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2006 Doors Open Breaks Attendance Record

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AlvinofDiaspar

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From City of Toronto News:

June 13, 2006&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
Doors Open Toronto breaks attendance record&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
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Close to 200,000 visits to 144 buildings of architectural, historic and cultural significance took place on this year’s Doors Open Toronto weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 27 and 28, surpassing last year’s total visitation of 165,000 by more than 30,000. Topping the list again this year were Old City Hall and City Hall, with each venue welcoming 8,500 visitors over two days.

One of the most popular new buildings on this year’s roster, the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, attracted 4,700 visitors to its 100-year-old home on Gladstone Avenue. Along the central waterfront, Ontario Place celebrated its 35th anniversary year with 4,743 people, the tall ship, Empire Sandy welcomed over 4,000 aboard and the Fort York Armory saluted 3,500 visitors. The newly-restored Palais Royale evoked memories among its 2,120 guests (Sunday afternoon only), many of whom recalled its romantic dance hall past. Over in the Distillery District, the new Young Centre for the Performing Arts welcomed 1,450 visitors.

The Horse Palace at Exhibition Place saw 3,000 visitors crowding the equestrian demonstration ring and going nose to nose with four-legged members of the Toronto Police Mounted and Police Dog Unit. Tours of both historic and current exhibits by the Canadian Armed Forces as well as the state-of-the-art Toronto Animal Services were popular. Staff Inspector Bill Wardle was pleased that a significant number of visitors were new Canadians who welcomed the rare opportunity to visit an active police unit, equestrian school and animal shelter with their children.

Jarvis Street’s ‘Mansion District’ proved popular, with Canada’s National Ballet School drawing 3,500, Gooderham House and York College of Industry and Technology, (former home of Canada’s Massey family) attracting 3,000 visitors each, and the Gloucester Square Inns’ two beautifully restored mansions with 1,400 visitors respectively.

Returning favourites include: Osgoode Hall (7,200), John Street Roundhouse (6,220), Black Creek Pioneer Village (6,200), CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Centre (5,000), Canada Life (4,800), Commerce Court North (4,500), Ontario Legislative Building (4,200), 1 King West (3,426), Spadina Museum: Historic House and Gardens (3,236), Toronto-Dominion Centre (3,207), Carlu (3,000; Sunday only), Casa Loma Stables (2,847), St. Anne’s Anglican Church (2,700), Canada Permanent Building (2,500), Gladstone Hotel (2,327), Fort York (2,131), Campbell House (2,100), Design Exchange (2,000), Don Valley Brick Works (2,000), Royal Canadian Military Institute (1900), Redpath Sugar Museum (1804), 51 Division (1800), Metropolitan United Church (1,770), Masonic Temple (1,600) and Ontario College of Art and Design (1,500; Saturday only).

“Every year I continue to be amazed at how Doors Open Toronto brings out the best in our city on both an architectural and a human scale,†said Rita Davies, Executive Director, Toronto Culture. “Attendance figures are one way of measuring the success of this event, but equally important are the new relationships this year with venues like the MaRS Centre (2,200) and the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (2,000), both located in the heart of Toronto’s Discovery District, Holy Blossom Temple (800; Sunday only), that celebrated its 150th year as a congregation by participating in Doors Open Toronto, and BLP Bronze International (830), where figures sculpted by children on the weekend will be cast in bronze for a proposed native sculpture garden in Toronto’s portlands. Our first-ever Kids’ Guide to Doors Open Toronto was a great hit with the ever-increasing number of children who make up a significant part of the audience for this annual event.â€

In seven years, Doors Open Toronto has attracted almost one million visitors to the city’s architectural landmarks, hidden gems and innovative buildings, all of which define Toronto in the 21st century. Admission to all participating venues is free and many buildings are not normally open to the public.

Doors Open Toronto is proud to acknowledge its title sponsor, the Toronto Star, and media sponsors CBC Radio One and CBC Television. GreekTown on the Danforth BIA, the Toronto Society of Architects and Wright Real Estate Ltd. participated as Sandstone Level sponsors this year. Program partners, Doors Open Ontario, Festival of Architecture and Design (fAd), Heritage Toronto and the Mayor’s Clean and Beautiful City initiative are recognized for their contributions. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund and the Cultural Capitals of Canada program.

The 8th annual Doors Open Toronto will take place on Saturday and Sunday, May 26 and 27, 2007 with a special focus on Toronto’s ‘green’ buildings. Visit www.doorsopen.org in 2007 for program information. Doors Open Toronto is a Signature Event of Toronto Culture and Live With Culture.

Live With Culture is a 16-month celebration of Toronto’s extraordinary arts and cultural communities, shining a spotlight on the vibrant and diverse activities happening in the city each and every day. From September 2005 until the end of 2006, Live With Culture showcases the vast scope of the city’s culture of creativity and inspires culture in Toronto to become a daily part of everyone’s life. How do you live with culture? Visit www.livewithculture.ca, the ultimate guide to Toronto’s culture scene.


Media contacts:

Jane French
Project Manager
Doors Open Toronto
Toronto Culture
416-338-0496

Kristen Juschkewitsch
Supervisor
Program Development & Design (Acting)
Toronto Culture
416-338-0495
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AoD
 
wow, thats crazy! glad its working well, look forward to next years doors open however I wish the hours were a bit longer, 4pm is too early to end it :(
 
I was surprised by some of the visitation numbers. The big surprise was the numbers for the newest buildings on the Doors Open list: CCBR and MaRS, which did not offer guided tours (and therefore did not have lineups or limits on number of visitors). I overheard some people at Doors Open who were telling people not to go see CCBR, but that can't really explain the low attendance numbers. CCBR was very prominent in the Toronto Star guide, so it's quite surprising that it did not generate as much interest as other popular attractions. The National Ballet School number also appeared to be lower than expected- there were long lineups outside the building, with groups of 30 or so being admitted every 10-15 minutes.

Ontario Place's Doors Open debut was terrible, aside from an informative, but poorly-attended lecture by Eb Zeidler. It seemed most of the people who went to Ontario Place that weekend were there just for the free admission and the children's program. Next time there should be guided tours, especially of the pods.

I agree with thenay that Doors Open hours are still too short. Doors Open has sort of become a victim of its own success. When Doors Open was still somewhat of an obscure event, people had time to spend quality time in each building that they visited. Nowadays visitors seem to spend just as much time lining up in front of buildings and waiting for a guided tour as they do inside the buildings. I suggest extending the Doors Open event over all the weekends in May, which not coincidentally is also the little known month of Toronto's Festival of Architecture and Design.
 
I'm not surprised by the numbers at some locations at all.

For one the large crowds outside the National Ballet School probably scared away some people.

Besides the people on this forum, most people have never heard of CCBR or MaRS.

Ontario Place just seemed way too far off for most people.

Overall, I believe Doors Open is a huge success. While having the venues opened longer would be nice, keep in mind this a mainly a volunteer event and it would be very expensive to pay staff to have the buildings running on the weekends.

For those wanting to stay out at night, remember that the 1st Nuit Blanche will take place this September.

Louroz
 
Increasing interest in buildings, architecture and urban planning can only be good for the city.
 
I doubt volunteers could be found to have Doors Open be a month-long event. Still, having buildings open from 10:00am to 7:00pm would be a good start. 4:00pm is way to early to end something on a weekend in T.O. (considering half the city don't get up until Noon!).
 
I don't see why getting volunteers would be such a problem. It's the end of May, and graduating high school students are desperate to get their volunteering hours filled up. Doors Open would make a great opportunity for them to get plenty of volunteering hours, while at the same time developing a much-needed appreciation of the city and its architecture.

I'm sure many people who have went to previous Doors Open would be interested in becoming volunteers in the future, especially as we start to run out of new buildings to add to the Doors Open list. Originally I had wanted to volunteer to organize a Doors Open site at Ryerson (unfortunately the plan fell through). I'm sure many Doors Open visitors would be tempted to become volunteers once they hear that volunteers can bypass the lineups at Doors Open buildings (I heard that from a past volunteer).
 
The city staff on Doors Open is tiny -- so they're flat out just organizing this weekend. Anymore would give them overworked heartattacks.
 

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