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Last month saw the establishment of a new Arts and Culture district for Toronto, the Bloor Street Culture Corridor, a year-round arts and culture community comprising of 12 cultural institutions on Bloor between Bay and Bathurst streets. Among those cultural institutions, Alliance Française de Toronto (AFT), Toronto’s francophone cultural centre and Canada’s largest French-language school, is now celebrating the completion of phase one of the facility's two-phase expansion. Designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA), the first phase of the project saw the addition of a new 147-seat performance space plus eight new classrooms that will enable AFT to improve and expand their programming, fostering increased engagement with the surrounding community.
The expansion takes the form of a three storey addition to the west side of an existing Victorian-style red brick building at 24 Spadina Road. Full-height glazing around the second and third floor classrooms maximises natural light, while a convex curved wall of vertical cedar fins punctuated by a rectilinear copper overhang indicates the location of the multi-purpose performance space to the passerby at street level.
“Alliance Française is one of Toronto’s most established cultural institutions and a cornerstone of the community. It’s deeply rewarding to work on a project which will enable them to really engage with their community” said HPA Partner-in-Charge, Siamak Hariri. The next phase of the project will involve improvements to the historic Spadina Road façade and the addition of a library, café, gallery space and a special meeting room. Once the second phase of the project is complete, both phases of the project will add a combined total of 11,000 square-feet of space to AFT’s facilities.
To celebrate the completion of phase one of the expansion project, AFT is hosting an Open House today from 4-9pm today with free admission. A full program and details on today’s events and AFT’s cultural calendar can be found on the AFT’s website: www.alliance-francaise.ca.
