Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! – Talk Like a Pirate Day

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Toronto’s Waterfront Workspace and Conference Centre was under siege by buccaneers for International Talk like a Pirate Day! There was plunder from sunken ships in the lounge, including a treasure chest filled with sweet treats for all. Our team was dressed in their best pirate attire while practicing their “Yars!” in good spirits.

Speaking of good spirits, the winner of our Funniest Pirate Joke Contest is Phil from PMC Specialist Recruiting Solutions! Check out his joke after the jump!

Why did the pirate have red eyes? Because he had too much seaweed!

A jolly good time was had by all!

New pedestrian bridge to connect PATH to waterfront and Waterpark Place!

TORONTO, ON. A new extension of the PATH walkway, which currently runs much of the length of the downtown core is being constructed, finally connecting the waterfront area to the rest of the city. Waterpark place will soon have a direct sheltered connection to the subway and the inner city food courts and retail centers. It will bring an end to the era of surviving the snow/rain to make the Metrolinx train on time! Something to certainly look forward to in the upcoming year.

The city allowed the pedestrian bridge to built overhead because water levels would have made an underground PATH connection prohibitively expensive.

” A new pedestrian bridge being installed over Lake Shore Boulevard on the weekend will transform our view of Toronto — from above and below.

Drivers on Lake Shore will be the first to see the bridge — a long clear prism of glass below the Gardiner, hanging above the cars.

The installation itself will be a mostly unexpected treat for people who happen to be out late enough to catch a glimpse of a 26-wheeled transporter delivering the bridge to its final destination sometime between midnight and 3 a.m.

The bridge was assembled off-site so that it could be installed over the course of a summer weekend without disrupting weekday traffic. It will likely be in place by noon on Saturday. The final section of the bridge will be installed during another yet-to-be determined weekend in September.

Architect John White of WZMH Architects designed the bridge. “Visually,” he said, “it’s meant to almost disappear. It’s meant to sparkle — to be a clear bridge to see out of and to see through.”

Not just an aesthetic decision, the design was born out of a year and a half of negotiating between the City of Toronto and Oxford Properties, one of North America’s largest developers and managers of office space.

View of the bridge

The bridge is a key component of RBC WaterPark Place, one of the largest new office developments in Toronto in recent years. WaterPark Place III, a 30-storey building at Bay Street on the north side of Queen’s Quay West — part of a three-tower development well south of the city’s traditional financial core — will become the new headquarters for RBC.

RBC’s condition for occupying the offices in Toronto’s former waterfront wasteland was that it include a PATH connection so its employees could have easy access from Union Station. The bridge, opening this fall to the public, will connect to WaterPark Place III, 1 York and the Air Canada Centre to, on the north, Union Station and the rest of the downtown.

For city officials, the bridge raised concerns about visual obstructions over a major roadway but they liked the idea of a new PATH connection, especially one that wasn’t paid for by the public purse. Municipal officials would have preferred an underground route but water levels near the waterfront would have made building underground prohibitively expensive.

While the simplicity of the design came out of negotiations with the city, it began to appeal to White for other reasons as well. “It suggests a piece of animation,” said White, in which drivers below watch pedestrians above moving through the bridge while pedestrians watch the drivers below — a place, “to watch the theatre of everyday life.”

This simpler, more transparent design, said White, “also highlights the special quality of light at the waterfront.”

Another condition for the city’s first pedestrian bridge on the Gardiner Expressway was that it be moveable to allow work crews to repair the aging freeway’s underbelly. In another engineering first for Toronto, the bridge can be moved entirely out of the way from east to west to allow full access.

White hopes the bridge will inspire other creative ways of reconnecting the city to the waterfront.

“We always want to rip down the Gardiner because we think it separates the city from the waterfront,” said White. “But it’s the rail-lands that separated us from the water — never the Gardiner. It’s because of the Gardiner that we can do this.”

When the bridge opens, Toronto’s rush hour crowds will head south from Union Station to the Air Canada Centre where a series of stairs or a barrier-free elevator takes them to the pedestrian bridge, connecting on the other side to 1 York and, from there, to WaterPark Place III.

Torontonians, said White, still think they’re separated from the waterfront. “We’re proving,” he said, “that we’re not.”

City planners had one other condition for the pedestrian bridge — that it anticipate the possibility that the Gardiner may come down.

White says that meant building the bridge wide enough to span Lake Shore Boulevard which may be widened in the future.

Map of pedestrian connection across the Lakeshore.

To White, the pedestrian bridge is a sign that the city’s downtown core no longer ends at King and Bay streets.

“It’s stretching in all directions,” said White. Twenty years from now, he predicts, a “dense and urban” area south of the railway lands like the development already taking shape at Bay Street and Queen’s Quay, including WaterPark Place.

A new mix of offices and condos is well underway with 1 York Tower, the Air Canada Square, WaterPark Place III and several condo developments facing each other on Queen’s Quay.  “It’s already a prime urban street”, said White, awaiting its connection to the rest of the city with the new pedestrian bridge. ”

Mary Wiens

@ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pedestrian-bridge-forms-first-path-connection-to-waterfront-1.2736834

Let’s Chat with The Rostie Group: Victoria Syme of Harmony Marketing

Lets Chat with The Rostie Group - Victoria Syme of Harmony Marketing

As we launch the Let’s Chat with Rostie Group series, we decided to interview PR maven Victoria Syme of Harmony Marketing. From planning to execution, Harmony Marketing brings its skill and knowledge to all phases of a marketing program and has worked with clients such as Redpath Waterfront Festival and City of Toronto. Here’s what we learned from Victoria:

Tell us a bit about your business and the area you specialize in.

I work for Harmony Marketing, a full-service boutique marketing, communications, sponsorship and government relations agency here in Toronto. My most recent project was the Redpath Waterfront Festival. I helped manage media interviews, live television hits, event listings, blogger outreach, and all onsite PR activities as well as marketing for the festival leading up to the 3 day event.

Why should someone chose Harmony Marketing?

A client should choose Harmony Marketing if they want a dedicated team that will bring skills and knowledge to all phases of a marketing program. We believe in brokering unique opportunities and partnerships that are innovative and often differ from the norm. We are driven by success; success for our clients and their partners. 

How did you develop your interest in (and obvious talent for) this business?

I did a BA in Communications at McMaster University and a Post-Grad in Corporate Communications & Public Relations at Centennial College. As a child, I was a dancer and very social. I always knew this was the field for me as my entire family is in media or the arts. My dad is a producer, my mom works in marketing, my uncle’s a lighting designer and my aunt is a former actress turned pyrotechnician.

What sets you apart from the rest?

Although my focus is in PR, I have a firm understanding of marketing and social media marketing. I’ve also had experience with agencies of varying sizes and working on projects remotely so I can assist organizations no matter what their size or geographic location.

What is the most exciting part of your job?

I love that everyday is different. I love change and enjoy the fact that my role is multi-faceted and keeps me on my toes. I’m not at the desk all day, I’m always on the go… whether it be meetings with clients, industry events, or on location.

How long have you been living in Toronto?

Since Day 1 – I was born here.

What would you say are your 3 favorite places to dine in Toronto?

  1. During the summertime, I always need a good patio. I would say that the Mill Street Brewery is my pick. It’s always great in the distillery.
  2. Joe Allen’s on the Danforth is a family favorite. I grew up in the neighbourhood.
  3. You definitely need a guilty pleasure on the list. The Black Bull on Queen is my local haunt. I go there for the convenience and the people watching!

If you were to look back, what would be the most memorable experience you have had?

I was asked to work in Chicago for their Tall Ships event and it has been one of the highlights of my career so far. Tall Ships America had seen the great media response we had when the Tall Ships came to Toronto last year and requested that I come to assist their media team at Navy Pier. I communicated with major news outlets in the US such as Fox, WGN, and NBC and it was a great feeling to know that my skills transferred to the US market.

If you could be granted 1 superpower, what would it be?

I would choose to fly – how cool would that be? I’ve always wanted to experience the feeling of flight. It would be quite powerful to see the world from above and cutting back on travel time would be a bonus! Even the ability to simply fly through clouds would be phenomenal.

 

For more detailed information on Harmony Marketing, their background, clients and past experiences, please visit www.harmonymarketing.ca.

Client Testimonial – 1Go Media

1GO Media recently made The Rostie Group their new home. Here is what they have to say in this month’s edition of The Waterfront BIA’s e-Newsletter:

Client Testimonial from 1gomedia

Read the entire August 2014 Ripple e-newsletter here…

Let’s Chat with The Rostie Group

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Introducing our new blog series: Let’s Chat with The Rostie Group.

With our centre bustling with creativity and many innovative projects taking place at The Rostie Group, we have decided to launch a series on our blog that will feature both our clients and other trendsetting companies that are doing exciting work. The Let’s Chat with The Rostie Group will begin this week and will provide industry insight and a venue for you to meet local entrepreneurs and inspiring individuals.  Stay tuned for our first interview.

When a Recruiter Calls…

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Contributor:  Pamela Inglis, Recruiter – Rostie & Associates

You know the call, as soon as you hear it’s a recruiter on the other end of the phone there’s a good chance that the first thing you say is “thanks, but I’m not looking”. Fair enough. The majority of the people we call are happy in their current role. But does that mean you shouldn’t take a few minutes to find out what they’re calling about? It may not be for you but perhaps you have a friend that’s on the market or maybe, just maybe, it’s your dream job.

It may not be the time for you to make a move, maybe not the right role, but why not take a few minutes and get to know us a little. Hopefully you’ll never be in the position where you have to find another job, but eventually you may want to. And we’ll be here…waiting for your call.

PATH Coming Soon!

Bridge to Path        Bridge to Path2

 

The new RBC WaterPark Place Tower is almost complete and we are delighted to see the progress. Along with the new RBC WaterPark Place, our building will be connected to the PATH. Walking through the neighbourhood, we saw the bridge to the PATH and can see it is almost ready. We are very excited to be connected to Union station and all the amenities of the PATH.

 

Here is a video of the proposed building:

 

The countdown for the Pan Am Games begins with a gift from Cisco

Over the weekend, a festival was held to give residents a taste of what is to come for the Pan Am Games next year. The festival kicked off the one year wait to the big games. The celebration started on Friday morning with the unveiling of a countdown clock and speeches by several dignitaries. Cisco was kind enough to unveil a beautiful clock that they created just for the countdown to the games. The clock has many interesting features and many new features will be unveiled between now and the start of the games. To find out more about the clock, please read Toronto Star’s article here.

 

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Sneak Peek: RBC’s New South Core Tower

We received this great article in a newsletter from BisNow (www.bisnow.com) and we had to share it!. To view the full newsletter or to subscribe to the BisNow list, please click here.

 

What led Oxford Properties VP John Peets to call WaterPark Place III Toronto’s “smartest” building? We brought our camera and some pub trivia questions to test it out.

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John took us on a hard-hat tour of the 31-storey, 900k SF tower in Toronto’s burgeoning South Core, slated to open Sept. 5. The third phase of a 1.7M SF, three-tower commercial complex at Bay Street and Queens Quay Boulevard, WaterPark Place III will be Royal Bank of Canada’s retail banking HQ. It will also house Cisco Canada’s 100k SF head office and an innovation centre showcasing the company’s latest technology, while Canada Newswire will occupy the 30th floor. The building is already 81% leased.

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Designed to achieve LEED Platinum, WaterPark Place III has an array of green features: Fritted glass fins on the facade (pictured) deflect sunlight; green roofs reduce the heat island effect; and recycled greywater is used for irrigation. The building is equipped to take in 30% more fresh air than the ASHRAE standard, and there are 350 bike-park stalls—vs 450 car stalls—with showers and change rooms.

 

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RBC decided to move to WaterPark Place III largely because it will be connected to the downtown PATH system (above is where the opening will be). The tower will have an above-ground link to Air Canada Centre and Union Station via an elevated, covered walkway that will run under the Gardiner Expressway through a new condo complex being built across the road.

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The building will have 50k SF of retail, a big boost for the South Core, which has had little by way of shops and services. In addition to the 12 vendors located in the glass-ceiling food court (pictured—if you ordered some food, it may be a little while til it’s ready), there will be a Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Rexall pharmacy, medical/dental office, fitness centre, and 25k SF auditorium for RBC. John tells us there will also be a high-end sushi restaurant, as well as an outdoor patio.
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The office floors—26k SF on average—are open, flexible, and designed to accommodate high densities. Cisco technology powers the operating systems. Each light has its own IP address, so when a tenant swipes a parking pass, it alerts his or her workspace of the arrival and sets the lighting to their preference. (Same for temperature.) Each floor will be separately metered for power, so tenants can monitor consumption. “It’s the most advanced building we’ve done in Toronto,” says Paul Hickey, left, of EllisDon, the project’s GC (here with superintendent Brian Blackman).

Happy Birthday Cynthia!

Happy Birthday Cynthia Rostie

Happy Birthday Cynthia!

The team at The Rostie Group would like to wish Cynthia Rostie a very Happy Birthday. We hope she has a wonderful day and is enjoying her travels. We look forward to celebrating with her upon her return!