[M II A II R II K]

Saving Toronto heritage ensures city’s future


Feb 26 2010

Read More: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/770944--saving-toronto-heritage-ensures-city-s-future

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When a city has to decide what it wants — past or future — the answer is obvious: both. For decades, it has been simpler just to tear down anything that stood in the way. Starting in the 1950s, modernism’s glory years, we demolished our history with gleeful abandon. Architectural heritage, no matter how significant, paled in comparison to the brilliance that lay ahead.

Things didn’t turn out quite as expected, and while the rush to the future slows, the value of the past becomes ever harder to ignore. And we’re not just talking about aesthetics, though God knows, the 19th century was eons ahead of the 21st in its understanding of urban architecture. It turns out that even the lowliest industrial structures — warehouses, factories, bakeries — are paragons of flexibility. Used and reused, they have enabled the revitalization of much of downtown Toronto, especially the Entertainment District.

Think of the area along Peter St. between Queen and Richmond Sts. Like much of the city’s lower west end, this is a neighbourhood that once was grimy and industrial. Nowadays, it is anything but; many of those magnificent brick buildings where workers once toiled are now remade as offices, lofts, shops, restaurants and bars — but much remains to be done to realize their full potential.

“These old structures are excellent,†says Toronto architect Dermot Sweeny, “but all the other systems are junk.†That includes air-conditioning, heating, wiring, the sort of internal infrastructure we generally take for granted. At the same time, the quality of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture and construction are superior in every other way to contemporary stuff.

Although there’s endless demand for corporate office space in the core, many businesses want something other than standard-issue highrise quarters. After all, not every outfit is a bank, a financial institution or an insurance company. Other more “creative†companies actually prefer the character of older spaces with their masonry walls, wooden beams, high ceilings and wide plank floors. These structures have the handmade look of an earlier era, something that stands in stark contrast to the out-of-the-catalogue design of more recently constructed buildings.

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[ganjavih]

As pretty as these buildings are, I wouldn't want to live in a city full of 'em. Preserving our smaller scale historic strips is vital to maintaining street life and vibrancy. Otherwise, we're headed for urban suburbia.

 

[M II A II R II K]

It's been suggested that Toronto has been notorious at destroying it's history. Don't get that impression in Ottawa. And plus they don't build them like they used to.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Toronto is not notorious for destroying its history and Ottawa doesn't exactly deserve a gold star in that department, either. Slicing a gash through the inner city to build the Queensway (Ottawa) doesn't strike me as a particularly sensitive move.

 

[adma]

Though the Queensway *was* built along an existing railway ROW for the most part...

 

[Chuck]

I would both agree and disagree with the topic statement. The historic nature of inner city Toronto is one of the main reasons why this area works and is in such high demand. Newer areas such as North York Centre and Mississauga just can't recreate the vibe that you get in the neighbourhoods that ring downtown.

However, the historic nature of inner city neighbourhoods lining College, Queen, Danforth, and Yonge also means that the areas most ripe for intensification are mostly dominated by detached houses (not really that dense), and streetcars (slow, crowded, relatively low capacity).

Toronto's older neighbourhoods as well as the transportation network that services them exist at below the optimal population density and people moving capacity that the city is naturally gravitating toward. Toronto will have to find a new balance of preservation versus redevelopment in order for the city to continue growing. Toronto sadly lost a lot of character in the 1950s to 1970s because the city was experiencing growth pressure never before seen. The flip side of the coin is that had Toronto completely turned away from redevelopment, we would not have seem the construction of "big city" necessities such as high rise commercial buildings, high rise condos, and a subway system, that allowed Toronto to become Canada's premier city.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

We have destroyed a large amount of our heritage but I wouldn't say we're notorious for doing it in a wanton manner, just that it's how our city tended to grow: on top of rubble instead of outward. Compared to most North American cities, we've been rather lucky with what we've gotten in return for what we've lost. Our banks kept rebuilding on the same few blocks, the 1904 fire took even more out, our post-60s skyscrapers were fabulously tall and dense, etc. We didn't have large waves of "let's modernize!" destruction sweep across our inner city, throwing up housing projects and highways and parking lots...most of that went via Metro to suburban fields.

As for a spot like North York Centre, compare it to Yonge & Eglinton, which has a nearly continuous retail streetscape. North York Centre literally has no two consecutive full blocks with pre-70s commercial buildings fronting Yonge and no two blocks even exist across from each other. You just can't develop a retail strip with Torontoesque character and vibrancy with that kind of fragmentation.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Don't be so quick to pave over the past


Apr 06 2010

Read More: http://thestar.blogs.com/yourcitymycity/2010/04/toronto-needs-to-preserve-its-history.html

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How can you know where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve come from? For far too long Toronto has been quick to pave over the past for the sake of progress. I’m all for progress, but there should be a plan and some rational thought used for the development of the city.

“Façades of former buildings are kept strictly for aesthetics on condos, sports arenas, and business towers. The tavern where William Lyon Mackenzie launched his famous rebellion in Upper Canada no longer exists. The buildings that once stood are quickly forgotten once new structures rise in their place. “The city does not do a good enough job at promoting and protecting its history. I recently visited the Toronto Archives and realized how much of a hidden gem it is.

The City does not do a good enough job at promoting and protecting its history. I recently visited the Toronto Archives and realized how much of a hidden gem it is. The Archives is a great start but it does not go far enough as it is a very small operation that is funded, and controlled, by the City.

I would recommend the City of Toronto create an independent, arms-length, Toronto Historical Society with the intention of securing, protecting, and promoting the city’s history. A society overseen by a group of historical experts, architects, business leaders and, most importantly, citizens, with a clear purpose, mission, and the ability to raise money, will make it effective and politically neutral.

The Toronto Archives, sites like Fort York and the EX, need to belong under one protective umbrella. They need to be used as a conduit to promote and attract tourists and, more importantly, locals into taking an interest in the history of Toronto. The society’s mission shouldn’t be narrowed to only buildings and artifacts. Many great people over the last 300 years have contributed to Toronto and they should not be forgotten.

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[Archivist]

As an archivist, I can say with some certainty that this person knows not of what they speak. Not that there's anything truly offensive about it, but the role of the Toronto Archives is really very separate and distinct from Fort York or the Ex or Preservation Services, and there is nothing to be gained from mixing them all together in one big pot.

They also seem to be oblivious to the existence of Heritage Toronto.

It's well meaning, I suppose, but horribly uninformed.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Look back as we leap forward


04/13/2010

Marit Stiles

Read More: http://thestar.blogs.com/yourcitymycity/2010/04/look-back-as-we-leap-forward.html

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Torontonians look wistfully to New York City these days. A planning commissioner with a vision, someone who is not afraid of making bold decisions and exudes passion for the city and its neighbourhoods. The kind of vision that sees an abandoned, elevated rail line transformed into a striking urban park. Better commuter times than Toronto (I’m still reeling).

It’s not like we aren’t trying. Spend some time exploring this city’s nooks and crannies and you stumble upon urban art installations and bike lanes alongside the train tracks. And there is a vision (albeit moving at a snail's pace) in the waterfront plans, in some community housing development and revitalization projects across the city. But here’s something else we could take from the Big Apple: a museum that celebrates Toronto’s immigrant communities, and all that they have brought to the city.

Why not start with one little corner of the city. In New York, it was the Lower East Side. The Lower East Side Tenements Museum started when a historian and social activist decided she wanted to build a museum that honoured America’s immigrants. In 1988, she and her co-founder finally found what they were looking for… One of the original tenement buildings, those multiple family buildings that housed thousands of immigrant families from the mid-nineteenth century on.

Now, having restored six apartments to reflect the living conditions of six actual families, residing in the tenement at various points during those many years, the museum is a living history of immigration, a slice of time and cultures, all carefully told by guides with talent for telling their stories.

So my Idea of the Day is a celebration of Toronto’s immigrant history. And yes I recognize that we are all – with the exception of First Nation people – immigrants to this land. But let’s start somewhere. Perhaps a storefront on Spadina Avenue, once the centre of Jewish life in Toronto, the home of the garment district, Yiddish theatre, cinemas. The advent of Chinatown and the waves of new families, cultures and communities ever since. The smells and sounds of Kensington Market.

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[Ladies Mile]

I think I'd like to see a moratorium on the words "New York" on this site. They are completely irrelevant to us. Always have been always will be.

We don't need an immigration museum. We need immigration.

 

[Archivist]

The circumstances that created the Tenement Museum are misrepresented in this article. The museum actually resulted from a 1930's law that banned wooden staircases in residential buildings - owners could replace the staircases or rip down the buildings and that's what most did. In this one odd case, the owner opted to simply close down the upper residential floors of the building and leave them vacant while continuing to use the ground floor as retail. Since the buildings were of marginal value, it was profitable to do this. And there the building sat - until the 1980's, when it was threatened with demolition but was preserved instead as an example of tenement housing that had not been significantly altered since the 1930's.

The tour of these houses - which describe in detail the changes that occurred within from their creation in the 1880's to the 1930's - is indeed quite fascinating as it also touches on a lot of New York bylaws that affected how these buildings were used. I did not personally find the focus was that much on immigration; but there are tours with different themes and perhaps the author's was different than mine. I was all about the buildings. You cannot take photos inside, which I don't get.

Barring the discovery of a similar building in Toronto I don't think there's much to be gained from an "immigration" museum. It's possible it could be done well and in an interesting way - but given that Toronto's most notable period of mass immigration from many destinations in the world has been much more recent than New York's - I would tend to think the timing for such a museum is wrong. Our equivalent of the Tenement Museum might be a floor in some building in St. Jamestown. Interesting idea, but I hear the elevators are hell.

I could see a room or two within Old City Hall when it becomes a Toronto Museum being devoted to this - which would make sense.

 

[Ladies Mile]

What you said.