BHN

Issue No. 277 | October 29, 2020

1. York Square – Last Round?
Catherine Nasmith

Photo courtesy of Richard Longley, TO Built
Photo courtesy of Richard Longley, TO Built

York Square is back in the news, and its future continues to be bleak. Its new owners, First Capital have applied to demolish everything on the site.

The courtyard in 2017, photo courtesy of Richard Longley

Built Heritage News readers may remember a series of articles written in 2013-2015 about the redevelopment proposals for York Square by Empire Communities. In the last issue of BHN there was a link to a video produced by Old Toronto Series and Architectural Conservancy Ontario, Toronto Branch that tells the story of York Square, its significance and outlines the current threat.

In 1968, York Square broke new ground, being the first to integrate new and old into a rich new whole. Long before there were any legal tools to support heritage or environmental conservation, at a time when urban renewal demolished everything in its path, York Square pioneered incorporating existing building fabric into a redevelopment. It became the hippest address in Toronto.  It put its architects, Diamond and Myers, along with Toronto, on the international architecture and planning map.

 

In 2020, when over-development has once again become the norm, creating devastating winter wind conditions, choking the Toronto skyline, roads and transit, York Square reminds us how to add density without demolition or overwhelming the surrounding community, as did successor projects like the Hydro Block, Dundas-Sherbourne and at U of T, Innis College and the Earth Sciences Centre.

40 years after York Square was created, property taxes based on potential development value instead of property income pushed rents above the local rental market. The property was sold to Empire Communities. Even though York Square was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act by the City of Toronto, through OMB mediation, a project was approved which conserved only a small portion of the York Square buildings with a large condominium tower looming above. It was not built. The property was subsequently sold, to a new group, First Capital and Greybrook Realty Partners, also owners of Yorkville Village (Hazelton Lanes).

          

(left) 2016 OMB approved scheme and (right) current proposal proposing complete demolition, photo courtesy of Urban Toronto

Consolidating the York Square property with the Yorkville Village entrance to the east created an opportunity to shift development away from York Square and conserve far more of the existing, highly significant architecture and public space design. Instead, full demolition is proposed.

Plot plan, combining York Square Site with adjacent Yorkville Village entrance, image courtesy Urban Toronto

This week a virtual public meeting was held to discuss the new proposal that replaces York Square with a tower similar in size and location to the previous scheme, an open plaza, retail and community space. Brian Brisbin, of Brisbin Brook Beynon, the project architects, commented that there will be an international architect brought in to design the corner pavilion. Ironic, given the demolition would eliminate an internationally significant project of an earlier generation of Toronto architects. The proposal offers innovative tree planting in the square and on apartment balconies as environmental features, but where is the calculation of the environmental and cultural costs of demolition?

The designation report for York Square prepared by the city staff in 2013 is excellent, carefully laying out the significance of the project to the history of Toronto and the rest of the world. If ever a designation report was defensible, this is it. City staff are recommending to City Council that at least as much of York Square’s fabric be incorporated into the redevelopment as in the OMB approved project, and that the demolition application be refused. Counter to that is a letter supporting complete demolition from Alan Baker, representing Greater Yorkville and ABC residents associations, who have been negotiating with the proponent over the last couple of years. ACO Toronto continues to press for complete preservation, but the City, having settled for so much less in the previous negotiation, will be hard pressed to adopt that position now. On the other hand, this is a new planning application. What if the City decided to treat it as de novo?

Refusing this demolition application would draw line in the sand against eradicating Toronto’s urban history, resisting the development pressure that threatens even the most significant heritage properties. Alternately, York Square’s demolition would signal the complete abandonment of the principles of contextual, additive city-building that Toronto once pioneered.

2. Official Launch of the Future of Ontario Place Initiative from New York City
Joint Press Release

Official Launch of the Future of Ontario Place Initiative from New York City

In response to the Government of Ontario seeking international proposals to redevelop the Toronto landmark, World Monuments Fund, Daniels Faculty at the University of Toronto and Architectural Conservancy Ontario have formed a coalition to protect Ontario Place and its legacy.

New York, NY, October 1, 2020 — Recognizing the global significance of Ontario Place as an extraordinary example of modernist architecture and landscape design — and a valuable resource to theprovince of Ontario, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) in collaboration with the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto (Daniels Faculty), and Architectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO) have launched The Future of Ontario Place Project — an initiative aiming to both grow awareness of the cultural landmark’s importance, and to protect its future.

The Future of Ontario Place Project aims to safeguard the site’s landscape and built heritage from the threat of demolition and privatization through a web portal and social media campaign that will foster broader public recognition and appreciation of the site. Its website, www.futureofontarioplace.org, is the first consolidated public resource on Ontario Place, and includes archival images and information, stories about the site collected from the general public, and interviews with architects and urbanists about the significance of the development. With a mission to influence the government’s decision to redevelop the site, and create a more open and productive dialogue between stakeholders, the project will also host a series of live debates on the current issues facing Ontario Place, facilitate an extensive letter writing campaign, and host a Canada-wide design challenge calling for alternative proposals for the site’s future.

“The Future of Ontario Place Project will gather and study the history, evolution and possible futures of Ontario Place. By highlighting the rich multi-layered narrative of this unique development, and by sharing stories about the public’s relationship and connection to Ontario Place, we are hoping to secure its protection and longevity,” says Aziza Chaouni, Associate Professor at the Daniels Faculty.

Ontario Place was commissioned in 1969 by the Ontario Department of Trade and Development as a showplace for the province’s identity and culture. Designed by architect Eberhard Zeidler and landscape architect Michael Hough, the comprehensive 63 hectare site comprises a series of artificial islands and lagoons along Toronto’s waterfront, weaving architecture and landscape into a uniquely integrated environment for entertainment, education and recreation. When it opened in 1971, Ontario Place served as a symbol of post-war prosperity, showcasing the province’s rapid economic growth and urbanization, and its newfound optimism and changing cultural life. Its landforms and visionary architecture were considered remarkable achievements, particularly its steel-and-aluminum “pods” which are suspended over the water, and its signature geodesic dome called the “Cinesphere” which houses the world’s first IMAX theatre, for which Ontario Place received numerous local and international awards.

However, by 2012 steadily decreasing revenues led the provincial government to close large portions of the site. Subsequently, in 2019, the provincial government launched a global call for developers to submit proposals to “comprehensively develop and reinvent the site,” opening up the possibility of privatization, reinvention and demolition. As such, Ontario Place has been included on the “World Monuments Fund 2020 Watch”, a biennial selection of at-risk cultural heritage sites that combine great historical significance with contemporary social impact.

According to Bénédicte de Montlaur, WMF President and CEO, “We are proud to support this importantproject for Ontario Place — a significant cultural heritage site included on the 2020 World Monuments Watch. We hope that this campaign will bring international attention to the challenges facing modern architecture, such as neglect, deterioration, and demolition, and demonstrate the tremendous benefits that the preservation of sites like Ontario Place can offer local communities.”

Kae Elgie, Chair of Architectural Conservancy Ontario said, “ACO is delighted to collaborate in this initiative to expand public awareness of Ontario Place as a globally important work of 20th century architecture and landscape design. It is critically important to protect this iconic site for the benefit ofdiverse population groups in Ontario and beyond.”

The Future of Ontario Place Project calls on the public and community of architects, urbanists, and city builders to join the initiative in advocating for the protection of Ontario Place. Visit www.futureofontarioplace.org to share stories and experiences, and sign the letter to the Ontario government urging immediate action for the site’s protection. You can also view the campaign video here, and follow @futureofontarioplace on Instagram for updates.

Press Contacts:

Elyse Clinning, Kriss Communications

elyse@krisscommunications.com

Editor's Note:
This is an amazing development, a partnership with an international organization, a launch of a website devoted entirely to Ontario Place, and architecture students across Canada poised to showcase their ideas. There is a tremendous archive of material on Ontario Place there, as well as many important early images.

3. Correction to Obituary for Kathryn Anderson
Susan Schappert

Just a note – Kathryn Anderson lived in Newmarket, not Aurora.  Firsthand knowledge, she was our neighbor for over 40 years.  She lived with her mother in a white house on Bayview Avenue and then stayed there after her mother passed a few years ago.  She was just making plans to sell the house when she passed away.
 
Not sure how she got on Aurora LACAC, but she definitely wasn’t a resident.
 
Sue Schappert
 

4. Designation of the Banting Institute sent into Limbo
Catherine Nasmith

Lobby, Banting Institute
Lobby, Banting Institute

The  report for designation of Darling and Pearson's Banting Institute at University of Toronto, went to the Toronto Preservation Board on August 27. The staff recommendations were adopted and it and was forwarded to Toronto East-York Community Council (TEYCC)for consideration on September 16. The residents to the south wrote in favour of demolition, and U of T, the owners of the property, requested deferral to complete community consultations. Councillor Mike Layton moved deferral, a move which puts the process effectively into limbo. The last significant designation report that was deferred at TEYCC was the Davisville Junior Public School. The recommendation to designate never made it to Council, the building was never designated and the building was lost. 

5. World Architecture News: The Future of Ontario Place Project

Protect Modernist Icon Ontario Place In Toronto

image, Andreea Muscurel OP Arch
image, Andreea Muscurel OP Arch

 

Protect modernist icon Ontario Place in Toronto

Recognizing the global significance of Ontario Place as an extraordinary example of modernist architecture and landscape design — and a valuable resource to the province of Ontario, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) in collaboration with the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto (Daniels Faculty), and Architectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO) have launched The Future of Ontario Place Project, an initiative aiming to both grow awareness of the cultural landmark’s importance, and to protect its future.

The Future of Ontario Place Project aims to safeguard the site’s landscape and built heritage from the threat of demolition and privatization through a web portal and social media campaign that will foster broader public recognition and appreciation of the site. 

Its website, is the first consolidated public resource on Ontario Place, and includes archival images and information, stories about the site collected from the general public, and interviews with architects and urbanists about the significance of the development. 

Click here for Link

6. Canadian Architect: George Baird and Elsa Lam discuss Ontario Place

George Baird and Elsa Lam discuss the legacy of Ontario Place

Ontario Place, May 2020, photo Catherine Nasmith
Ontario Place, May 2020, photo Catherine Nasmith

 

On October 21, George Baird and Elsa Lam engaged in a discussion that situates Ontario Place within Canadian Modernism and culture. A recording of their conversation is posted here.

The discussion was organized by The Future of Ontario Place, an initiative that aims to safeguard the site’s landscape and built heritage from the threat of demolition and privatization. The initiative is being advanced by a coalition between the World Monuments Fund (WMF), John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto (Daniels Faculty), and Architectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO).

Ontario Place is a cultural heritage site that masterfully integrates architecture, landscape and infrastructure. Designed by architect Eberhard Zeidler, landscape architect Michael Hough, and playscape designer Eric McMillan, Ontario Place has become a world-renowned example of Modern design.

Click here for Link

7. BlogTO: Toronto's Space Age Pavillion just got a much needed makeover

Amazing vinyl striping draws attention to a neglected landmark, help is coming soon
Amazing vinyl striping draws attention to a neglected landmark, help is coming soon

The Oculus Pavilion, Etobicoke's beloved extraterrestrial-looking landmark, just got a serious facelift. 

After years of neglect, the structure along the Humber River Recreational Trail has a sunny facade: an art installation called Brighter Days Ahead. 

Yellow stripes (in the form of removable vinyl from Creative Silhouettes Inc.) now cover the 61-year-old pavilion that resembles an abandoned spaceship.

The design comes courtesy of the Toronto Architectural Conservancy and Giaimo Architects in advance of larger plans for The Oculus' renovation, which should be taking place sometime in 2021. 

The Oculus Pavilion was designed in 1958 by architect Alan Crossley and engineer Laurence Cazaly, and though appreciated as one of the most unique public spaces in the city, has fallen into somewhat of disrepair. 

Click here for Link

8. Canadian Architect: The Oculus Shines

The Oculus hosts new public art installation

Canadian Architect: The Oculus Shines

 
doublespace photography

In Summer 2019, The Oculus Revitalization project was announced as one of five projects selected for Park People’s Public Space Incubator Grant (PSI), funded by the Balsam Foundation and Ken and Eti Greenberg. The PSI program aims to encourage and support the next generation of creative public space projects by providing access to funding and professional networks.

ACO and Giaimo are using the grant to transform The Oculus into a welcoming community gathering place along the trail by restoring and cleaning the existing pavilion and implementing new flexible and contextual outdoor furniture—a process that is currently in progress. Their work also includes curating a series of engaging and educational programming to provide the community with ongoing occasions to visit the site, explore the space, and learn about Toronto’s built heritage.

 
 

Click here for Link

9. Globe and Mail: Profile of Marani and Morris Architects
Alex Bozikovic

A marker for modernity in Toronto’s architectural history

1953, Manufacturer's Life, photo Panda, from the Globe and Mail
1953, Manufacturer's Life, photo Panda, from the Globe and Mail

The 1957 former headquarters of Traders Financial in Toronto.

MELISSA TAIT/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

What can we learn from the past? This is a central theme of heritage preservation. But we’re always selective about which pasts we choose to recall and which we choose to ignore.

Lately I’ve been interested in an overlooked chapter of Toronto architectural history: The moment when the city, then culturally conservative in the extreme, began to embrace modernism. Starting in the 1950s, the city’s establishment began inching into the future.

Nobody did this better than Marani & Morris. Between 1950 and 1970, they took the Georgian and neoclassical styles of the previous generation, making them sleeker and smoother. Now some of their Toronto buildings are under threat from new, dense development. These buildings deserve to be saved. They embodied a sort of quiet professional competence that is almost gone – and we could learn from them.

The firm was founded in 1912 by Ferdinand Marani, the son of a University of Toronto engineering professor. In a letter a decade later he articulated his philosophy: “If we wish beautiful buildings,” he wrote, “we must plan them efficiently and rely on simplicity of line, proportion and colour for our effects and not on tawdry adornments and a display of reckless spending.” The firm combined this WASP minimalism with solid design training, largely in the neo-classical tradition of the École des Beaux-Arts.

I recently read an unpublished history of the firm, written by magazine journalist Arnold Edinborough in 1969. “Their model was simple, uncluttered, conservative, but attractive,” he writes. This meant a slow, incremental change when modernism swept through the continent. The Marani work was quickly recast as stuffy and irrelevant by younger architects who were chasing radical ideas and progressive politics. But the blending of past and future – this was very specific to Upper Canada.

 

Look at the 1929 Medical Arts Building at Bloor and St. George streets, which still stands; it’s a brick-clad tower capped with a Roman balustrade and not much else. A block away at 246 Bloor St. W., the headquarters for Texaco Canada – completed a quarter-century later – reads like a slightly stripped-down sequel, with a penthouse that resembles a Greek temple and slabs of limestone with abstract carvings.

Mr. Marani, and later partners including Robert Schofield (Bill) Morris, ran the business and drank sherry with potential clients. They did well. The firm designed many corporate headquarters; an annex to the Canadian embassy in Washington; Peterborough City Hall; many university, college and school buildings. And they were recognized. Morris won an important international award from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1958.

Editor's Note:
Thanks for this piece Alex, I too have always enjoyed this period of cautious easing into the modernism by Toronto architects, their modesty, substance and timelessness, classical proportions and modernist accents.

Click here for Link

10. Canadian Architect: Adaptive Re-use, Bata Shoe Factory, Batawa, Ontario
Canadian Architect

Bata Shoe Factory, Batawa, Ontario

1955 Image
1955 Image

The late Sonja Bata, working with her husband Tomáš Bata, was the driving force behind the creation of the modernist factory town of Batawa, located 175 km east of Toronto on the Trent River. The Bata Shoe Company, founded by Tomáš, went on to create a series of modernist factories abroad.

Sonja continued to pursue her passion for architecture and the built environment after the closure of those factories, including through her plans to revitalize the town of Batawa.

In 1939, at the onset of WWII, the Bata family transplanted their shoe empire, including 120 workers and their families, from Czechoslovakia to Canada, establishing a company town that would become a prototype for subsequent Bata operations around the world.


Bata Shoe Factory – 1955

The factory was decommissioned in 2000 and sold to a plastics factory. However, after the death of her husband in 2008, Bata repurchased the entire 1,500-acre site, with the objective of reinventing the town once more as a model of sustainable development. The first installment and centrepiece of this vision, completed after Bata’s death in 2019, is the ambitious adaptive re-use and conversion of the former manufacturing facility into a mixed-use residential, commercial and community building with a light environmental footprint and a strong social mandate.

Photo by Scott Norsworthy

Designed by Quadrangle as Architect of Record, with Dubbeldam Architecture + Design as Collaborating Design Architect, the modernist-style factory now encompasses 47 rental residential units of varying sizes on the upper three storeys, with commercial and retail amenities below.

Click here for Link

11. Lakeshore Exeter Times Advance: Centralia Community Centre
Scott Nixon

Centralia Community Centre to be demolished

Lakeshore Exeter Times Advance: Centralia Community Centre

SOUTH HURON – A piece of the area’s history will be lost with the upcoming demolition of the Centralia Community Centre.

With the facility having been closed since last July due to a variety of fire code violations, South Huron council decided at its June 15 meeting to seek tenders for the demolition of the 115-year-old former church and schoolhouse. The municipality intends to salvage the bell and as many bricks as possible for a monument to be placed on the site to commemorate the building’s history.

South Huron chief administrative officer Dan Best provided some history of the building in a report to council. He said the building was built in 1905 as a school house and church, later converted into a community centre. Best said the building doesn’t appear to have had any significant upgrades or renovations in the last 35 years.

“It currently is in need of significant upgrades and repairs,” his report said. “It is not accessible, nor does it have adequate washroom facilities.”

As well, hall rentals “have drastically decreased over the last five years.”

As reported last year, the facility was closed in July after a number of fire code violations were discovered.

Last year consultant Nustadia recommended the community centre be closed and demolished, saying it would cost at least $700,000 over the next five years to renovate the building to make it safe and accessible to continue operating. Repairs are needed to the roof, chimney, soffits, fascia and eaves troughs, brick work, foundation, flooring and more. In addition the roof top steeple that houses the bell is in “a critical state” and could fall over, as could the chimney, according to Best’s report.

Editor's Note:
Perhaps ACO's Preservation Works could assist here. ACO sends out heritage professionals to advise, often their advice gives another perspective and leads to buildings being saved.

Click here for Link

12. Peterborough Examiner: Developers expand to neighbouring properties in Peterborough
Joelle Kovach

Six-building redevelopment planned for downtown

The idea is to “revitalize” the heritage buildings and attract people who’d like to live downtown, said Rick Summers, a developer and one of the owners (along with business partner Michael Poon).

“It’s going to really, really make that area amazing,” he said. “There’s nothing better for a downtown than to have people live there — nothing revitalizes a downtown more.”

 

Summers and Poon own the empty building at 385-391 George St. N., which had been a Shoppers Drug Mart and then a dollar store.

It’s now empty and Summers said they are still planning to covert it into a five-storey apartment building; he said plans will be coming before city council in the late fall.

But he said Thursday that he and Poon have bought six more buildings across the street, with the deal closing last week.

Click here for Link

13. The Sun Times: Reviving Interest in Repurposing Owen Sound Jail
Denis Langlois

City seeking feedback on demolition options for former jail

The Sun Times: Reviving Interest in Repurposing Owen Sound Jail

The city-owned former courthouse and jail property on 3rd Avenue East in Owen Sound seen on Tuesday. The two-storey governor's residence can be seen to the left of the old courthouse, while the jail buildings are behind the two structures. DENIS LANGLOIS/The Sun Times JPG, OT

Owen Sound will soon launch an online survey and hold two open houses in mid-October to gather feedback on options for the future of the city-owned former jail and courthouse properties.

The city has also created a webpage and posted a video presentation with detailed information on four potential demolition options for the boarded-up jail, which are aimed at boosting the city’s chances of finding someone to buy the property and repurpose the old courthouse building.

“The courthouse is designated and not subject to any question of any removals, but the jail property because it has been speculated to be presenting some impediment to sale and adaptive reuse, there’s a question around selective removals on the jail property,” Amy Cann, manager of planning and heritage, said Thursday.

“So the public engagement strategy is around trying to get some idea of what the wishes of our public stakeholders would be if there were possibilities of removing some or all of the jail buildings and structures.”

Options for the jail range from retaining the buildings and structures to demolishing all of the jail structures, including the original 1854 jail, jail yard walls and governor’s residence, at an estimated cost of $1.3 million.

The community services committee approved the public engagement strategy at its meeting Wednesday.

The survey will go live within the next week or so and will close after one month. The city intends to hold the open houses Oct. 19 at both 3 and 5:30 p.m. at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.

Cann said the results of the survey and feedback from the open houses will be used to create a recommendation report that staff is planning to present to the committee, likely Nov. 18.

Owen Sound purchased the former Grey County courthouse, which is designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, in 1960. It acquired the old provincial jail buildings, which are listed on the city’s heritage register, seven years ago.

Both buildings were vacant by 2014 and the city decided to declare them surplus and list the properties – at 1235 and 1239 3rd Ave. E. – for sale.

They conditionally sold twice, but both sales fell through with the prospective buyers telling the city the site would not fit their needs.

Click here for Link

14. Brisbane Times: Ideas for Melbourne's Failing Main Street Businesses
Nicolas Reese

Death of Melbourne's shopping strips is an opportunity for renewal

Like missing teeth in a beautiful smile, the growing blight of vacant shops along Melbourne’s shopping strips is one of the most confronting images of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In previous economic downturns, shops in the central city still found tenants. But now, even in the Bourke Street Mall, four shops in a row stand empty. On Lygon Street more than 25 shops are vacant while Chapel, Acland, Brunswick, Smith, Bridge, Swan and Victoria streets are full of “For Lease” signs.

At this rate, a case of missing teeth will soon become full blown edentulism for the famous shopping streets that have defined Melbourne’s urban landscape and sense of style.

Retail tenants shed tears of relief when the Victorian government extended the moratorium on commercial evictions and announced a suite of land tax and rent relief measures. But these are short-term survival measures; government subsidies cannot replace business profit forever, and landlords cannot keep propping up the system either.

 

Other short-term measures must include reconfiguring hospitality venues and repurposing public spaces to allow socially distanced dining like we have seen in New York and London over the northern summer.

In the medium term, promotions, events and other creative measures will be needed to activate and drive visitation to shopping and hospitality precincts, something Melbourne does brilliantly well.

But there is a long-term challenge for Melbourne’s famous shopping strips that goes beyond the pandemic. Many of these businesses were already struggling as result of the shift to online shopping at the expense of bricks and mortar retail. COVID-19 has turbo charged this trend.

While the challenges are enormous, predictions of the death of our shopping streets are premature. With the right interventions these streets can become places where, as urbanist Jane Jacobs put it, “the theatre of life can thrive”.

It will require a re-imagining of these streets as not just a strip of shops where you buy things but as the backbone of the community providing a broad range of services as well as goods.

The experience of high street rejuvenation programs in the UK and regional towns in Australia are instructive.

Just over a decade ago many were predicting the death of Britain’s high streets from the triple blow of the Global Financial Crisis, the shift to online retail, and the rise of US-style big shopping malls.

The UK government introduced a grants program to convert vacant shops into spaces for community services such as social enterprises, local art displays, children’s play and adult learning centres. There has also been a shift from shops selling goods towards person to person services such as cafes, restaurants, personal training studios, hairdressers, beauty salons, optometrists, business services and so on.

In 2000, the closure of the BHP steel works and National Textiles mill in Newcastle created an economic tsunami that hit the town’s retail centre causing the closure of many shops and businesses. But a program known as Renew Newcastle used these empty spaces for experimental businesses and artist spaces, activating more than 82 properties with 264 participants.

Click here for Link