Toronto Condo and Real Estate Blog

by Amy West

Liberty Village is a unique community located in Toronto’s West End that features diversity framed within a historical district. It’s bordered by King, Dufferin, the Gardiner Expressway, and Strachan.

Liberty Village has grown significantly over the past two years, both in new residential and office spaces. Because the neighbourhood is an abandoned industrial area, these developments have primarily been built inside old factories. It has become a trendy spot for young professionals who are pushing further west into less established areas, while remaining a short ride from the city core.

Throughout its history Liberty Village has undergone social and economic transformations, but what has remained are the unique Victorian-era industrial buildings, which have made this area a memorable visual link to Toronto’s past.

Beginning in the late 19th and continuing into the 20th century, this area was a major manufacturing centre in Canada. It underwent rapid industrial growth during the mid-1800s thanks to its proximity to the railways and harbours. By the turn of the century, a mixed collection of ramshackle wooden buildings gave way to massive brick structures - the heart of Canada - industrial revolution.

The district was also home to industrial institutions. Central Prison, set back from Strachan Avenue, was built by the province in the early 1880s, not only to incarcerate inmates, but to put them to work in the hopes of profiting from their labour. It closed in 1911, but the old chapel can still be seen at the corner of Pirandello and East Liberty Streets.

The area was also the site of the Andrew Mercer Reformatory and the Ontario Reformatory Facility for Females. Ironically, Liberty Street ran between the two prisons. The Mercer Reformatory was torn down after being condemned in 1969 and is now the location of Lamport Stadium.

North of Liberty Street on Dufferin was a factory built in 1916 by the Russell Motorcar Company that manufactured fuses used in bomb shells in World War I. South of Liberty Street was the Dufferin Liberty Centre. It manufactured electrical lights to send overseas during and after World War I.

In 1881 John Inglis and Sons opened facilities on Strachan and Hanna avenues, thus expanding its successful business of building machinery for grist and flour mills. In 1902 it switched to manufacturing marine steam engines and waterworks pumping engines.

Two years later, an American named Major J.E. Hahn purchased the company and manufactured the Bren lightweight machine gun used by British and Canadian infantries during World War II. In 2003 Lifetime Urban Development Group purchased the building and is transforming it into a retail and commercial complex called the Liberty Market Building.

The site at 43 Hanna Avenue was the head office of Irwin Toy. It was transformed by Lanterra Developments into the Toy Factory Lofts, which won the 2005 Greater Toronto Home Builders Association award for Condominium Project of the Year.

Until 1858, Liberty Village was also the site of Toronto’s Industrial Exhibition, which later moved south and was renamed the Canadian National Exhibition.

Today Liberty Village is alive with new companies, new people, and new style - a hotbed of high tech and culture in the new economy, enjoying a revival as one of the fastest-growing employment centres in the city combined with new urban living. The village is an example of smart growth, with residents and businesses expanding together, supported by accessible transportation and a growing retail community.

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Careful thought went into 37-unit, live-work project
Large-sized suites ran counter to marketing advice

Excerpt from an article by Ellen Moorhouse - Special to the Toronto Star

Think of a bathroom with subway-tiled walls topped with concealed, indirect lighting highlighting a restful blue colour above.

This is how intern architect David Peterson decided to incorporate colour into the clean, streamlined room, with soaker tub, rain showerhead, tempered glass shower partition, cantilevered sink and sliding doors that conceal the laundry.

It’s another example of the thought Peterson has lavished on this 37-unit, live-work project called Roncesvalles Lofts, set on a somewhat inhospitable site near Howard Park and Roncesvalles Aves.

The lofts, which range from 685 to 1,950 square feet, will all have balconies, terraces or garden patios.

Some will be one storey, with nine-foot ceilings; others will be two storeys.

The project targets people who are downsizing, moving out of houses in the neighbourhood or in other parts of the city, as well as people who are moving up.

The lofts range in price from $230,000 for 615 square feet, to $670,000 for a 1,800-square-foot suite, which will also have a large roof terrace and two balconies.

First occupancies are expected for November 2007. Maintenance fees are expected to be 32 cents per square foot.

Read the rest of the article here

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Unique green design includes courtyard garden with pond system to deal with storm-water runoff

Zinc-clad Roncesvalles Lofts will include sheltered areas; providing microclimates for outdoor living

Excerpt from an article by Ellen Moorhouse - Special to the Toronto Star

Mario and Frank Ribeiro, who own a site near Roncesvalles Ave. and operate their business, Triumph Aluminum and Sheet Metal Inc. there, plan a new 37-unit new soft loft project that could prove to be one of the most innovative condos around.

Called Roncesvalles Lofts and priced at about $370 a square foot, it will have some unusual features. The brains behind this unabashedly modern design, to be clad in zinc and accented with light green stucco, is David Peterson, a 34-year-old intern architect.

Peterson had no shortage of problems for this particular loft project, not the least of which is the site on Ritchie Ave., close to where Howard Park and Roncesvalles Aves. intersect.

“It turns its back on its neighbours, which is what this building does with the exception of Ritchie Ave. You know it looks out toward Ritchie, but on the back sides, it’s either utilitarian spaces (such as parking and access) or places where you can get diffused light without the view.”

The courtyard side is oriented to line up with the backyards of the houses along Ritchie Ave., offering an extension of that green space. Residents in the area will no longer be looking at an industrial block wall from their yards, Peterson says, while loft owners will gain light from the southwest exposure and views of neighbouring gardens.

In the High Park area, storm water and sewage often flow through the same pipes. By having the courtyard retain storm water, Peterson says, “what the engineer tells me is that the amount of water we send to the sewer will be less than the current industrial property, despite the fact we’re building 37 units.”

“I didn’t want windows looking out on the lane anyway. One thing we did with the windows on the second storey is turn the window, so it faces into a window well… The material inside reflects the light, so you get diffused light into your bedroom and not the view.”

Those spaces include the courtyard, the window wells, balconies, the external access corridors and above-ground parking for bicycles and cars under a cantilevered part of the building (there’s also underground parking).

Peterson wanted the building to connect with its setting, but he wanted the residents’ views to focus away from the less-attractive industrial parts of the neighbourhood. He has done that by controlling how people move through the building.Residents will get to ground floor units by walking through the garden courtyard. Upper-floor units are approached by elevator and along the corridors, open to the sky, with doors to the lofts on one side.

“It’s tough,” says Ribeiro, who has supplied metal cladding for institutional and commercial projects, as well as some condominiums, such as the Phoebe on Queen St. W., and the French Quarter downtown, east of Yonge St.

Although Peterson says the loft project has been well-received by the neighbourhood, not everyone is enthralled with the prospect of more development and the increasing residential density that new lofts will bring to the area.

Lily Korkka, who lives in one of the Ritchie Ave. homes, is already smarting from the impact of the larger High Park Lofts project across the street, and is skeptical about just about anything developers promise.

She’s planning to launch an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board against Roncesvalles Lofts in a bid to stem the rush of redevelopment. “I don’t think that model fits into the neighbourhood,” she says.

“This is a kind of building type that’s not seen in the city,” he explains. “It’s not a townhome, it’s not a highrise, which isn’t appropriate to this area, and in some ways, it’s not the type of mid-rise we’re used to, either.

Avi Friedman, an architecture professor at McGill University and tireless advocate for innovative and flexible housing, welcomes brownfield developments such as this live-work loft project.

Read the rest of the article here

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