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Northern Light

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This is a Catholic Highschool location at 721 Royal York Road, between Bloor and Queensway.

The proposal is reconstruction, and there are 2 Arch firms associated w/the project, the above noted Kohn Shnier and Hossack and Assoc.

This is the school site as is:

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The App:

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Description from Cover Letter:

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Development Applications

City Planning COA Application Information Center
app.toronto.ca

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egotrippin said:
1963, originally opened as Kingsmill Secondary School.
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Thank you! I had a hunch it was early 60's but some of the design language gave off 70s vibes too. It's a shame we are slowly losing much of the TDSB's mid-century architecture, but the attempt to make the new school less car-centric by pushing the building up to the street front is commendable. Unfortunately the redesign looks like a roadside community college one would find in a commercial office park :(
 
Vminkov said:
Thank you! I had a hunch it was early 60's but some of the design language gave off 70s vibes too. It's a shame we are slowly losing much of the TDSB's mid-century architecture, but the attempt to make the new school less car-centric by pushing the building up to the street front is commendable. Unfortunately the redesign looks like a roadside community college one would find in a commercial office park :(
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Agreed on the replacement, nothing special. The original certainly has some charm, even a bit of a Futurist vibe or something along those lines. It's easier to appreciate from this angle:

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It's perfectly understandable that the academic wing follows the top of the slope and that most classrooms will be looking out onto the forested ravine as opposed to the distractions of the road…

…but to address the city, the sheltered three-storey outdoor space near the road is the key. It doesn't *have* to be there, so here's hoping there's no value engineering attempted on it.

In some ways I wish the sports/social wing were moved west and north a bit, bringing it closer to the road too, and then moving the parking lot to the area between the school and the field, but I get that they want the indoor sports facilities to butt up to the seating area beside the track, to marry the indoors and outdoors.

It will be nice to see the many portables gone from the site, especially for the students of course. They're currently in the way of the full-size 400 metre track. I'm particularly glad that the improved connection from the pedestrian bridge over the Mimico Creek to Royal York. I have crossed over that many times…

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I guess there's an attempt to restore this facility to its former vibe, while removing all that PoMo fungus it seems to have accumulated over the years to hide the original design...for good or bad.
 
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