Lanterra design for 11 Wellesley promises 1.5-acre park

Robin Careless –

A plan to develop controversial plot of land in the Church-Wellesley neighbourhood may finally have the community’s approval.

The 2-acre lot at 11 Wellesley St. W. has been vacant for years. When the ownership of the land reverted back to the province, the area residents banded together and lobbied for its donation as parkland. Lanterra Developments successfully purchased the land but was sensitive to the neighborhood’s need for green space. So it took it upon itself to try and find a happy medium between park and building.

Lanterra’s solution was to focus on building a space that was a park first,\ and the site of a building second. So although they have over two acres, they are devoting 1.5 of them to a public park, with the building in the northeast corner of the lot. They also didn’t just want to build a box, but rather a building that flows into the park. As such, the base of the building doesn’t square up to the street or the park. Instead, it’s set back a ways, and its curved base sections are meant to draw people into the park.

The main drawback of the current plan is usage of St Luke’s Laneway as the entry and exit to the building. The laneway was designed to as a service access for the businesses and the proposed heavy traffic has business owners concerned that higher traffic will mean a danger to their customers.

“My concern is that I have continued access to my building.” says Jim Burgess, who owns and operates Saved by Technology, a speciality music computer store which has been there since 1986 and fronts onto the laneway. “The current problem is that customers will walk out of my building directly into traffic. But I’m optimistic that due to the planning process that we have seen here, that the city and the developers will take into account providing a means of access, either in terms of a sidewalk or some other solution.”