Recent from talks
West Don Lands
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
West Don Lands
The West Don Lands are the site of a neighbourhood under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area is bordered by the Don River, King Street, Parliament Street and the rail line adjacent to the Gardiner Expressway. It is 80 hectares (200 acres) in size. A former industrial area, the area is being rebuilt as a mixed-use neighbourhood.
After the purchase of Toronto, the area was set aside as a Crown Reserve when York was founded. The area from Berkeley east to the Don River and north to Queen Street was designated for a large city park. It was sold off to private developers in the 1830s to finance the construction of a new city hospital. The Corktown community grew and was home to working-class Irish immigrants. To the south, the Gooderham and Worts distillery was founded, and it dumped its waste in the area. It kept cattle and pigs in the area to feed off the distillery waste, but this introduced a manure problem. Railways came to Toronto in the 1850s, entering the Don Lands along the Don River from the north, and across the Don River from the east. The Don River was straightened and the Taddle Creek which ran through the area was buried. By the late nineteenth century, most of the land was industrial or owned by the railways, and it became the site of an array of factories and warehouses, including William Davies Company, one of the largest pork processing facilities in the world.
The Davies Company and Gooderham's were prosperous in the first half of the twentieth century, but both sites were in decline. Davies merged with other meatpackers and moved the bulk of its operations to the west of Toronto. Gooderham's was merged with the Hiram Walker distillery and moved much of its production to the Hiram Walker facility out of town. The Davies Company closed in the 1980s, and Gooderham's closed in 1991. By the 1980s, the area was heavily polluted and not a desirable location for the industry, which sought locations for large one-story facilities in the suburbs. The area declined and much of the land abandoned as it required expensive clean-up before conversion to other uses. Another factor against conversion to other uses was that the lands were floodplains and as such could not be the site of residences.
In 1987, the area was expropriated by the Ontario government at the urging of Toronto mayor Art Eggleton. The city proposed creating a new community of 14,000 called Ataratiri to solve Toronto's pressing subsidized housing crisis.
The Ataratiri project was to have consisted of a mix of subsidized and market-priced housing, similar to the development of the St. Lawrence neighborhood further west. The name for the project was taken from the Wyandot word for "supported by clay" in reference to the clay soil of the area. After investing a considerable amount of money purchasing and clearing the site, the project eventually failed to attract private investors. The industrial history meant the soil was highly polluted and needed expensive cleanup before any residents could live there. The risk of flooding from the Don River also required a flood barrier to be erected. By 1992, the city and province had already invested some CA$350 million, and new estimates put the final cost at more than a billion dollars more. The real estate market had also collapsed, making any private investment unlikely. The new Ontario government of Bob Rae thus decided to cancel the project in 1992. The land sat mostly unused.
A number of plans were advanced for the land. For a time the provincial government considered selling it to a developer who wanted to build a harness racing facility, but local opposition put a halt to it. The lands were also a central part of Toronto's bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2001, Ontario Premier Mike Harris pushed for a complete redevelopment of Toronto's waterfront, but mayor Mel Lastman objected to the idea of removing parts of the Gardiner Expressway. During Lastman's six years in office, no progress was made on redeveloping the site.
In 2001, the new Waterfront Toronto agency was commissioned by the federal, provincial and municipal governments to redevelop the Toronto waterfront. It was given the responsibility to take lands owned by either of the three levels of government in the waterfront area and make them available for development, sometimes building infrastructure such as parks or roads to make development possible. A flood protection landform was built to allow development to proceed.
In 2006, the agency announced a new plan to create a residential community in the abandoned area. Under the overall plan of the Waterfront Toronto initiative, plans for the area include nearly 6,000 new residential spaces with twenty percent being allocated as 'affordable' or 'subsidized' housing. Redevelopment plans include extensive integration with Toronto transit routes and 23 acres (9.3 ha) of public greenspace. The new Corktown Common is to be the recreational core of the project, linking the Don Valley Discovery Walk to the Toronto waterfront. The location is central to providing improved non-vehicular access from throughout the city to hundreds of thousands of pedestrians, cyclists, inline skaters and mobility scooter users.
Hub AI
West Don Lands AI simulator
(@West Don Lands_simulator)
West Don Lands
The West Don Lands are the site of a neighbourhood under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area is bordered by the Don River, King Street, Parliament Street and the rail line adjacent to the Gardiner Expressway. It is 80 hectares (200 acres) in size. A former industrial area, the area is being rebuilt as a mixed-use neighbourhood.
After the purchase of Toronto, the area was set aside as a Crown Reserve when York was founded. The area from Berkeley east to the Don River and north to Queen Street was designated for a large city park. It was sold off to private developers in the 1830s to finance the construction of a new city hospital. The Corktown community grew and was home to working-class Irish immigrants. To the south, the Gooderham and Worts distillery was founded, and it dumped its waste in the area. It kept cattle and pigs in the area to feed off the distillery waste, but this introduced a manure problem. Railways came to Toronto in the 1850s, entering the Don Lands along the Don River from the north, and across the Don River from the east. The Don River was straightened and the Taddle Creek which ran through the area was buried. By the late nineteenth century, most of the land was industrial or owned by the railways, and it became the site of an array of factories and warehouses, including William Davies Company, one of the largest pork processing facilities in the world.
The Davies Company and Gooderham's were prosperous in the first half of the twentieth century, but both sites were in decline. Davies merged with other meatpackers and moved the bulk of its operations to the west of Toronto. Gooderham's was merged with the Hiram Walker distillery and moved much of its production to the Hiram Walker facility out of town. The Davies Company closed in the 1980s, and Gooderham's closed in 1991. By the 1980s, the area was heavily polluted and not a desirable location for the industry, which sought locations for large one-story facilities in the suburbs. The area declined and much of the land abandoned as it required expensive clean-up before conversion to other uses. Another factor against conversion to other uses was that the lands were floodplains and as such could not be the site of residences.
In 1987, the area was expropriated by the Ontario government at the urging of Toronto mayor Art Eggleton. The city proposed creating a new community of 14,000 called Ataratiri to solve Toronto's pressing subsidized housing crisis.
The Ataratiri project was to have consisted of a mix of subsidized and market-priced housing, similar to the development of the St. Lawrence neighborhood further west. The name for the project was taken from the Wyandot word for "supported by clay" in reference to the clay soil of the area. After investing a considerable amount of money purchasing and clearing the site, the project eventually failed to attract private investors. The industrial history meant the soil was highly polluted and needed expensive cleanup before any residents could live there. The risk of flooding from the Don River also required a flood barrier to be erected. By 1992, the city and province had already invested some CA$350 million, and new estimates put the final cost at more than a billion dollars more. The real estate market had also collapsed, making any private investment unlikely. The new Ontario government of Bob Rae thus decided to cancel the project in 1992. The land sat mostly unused.
A number of plans were advanced for the land. For a time the provincial government considered selling it to a developer who wanted to build a harness racing facility, but local opposition put a halt to it. The lands were also a central part of Toronto's bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2001, Ontario Premier Mike Harris pushed for a complete redevelopment of Toronto's waterfront, but mayor Mel Lastman objected to the idea of removing parts of the Gardiner Expressway. During Lastman's six years in office, no progress was made on redeveloping the site.
In 2001, the new Waterfront Toronto agency was commissioned by the federal, provincial and municipal governments to redevelop the Toronto waterfront. It was given the responsibility to take lands owned by either of the three levels of government in the waterfront area and make them available for development, sometimes building infrastructure such as parks or roads to make development possible. A flood protection landform was built to allow development to proceed.
In 2006, the agency announced a new plan to create a residential community in the abandoned area. Under the overall plan of the Waterfront Toronto initiative, plans for the area include nearly 6,000 new residential spaces with twenty percent being allocated as 'affordable' or 'subsidized' housing. Redevelopment plans include extensive integration with Toronto transit routes and 23 acres (9.3 ha) of public greenspace. The new Corktown Common is to be the recreational core of the project, linking the Don Valley Discovery Walk to the Toronto waterfront. The location is central to providing improved non-vehicular access from throughout the city to hundreds of thousands of pedestrians, cyclists, inline skaters and mobility scooter users.
Recent media