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A bid to preserve historic `hotspot'
Site a haven for writers, painters Owners planning 17-storey condo
Sep. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM
MURRAY WHYTE
STAFF REPORTER
A sturdy old warehouse in the city's art and design district will be proposed for heritage status at city council as a last-ditch attempt to save it from the wrecking ball.
Adam Giambrone, councillor for Ward 18, where the building sits, is expected to ask council to vote on the status of 48 Abell St. as a heritage structure today or tomorrow. If he succeeds, the building will be given heritage status, hampering a development planned for the site.
The vote could undo a move by the city's Heritage Preservations Services staff, which withdrew a recommendation for heritage designation in June due to the high costs of restoration.
"This comes very late in the process," said David Bronskill, the lawyer representing Verdiroc, a property development company, and building owner Aristocrat Lamps and Lighting.
The building, which sits just south and west of Queen St. W. and Dovercourt Ave., was not slated for demolition for several years. But the partnership plans to replace it with a 17-storey condo tower. "Obviously, we think it has no merit. I think Councillor Giambrone is simply playing politics," said Bronskill.
Giambrone decided to revive the issue when residents of both the building and district approached him, desperate to save it. The building — famous in the area for its large-scale, all-night parties — has been both a studio and home to artists for decades, long before the city's official designation of the district. It has become a cause célèbre for its residents and neighbourhood activists alike.
"We want to preserve 48 Abell as the cultural hotspot that it is," said Jessica Rose, a resident and an artist and curator who is among lead organizers of the city's massive Nuit Blanche celebrations this weekend.
"It has such a legacy — artists who have become famous, artists who will be famous — writers, painters, sculptors, dancers. It is exactly what the city wants this neighbourhood to be."
In a letter to city council, building residents warned that "without suitable conditions for the current and new generations of artists to paint, the walls of our galleries and museums will be barren.... To thrive, it is essential that these spaces are located within the art community itself, like at 48 Abell."
Giambrone said in a memo to council that the preservation staff report "clearly outlines the heritage characteristics and attributes."
"This building is one of the few industrial buildings left in the area. It's a link to the past," he said. The cost of restoration is not the city's problem, he said. "Our problem is, once you bulldoze a heritage building, it never comes back."
Rose organized the building's residents to partner with Active18, a local urban activist group, to save it. She moved into 48 Abell with her father, an artist, when she was a teenager. Fourteen years later, she's loath to leave. "I can't imagine living anywhere else," she said.
"I have a serious investment in making this neighbourhood what it is. I don't want to leave."
Site a haven for writers, painters Owners planning 17-storey condo
Sep. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM
MURRAY WHYTE
STAFF REPORTER
A sturdy old warehouse in the city's art and design district will be proposed for heritage status at city council as a last-ditch attempt to save it from the wrecking ball.
Adam Giambrone, councillor for Ward 18, where the building sits, is expected to ask council to vote on the status of 48 Abell St. as a heritage structure today or tomorrow. If he succeeds, the building will be given heritage status, hampering a development planned for the site.
The vote could undo a move by the city's Heritage Preservations Services staff, which withdrew a recommendation for heritage designation in June due to the high costs of restoration.
"This comes very late in the process," said David Bronskill, the lawyer representing Verdiroc, a property development company, and building owner Aristocrat Lamps and Lighting.
The building, which sits just south and west of Queen St. W. and Dovercourt Ave., was not slated for demolition for several years. But the partnership plans to replace it with a 17-storey condo tower. "Obviously, we think it has no merit. I think Councillor Giambrone is simply playing politics," said Bronskill.
Giambrone decided to revive the issue when residents of both the building and district approached him, desperate to save it. The building — famous in the area for its large-scale, all-night parties — has been both a studio and home to artists for decades, long before the city's official designation of the district. It has become a cause célèbre for its residents and neighbourhood activists alike.
"We want to preserve 48 Abell as the cultural hotspot that it is," said Jessica Rose, a resident and an artist and curator who is among lead organizers of the city's massive Nuit Blanche celebrations this weekend.
"It has such a legacy — artists who have become famous, artists who will be famous — writers, painters, sculptors, dancers. It is exactly what the city wants this neighbourhood to be."
In a letter to city council, building residents warned that "without suitable conditions for the current and new generations of artists to paint, the walls of our galleries and museums will be barren.... To thrive, it is essential that these spaces are located within the art community itself, like at 48 Abell."
Giambrone said in a memo to council that the preservation staff report "clearly outlines the heritage characteristics and attributes."
"This building is one of the few industrial buildings left in the area. It's a link to the past," he said. The cost of restoration is not the city's problem, he said. "Our problem is, once you bulldoze a heritage building, it never comes back."
Rose organized the building's residents to partner with Active18, a local urban activist group, to save it. She moved into 48 Abell with her father, an artist, when she was a teenager. Fourteen years later, she's loath to leave. "I can't imagine living anywhere else," she said.
"I have a serious investment in making this neighbourhood what it is. I don't want to leave."