Additional renderings from the public presentation of March 27:
7.1_collingwood_terminals_-_public_presentation_mar_27_2023_-_final_v2-71.jpg

7.1_collingwood_terminals_-_public_presentation_mar_27_2023_-_final_v2-30.jpg

7.1_collingwood_terminals_-_public_presentation_mar_27_2023_-_final_v2-74.jpg


Interior hotel room and restaurant renderings:
7.1_collingwood_terminals_-_public_presentation_mar_27_2023_-_final_v2-34.jpg

7.1_collingwood_terminals_-_public_presentation_mar_27_2023_-_final_v2-42.jpg
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
Sorta off topically silly question: I wonder with all these redevelopments of grain terminals to more residential/public use, where all the grain is being actually stored...as the demand for that commodity is likely growing as opposed to abating.
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Well, if you've played Sid Meier's Civilization, you'll know that if you dispense with the granaries, our people are about to starve and the population will crater.

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Northern Light said:
I like the Silos restoration portion; the tower, as currently conceived, sticking out above the silos, looks a bit awkward to me.

Presuming the height wasn't simply trimmed back to fit the silos; I wonder if the building form couldn't mimic the silos using similar curves/scale and maybe blend a a bit better. Dunno. Need to think on a it a bit.
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It will be basically be mimicking a structure that is already there. It is (was) a grain handling tower, which is how they used to work. Grain was off-loaded from ships and carried up where it could be directed to the intended silo by gravity.
UtakataNoAnnex said:
Sorta off topically silly question: I wonder with all these redevelopments of grain terminals to more residential/public use, where all the grain is being actually stored...as the demand for that commodity is likely growing as opposed to abating.
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Most of grain elevators around the Great Lakes were pre-Seaway. Grain came in either via ship from (mostly) Thunder Bay or rail, then stored for transloading by rail to salt water ports like Montreal or Quebec City. Now, inland terminals in the Prairies and other provinces handle a lot of storage and grain can either go directly to salt water ports via rail or loaded at Thunder Bay then directly overseas. The few that are left in operation are used primarily for domestic supply. Off the top of my head, elevators are still in operation in Midland, Goderich, Sania, Port Colborne and Johnstown (Prescott). There are probably others. I don't know if Owen Sound is still in operation.
 
This project looks fascinating and commendable but unlikely to happen any time soon. Hopefully, the changes are all reversible so that the silo can be restored to its original appearance if the residential uses end one day (which would likely be generations from now if this project even moves forward).
 
I see this as the right project at the right time. Collingwood has become a very well off community with a high quality central area. Add in the waterfront location and stunning architecture and you have a destination in the making. The team behind Distillery know what they are doing! Future White Lotus location, anyone?!
 
Towered said:
I love the use of quaint little shops at the base of the silos. I find it works very well in St. Jacob's for example.
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I was quite impressed they reused a silo structure that way in a small town when I first saw it. It's not fully restored, and the exterior changes are more "quaint" than sleek or contemporary, but it's definitely cool.
 
lenaitch said:
It will be basically be mimicking a structure that is already there. It is (was) a grain handling tower, which is how they used to work. Grain was off-loaded from ships and carried up where it could be directed to the intended silo by gravity.

Most of grain elevators around the Great Lakes were pre-Seaway. Grain came in either via ship from (mostly) Thunder Bay or rail, then stored for transloading by rail to salt water ports like Montreal or Quebec City. Now, inland terminals in the Prairies and other provinces handle a lot of storage and grain can either go directly to salt water ports via rail or loaded at Thunder Bay then directly overseas. The few that are left in operation are used primarily for domestic supply. Off the top of my head, elevators are still in operation in Midland, Goderich, Sania, Port Colborne and Johnstown (Prescott). There are probably others. I don't know if Owen Sound is still in operation.
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There’s more to it, but yeah. The elevators at Lake Huron ports (Midland, Collingwood, Owen Sound) were themselves transshipment points. Grain would be shipped by rail to Port Arthur/Fort William (Thunder Bay) then shipped by laker to a southern Ontario railhead (Midland, Depot Harbour, Collingwood, Owen Sound, Goderich, or Windsor), then transported by rail again to Toronto, Montreal, Québec, or Halifax or distributed by rail for local industry. For American-bound grain, it would go as far as Buffalo to either be shipped by rail or transloaded to Erie Canal barges.

The opening of the fourth Welland Canal changed all that. The end of federal grain shipping subsidies in 1989 ended most of what was left in Southern Ontario, though Buffalo, home to major grain processors like General Mills, still has some grain elevator business.

Much of the US grain went through Minneapolis, the head of Mississippi River navigation. That’s why it too has a lot of grain elevators.
 
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junctionist said:
This project looks fascinating and commendable but unlikely to happen any time soon. Hopefully, the changes are all reversible so that the silo can be restored to its original appearance if the residential uses end one day (which would likely be generations from now if this project even moves forward).
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Not exactly sure when you are hoping for. You want the structures returned to look like they are abandoned and unused? The main reason they are still standing at all is that tearing them down was deemed by the town to be prohibitively expensive.
 
lenaitch said:
Not exactly sure when you are hoping for. You want the structures returned to look like they are abandoned and unused? The main reason they are still standing at all is that tearing them down was deemed by the town to be prohibitively expensive.
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No, that's not what I meant at all. There's an idea in heritage preservation that changes and modifications to a heritage structure should reversible. If you must add an extension or addition, preserve the original wall material either in situ or in a storage place. Thus, if the extension is no longer needed or desired in the future, the structure can be restored to its original heritage design.

Instead of tearing down a side of a heritage building to build an addition, you try to minimize that. The Royal Conservatory of Music's Koerner Hall expansion project is a great example of the ideal. In this photo, you can clearly see the old building that has been preserved on the left with the extension on the right. The cuts into the heritage structure have been minimized.

Now, it's quite possible an extension might itself eventually have heritage value. But it's still quite pleasant to have that harmony of old and new at the physical transition point between old and new.
 
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