In some ways, it's unfortunate that the cement factory and the train shed were long ago demolished.
David Wex, a developer who will bring housing to the manufacturing wasteland of Toronto's West Don Lands, likely would have found a way to incorporate those industrial remnants into the neighbourhood that will rise up over the next few years.
As it is, the partner at Urban Capital Property Group will have to rely on a busy Don Valley Parkway overpass and the Adelaide Street ramps to provide the urban context for the towers and buildings of glass and metal.
Standing at the windblown apex of the overpass as cars whizzed by on a recent afternoon, Mr. Wex leaned over the railing and pointed out the progress that marks the desolate landscape below.
Behind the blue construction hoardings is the site of River City, which will one day combine lofts, condominium towers and townhouses in an area of parks, stores and cafés on the banks of the Don River.
The way the buildings are designed, he explains, it's almost as if the cars travelling over the ramps will be running through the complex.
“The ramps are both very interesting and also a challenge.”
Mr. Wex handed that challenge to Montreal-based architectural firm Saucier + Perrotte and, with his Urban Capital partner Mark Reeve, submitted their design to an international competition run by Waterfront Toronto.
“I think the thing that won it for us is we understand the beauty of industry and nature,” he said.
Mr. Wex pointed to a bulldozer crawling over a massive mound of earth. That berm will protect the finished dwellings from the river, should it ever swell beyond its banks. Dodging six lanes of traffic, Mr. Wex reaches the opposite side of the overpass and points out the sites for two more phases.
A park created in the underpass will connect the buildings.
The site where Peter's Taxi Ltd. and a gravel parking lot now stand will eventually become part of the new neighbourhood. The Victorian-era smokestacks of the Distillery District are just down the road.
Cities around the world are grappling with brownfield redevelopment. Mr. Wex points to the remarkable result at Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park in Germany, which has become the prototype for architects and planners who aim to rejuvenate the abandoned yards and rusting factories that exist in many cities.
In Duisburg, architect Peter Latz and his colleagues allowed nature to reclaim the industrial land surrounding a decommissioned metal works.
Visitors now climb Blast Furnace No. 5. for a panoramic view. Cooling tanks, railway tracks and slag heaps have all become part of the landscape.
“It's a gloriously beautiful park,” Mr. Wex says. “They didn't take any of the industry down. There's this hard infrastructure and then parkland and prairie.”
Some proponents of similar plans in other cities have had trouble selling the schemes to local politicians.
Mr. Wex says the design he presented had to meet the environmental and community goals of Waterfront Toronto. Many of the units will be family-friendly.
Waterfront Toronto chief executive John Campbell says his team was looking for a developer who wouldn't churn out the “same old sausages” for the West Don Lands renewal.
“We're not peddling real estate: We're here to build a community.”
He says the Saucier + Perrotte design addressed that vision with units that can accommodate families as well as young singles.
“They really impressed us with the thinking they put into this design.”
The development, which will have four phases, will comprise 900 loft-style condominiums, penthouses and townhouses.
An artist’s rendering of what the site will eventually look like once construction is complete, with the Don River in foreground.
