Aging neighbourhood rediscovered
February 27, 2010
Christopher Hume
The story of Jarvis and Adelaide is the story of this city: An aging neighbourhood abandoned by one generation is rediscovered by the next.
Throughout Toronto, whole areas that until recently were avoided are now much in demand as places to live. Given current conditions, the urban renaissance is not hard to understand. In the case of Jarvis and Adelaide, this new desire to be downtown has been transformational. Streets lined with old industrial buildings and parking lots are now home to thousands.
Best of all, perhaps, the landscape of the 19th-century city can still be found in this part of Toronto. Though buildings from the 1800s don't look modern, they were designed at a time when the need for compact urban form was fully, instinctively, understood. In that respect, our forebears were fully up-to-date, even ahead of us. They had no choice, of course, the need to live and work as closely as possible was obvious.
But if the great achievement of the second half of the last century was speed – the conquering of time and space – the great accomplishment of the new millennium will be to learn to live without it.
Jarvis and Adelaide is what cities looked like before the car; now it illustrates what cities are becoming after the car. Opportunities for infill projects seem to abound in historic precincts such as this; the challenge is always to fit them into the context. Though, architecture in Toronto has reached a level of urbanity that will stand the city is good stead, there's still a tendency to want to tear everything but a facade or two.
CONDO CRITIC
Vü CONDO, JARVIS AND ADELAIDE: Not often does a developer get hold of the best part of a whole city block. This important site is bounded by Jarvis on the west, George St. on the east, Richmond and Adelaide Sts. to the north and south. Deep in the heart of the old city, it's within walking distance of St. James Cathedral, the St. Lawrence Market and some of Toronto's most impressive heritage structures. Though no attempt has been made to copy the styles of the older neighbours – Gothic, Empire, Georgian – every effort has been made to pay homage to the past.
Though the complex comprises a midrise tower set back slightly from the corner, the face it presents is made up of a series of three- to five-storey tall podiums and a row of townhouses. These are finished in glass and red brick, which means they blend in with the nearby architecture.
The wrought-iron fence on Adelaide and George matches that on the historic commercial building directly east.
In addition to small touches such as these, designers have got the big moves right, mostly by managing to fit so much into the site without overdoing it.
The lowrise scale of the podiums feels right in this neighbourhood, but at the same time, there's room enough to accommodate two modest towers.
The idea of breaking down a large development into a number of smaller components ensures a contextual sensitivity and urban complexity that one would expect in such a significant location.
GRADE: A-
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Email: condocritic@thestar.ca.
chume@thestar.ca
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Toronto Star