Toronto Condo and Real Estate Blog

Suites at High Park Lofts are a bit more costly than those at comparable downtown sites, but they just may ease residents’ ecological consciences

By John Bentley Mays - Globe and Mail

As long as the earth continues to heat up, and the world’s thirst for the ever-shrinking pool of petroleum continues to grow - and there’s no end to any of it in sight - the pressure on architects to rediscover the lessons of modernism can only increase.

It’s not because all buildings put up under the banner of modernism are masterpieces. They are not. Modernism has a future because the modernists got the agenda of contemporary architecture right: the creation of efficient, healthy, cost-effective, serious and decent looking buildings that serve the people who live and work in them.

The opinion that the modernists would have put us all in barracks and high-rise rat mazes is a slander against a noble and deeply humane project. It’s a project worthy of careful, urgent attention by anyone who builds or thinks about building in a time of diminishing resources, intensifying populations and environmental degradation.

Now as never before, it makes sense to be modern - to be thrifty and environmentally friendly, to advocate good waste-management and energy conservation practices, to celebrate the beauty of good, rational design.

It’s sensible to me, anyway. When I see the mediocre, badly sited residential towers and complexes going up in various parts of Toronto, however, I wonder where some real estate developers have stowed their common sense. Then a project with good sense comes along.

Take, for example, what unfolded near the intersection of Howard Park and Roncesvalles avenues, on Toronto’s west side. It was a project of razing and rebuilding by Toronto developer Harry Stinson. The old Anglican Church of St. Jude is gone - no great architectural loss - and the 97-suite project, called High Park Lofts, quickly took its true shape.

It’s an unusual design for a residential structure. Crafted by Toronto architect Stanford Downey, High Park Lofts is actually two long, thin, glass-sided, seven-storey slabs standing parallel to each other. They are separated by a 130-foot-long, glass-roofed central corridor (or atrium) that has become a “lushly landscaped garden,” fully climate-controlled.

In an especially good move - altogether too uncommon in tall buildings - each ground-level loft offers a direct walkout both to the street and to the atrium garden. With all lofts, however, you get not only various amenities usually offered as add-ons (such as storage space and underground parking), but you may also find your ecological conscience eased.

More than any other residential project I’ve run across in Toronto, High Park Lofts is taking its environmental responsibility seriously. Available heat will be used to maximum advantage. The earth itself - penetrated by some 80 little geothermal bore holes - is tapped to provide natural warming and cooling for the building’s interior.

Thermal pumps will automatically circulate warmth from places where the heat is often excessive (on the west exterior of the building, for instance, or around electrical installations) to places that are too cool. Instead of just vanishing down the drain, shower water will be first robbed of its heat by thermal transfer devices, and this second-hand heat will then be sent on to wherever it is needed.

The light advantage at High Park Lofts is surely worth noting. Lofts are opened and brightened by windows fore and aft - facing inward to the atrium and outward to the world. Each loft has access to all the sunlight there is, whether it shines in directly, or is filtered through the atrium skylights.

In an interview, Mr. Stinson described the various energy-efficient touches at High Park Lofts as sales and marketing tools. Whatever the developer’s intentions, High Park Lofts is a project worth watching by everyone who wants the environmental and human standards of large-scale Toronto apartment design to go up.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960

By Derek Raymaker - Globe and Mail

Toronto is among the most extraordinary condominium markets in North America, not so much because of the quality of the suites but the vast array of pockets that seem to perform well.

As we look at the lesser known condo submarkets around the Greater Toronto Area, it’s apparent that the city’s proud neighbourhoods have played a role in staking out markets beyond downtown.

The eastern reaches of Toronto include some of the most stridently independent neighbourhoods, including The Beaches, Riverdale, Leslieville and the Danforth. Each of these communities has endured its own peaks and valleys in terms of affluence, and all are in demand today among younger buyers. In the case of The Beaches, older empty nesters are drawn to the shoreline neighbourhood.

On the fringes of these neighbourhoods are Kingston Road and Eastern Avenue. Both arterial roads are flush with heavy traffic during the day, but they also have surplus commercial and industrial buildings ideal for lofts or more experimental condominium developments.

The east end has become a test canvas of sorts for art-deco, mid-rise designs reflecting South Beach and other maritime styles. Certainly, the buyers who gravitate to the east end are more likely to take a chance on designs that reflect their free-spiritedness rather than the standard cookie-cutter suites of downtown or the harbour front.

But the kicker for most buyers is, as always, affordability. At the end of 2007, the average price for this neighbourhood stood at $402 a square foot, pretty close to the Greater Toronto average of $399, according to data collected by RealNet Canada. That’s up 17% year over year.

The average suite in this neighbourhood is quite a bit larger than the average in Toronto, and prices are higher, too, at an average of $379,601, compared with $355,998 in Greater Toronto. That’s also a cool hundred grand higher than the area’s average price of $276,992 in 2006.

Hyde Park Homes has been active in the east end, starting with a successful 18-unit infill townhouse redevelopment in the Upper Beaches and following it up with Leslieville Lofts just north of Queen Street East at Broadview Avenue.

Leslieville Lofts will be a new eight-storey building on the site of a former auto-body shop made up of 157 suites and 14 two-storey townhouses, with prices ranging from $180,000 for 470 square feet to $1.4-million for a 2,265-square-foot penthouse.

Leslieville Lofts, which was launched last November, features open-concept spaces and vast terraces on the seventh floor. The townhouses will be zoned as live/work units.

If you’re looking for spectacular views, Minto’s Skyy project at the top of Pottery Road near Danforth Avenue will soar 25 storeys above the Don River Valley. It features contemporary open-concept designs suited for younger buyers, but it’s also been a big hit with local residents who want to cash in on their valuable houses but stay in the same neighbourhood. The project is now under construction.

Prices here range from $189,000 for 522 square feet to $1.5-million for a 4,482-square-foot penthouse with two terraces and an enormous living area with a curved bank of floor-to-ceiling windows.

An authentic loft project - living space that is converted from industrial use - that has turned a lot of heads for its shape-shifting design and intriguing courtyard is the Printing Factory Lofts, developed by Beaverbrook Homes. This 254-unit project will also include 44 stacked townhouses with street-level access on Boston Avenue, just north of Queen. Prices here range from $189,000 for 573 square feet to $491,000 for 1,235 square feet, with extensive landscaping in common outdoor areas as well as private yards.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960

The nouveau loft building Five Nine on Richmond incorporates cutting-edge designs and technology - from a “floating” penthouse to a car-stacking system - in the King Street West neighbourhood.

The ten-storey structure of glass, steel and concrete features a minimalist two-storey lobby, and each loft has exposed concrete walls and floor-to-ceiling windows. The “floating” penthouse extends out from the building on two sides.

Almost all units have been purchased thus far, largely because of earlier complications in finalizing the height of the building, according to Robert Spindler, who is part of the loft sales team.

But he says they are promoting the building to young downtown business types, singles and couples. “With 1,300 square feet maximum, it’s not really enough space to have a family,” Mr. Spindler says. “It’s for people who like to get out. And we keep the maintenance fees low so they can live in a cool, sexy little loft.”

Buyers personalized their lofts, which ranged from a one-room studio space, to an unconventional T-shaped apartment, or a two-storey penthouse.

Stainless-steel appliances were paired with stainless-steel, custom-built cabinetry and millwork by the award-winning team, Burdifilek Interior Design.

Designers took an industrial-style approach, featuring sliding barn-style doors for bedrooms and slab-style doors with brushed chrome hardware for other parts of the suite.

Contemporary features include hardwood flooring, natural stone countertops, undermounted sinks and halogen track lighting.

Every loft has a stacked washer and dryer, controlled heating and air conditioning, and ceiling-mounted stereo speakers in bathrooms. A high-speed wiring infrastructure allows for up-to-date communication and entertainment systems.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960