With its first building completed, Tridel and Hines' mixed-use Bayside community has begun to add new life to Toronto's East Bayfront. There's lots more to come though, with more residential and commercial buildings, plus a new park, coming to fill out the neighbourhood over the coming years.

View of the completed neighbourhood, image courtesy of Tridel/Hines

As first phase Aqualina fills with its residents, the neighbourhood's other buildings are in various stages of planning and construction. Forming is done for the second building Aquavista and work continues on its finishes, while the earliest stages of construction are underway for the third building, Aquabella. At the same time, site preparation and marketing is in full gear for the fourth building, Aqualuna. The first two buildings are designed by Arquitectonica, while the two latter buildings are designed by Copenhagen-based architects 3XN, the firm's first projects in Toronto. Kirkor is Architect of Record for all four projects.

Aquabella (L) and Aqualuna (R), image courtesy of Tridel/Hines

Between Aquavista and Aquabella will be Aitken Place Park. Originally planned to open this year, the new Scott Torrance Landscape Architect and Thomas Balsley Associates-designed park is currently undergoing a value engineering process after bids for the project came back over budget.

Aitken Place Park, image courtesy of Waterfront Toronto

Also in the pipeline, the search for tenants is on for Queens Quay Place, a two-building mid-rise office development planned for north of the condo buildings, and fronting Queens Quay. Designed by Pelli Clark Pelli Architects with Adamson Associates Architects, the office buildings will provide 430,000 ft2 of space, with retail at ground level. Current images remain purely conceptual and a detailed design is still to be determined.

Queens Quay Place, image courtesy of Hines

Part of the 2010 agreement to develop the City-owned Bayside lands included conditions ensuring that Hines partner with the City to develop affordable housing in the new community. This also conforms to local planning policies, dictating that 20% of all residential units be affordable rental housing. 80 units of affordable housing are already under construction at the Aquavista site, and 215 more will eventually be built to the northeast on a site known as R6, on Block 3 of the Bayside lands.

R6 site within the Bayside community, image via City of Toronto

Pending approval of a report heading for Toronto City Council at the end of this month, the second affordable housing site in the East Bayfront district—indicated as R6 above—will be developed through a competitive proposal call, and leased for a 99-year term at below-market rents by a non-profit housing provider. The project is to be paid for with just over $6.9 million in capital funding from the City's Section 37 reserves.

You can learn more about the various Bayside projects by visiting the database files, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment using the field provided at the bottom of this page.