Captain Owen Stanley (1811-1850) painted this watercolour based on drawings he made while on Sir George Back’s Arctic expedition in 1836 and 1837. He served on the HMS Terror, which almost a decade later would be lost after returning to the Arctic for the Franklin Expedition. Stanley was not part of the ill-fated voyage, having moved on to command his own ships and sail to New Zealand and Australia. The HMS Terror was found in September by the Arctic Research Foundation. The drawings are part of the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library. Read more
[Read more →]
Spadina Avenue high-rise not a bar for height
By Annemarie Brissenden
A 25-storey, 334-unit apartment building is providing the model for a new mixed-student residence at the northwest corner of Spadina and Sussex avenues, but not in the way local residents’ associations would like. Read more
[Read more →]
By Annemarie Brissenden
Applications to rezone an area at Spadina and Sussex avenues as well as 666 Spadina Ave. have been received by City Planning and are available online. Read more
[Read more →]
PHOTO BY BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS: The manager of cultural programming at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, Michael Etherington (above), suggests that introducing Indigenous teaching techniques to U of T could prompt “a complete paradigm shift” in which educators “take a step back and rethink our entire education system from the foundation upwards”. Read more
[Read more →]
PHOTO BY SUMMER REID/GLEANER NEWS: The Bloor Street pilot bike lane project was launched on Aug. 12.
The Annex’s cycling community celebrated the unveiling of the Bloor Street pilot bike lane project on Aug. 12. Read more
[Read more →]
U of T to present latest vision for St. George campus
By Marielle Torrefranca
The University of Toronto will hold a public open house on May 17 to discuss its latest development plans for its St. George campus. Read more
[Read more →]
The arrival of cycling in Toronto
By Joe Cressy
For too long, discussions of bike lanes have been divisive in our city. They shouldn’t be. When we do it right, cycling infrastructure can be a win-win for everyone. Read more
[Read more →]
Our third survey of development projects in our coverage area highlights projects that interest us, trends that appall us, and elements that enthrall us. We favour innovative projects that connect with a neighbourhood’s built form, reflect community consultation, and meet the objectives of the City of Toronto’s Official Plan. We take a dim view of developers that do an end run around the process and appeal directly to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), which demonstrates little respect for the city’s urban planning guidelines. And, we — once again — make an argument for razing the OMB. Please click on the image below to enlarge. Read more
[Read more →]
Two of the University of Toronto’s distinguished art galleries have merged to create one of the largest university-based art museums in the country. The Art Museum at the University of Toronto — previously the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and the University of Toronto Art Centre — is also the second-largest museum-standard visual art museum and collection in the city, and will continue to occupy two close physical spaces at Hart House and University College. Sarah Robayo Sheridan has curated the art museum’s inaugural exhibition Showroom, which will showcase a diverse range of work from 48 artists all portraying the influence of lifestyle marketing on the cityscape. Read more
[Read more →]
Animating our local laneways
By Joe Cressy
Downtown communities like ours face unique challenges and countless opportunities. Almost every day, in conversations at our local coffee shops, in public meetings, and as we connect with our neighbours, we look for ways to work together to build our communities. We look for opportunities to enhance our parks, support our neighbours, and to create new public spaces. Read more
[Read more →]
Once completed, One Spadina Crescent will be a gateway that not only bridges the university to the community but the past to the future.
COURTESY THE DANIELS CORPORATION
One Spadina Crescent embraces the past and welcomes the future
By Annemarie Brissenden
With its grey facade looming eerily behind a chain-link fence, One Spadina Crescent seemed destined to become the ramshackle province of ghosts. Instead, the nineteenth-century Gothic revival building is undergoing an ambitious renovation that will transform it into the new home of the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.
The transformation will occur in two phases. The first, scheduled for completion at the end of this year, is the renovation of the existing building, once home to Knox College and Connaught Laboratories. An irregularly-shaped contemporary wing with a multi-storey north-facing glass facade will be added to the building in the second phase, for which construction is scheduled to begin in the fall. Completion is expected in the 2015/2016 academic year. The design by Boston architect Nader Tehrani, principal of NADAAA, and his collaborator Katie Faulkner, is marked for openness to the surrounding neighbourhood, sustainable urban design, and preservation of the historic building’s heritage aspect.
Neil Wright, chair of the Harbord Street Business Improvement Area, characterizes the design as a “stunning mixture of heritage conservation and modern architecture” that creates an essential link between the community and the university. “It’s an opening where people will know they are coming into an academic and heritage area.”
“We see this project as literally designed as a crossroads. The structure is meant to link to the community in the west and the university in the east,” said Professor Richard Sommer, dean of the Daniels Faculty.
Tom Dutton, senior vice president of the Daniels Corporation, echoes this sentiment. The company, together with University of Toronto graduate John H. Daniels and his wife, Myrna Daniels, has donated $25 million towards the $50 million project.
“We see this circle in the middle of Spadina as being a bridge between the university community and the rest of the community,” said Dutton. “It will be an inviting pathway and a reason to cross Spadina.”
“It should contribute to the transformation of the entire area,” said Sommer, explaining that the original building dates to a time when the university was on the north edge of the city.
“When [Knox College] was built, all the city’s institutions faced south,” said Sommer. The university then found itself at the centre of the city and, preparing for a highway artery, “turned its back on Spadina.”
Now, with the Spadina Expressway long since defeated, the university is “catching up with history.”
In this way, the project is also a gateway between the city’s built heritage and its physical future, something that attracted both the Faculty of Architecture and the Daniels Corporation.
“We’re tying into the broader discussion regarding the future of built design in Toronto,” said Dutton. The Daniels Corporation is responsible for some of the city’s most visible mixed-use buildings, such as the TIFF Bell Lightbox on King Street West and the revitalization of Regent Park.
They’re also helping to produce the urban designers and architects of the future, added Dutton. “We now have the opportunity within the University of Toronto to create a state-of-the-art architecture and landscape faculty that’s up till now been working out of an inadequate facility.”
The faculty’s new home is also much needed following its own transformation from a very small fledging faculty into a new centre for visually-based thinking that now includes the department of visual studies.
“The building is a way to claim and have a physical setting that is an appropriate expression of our work and ambition,” said Dean Sommer.
For his part, Neil Wright is delighted that this “lovely orphan heritage building” is finally being adopted after so many years. “It’s something that everyone will be proud of, and it will be there for another 200 years.”
[Read more →]
Annex stores prepare for Toronto’s plastic bag ban
By Alexa Huffman
Council announced this month that the city’s plastic bag ban will begin in the new year, but questions are now being raised about the impact this decision will have on businesses. Read more
[Read more →]
