselled each building into a distinctive form. In plan, for example, the shorter tower on King Street is an irregular pentagon, creating interesting suites with strong, raking angles and wide views of the surrounding city. The row of four connected, short condominium cubes at the centre of the site, in contrast, is sturdy and resolute in general shape, but the ensemble is enlivened by the gently playful sculpting of their facades. Each building, in its turn, has been uniquely imagined, but matched in style and appearance to every other to make a coherent whole.

There are many ways to construct a city, of course, some of them downright awful, others merely mindless and uninspired. By assembling some of the best architects, planners and urban designers in the world to give advice and direction, Waterfront Toronto has apparently avoided the worst ways of making new urban landscape, and found ways of doing so that work well. The structures and green spaces in River City add up to thoughtful city-building at a high level, and provide a testament to Waterfront Toronto’s careful oversight of the land in its keeping.

« Older Entries