Green doors all the rage
May 28, 2007 04:30 AM
Donna Jean MacKinnon
STAFF REPORTER
It was easy being green at Doors Open Toronto.
This year 150 venues were on the Doors Open map – most of them historical structures – but the 20 official green buildings on the list grabbed unexpectedly large crowds.
At some venues, extra volunteers were called in for crowd control, according to Jane French, project manager for Doors Open at Toronto Culture, the organizer of the 8th annual Doors Open weekend.
On Saturday, hundreds of people lined up to get a peek inside the Levitt Goodman House, a private home that incorporates a number of green building strategies.
The house, on Euclid Ave., has several ecologically correct features including re-cycled wood cladding, a wood-burning stove and a planted roof.
Owners Janna Levitt and Dean Goodman, both architects, were overwhelmed and ran out of business cards in an hour. Almost 1,000 people went through their 1,500-square-foot house. Apparently, they expected about 12.
The SAS Building, a corporate structure on King St. E., was also swarmed. Its innovations include collecting rainwater and re-using it for flushing toilets and a "white membrane," on the roof that reflects solar energy.
Jaws were dropping, according to French.
But the biggest hit was the eco-suite, in a Tridel condominium at 20 Blue Jays Way. "The suite is cutting-edge for residential living and the tours gave people a chance to capture ideas to take back to their own lives," said Linda Irwin, a manager at Museum Services.
She said that all day there was a lineup and it was all Doors Open volunteers could do to get people to leave.
Besides energy-saving appliances, the eco-suite showcased recycled glass, 95 per cent recycled drywall and an environmentally friendly bed from Ikea.
"The environment and being green are so topical now, everyone wants in on it," Irwin said.
Having said that, even more people wanted in to Old City Hall (built in 1899), a perennial favourite since the event started eight years ago.
Last year, 8,000 people traipsed through that grand Toronto landmark, designed by E.J. Lennox in the Romanesque style.
On Saturday, there were 5,742 visitors and French predicts, when yesterday's count is in, Old City Hall will have broken the 10,000 mark.
Other venues with high attendance were the Tanenbaum Opera Centre, on Front St. E., (built as a gasworks in 1887) and the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Both offered free mini-performances of Mozart's Magic Flute. Yesterday, 6,500 people crowded into the Four Seasons.
A healthy crowd ventured to the Horse Palace at Exhibition Place, where the big draw was a demonstration of precision riding by the Toronto Police Mounted Unit. Besides housing the officers and their steeds, the Horse Palace, built in 1931, is considered one of the finest Art Deco buildings in Canada.
There, visitors were treated to the spectacle of eight officers guiding their horses through the charge, side passing, the march, the pivot on the forelegs, diagonal formations and side-passing – the latter two used for crowd control.
The large horses are selected for their calmness and strength, according to Sgt. Jim Patterson.
"They are cold-blooded (calm), mixed-breed horses, with a percentage of workhorse such as Clydesdale or Percheron," he says.
Within walking distance of the Horse Palace sits a forlorn little lighthouse, landlocked in a weedy plot on Fleet St. Constructed in 1861, it was once on the water, from where its lantern guided ships through the treacherous channels into Toronto Harbour. The lighthouse was de-commissioned in 1911, and moved to its present site in 1929. By noon Saturday, however, fewer than 100 people had paid their respects.
Meanwhile, at the Mackenzie House Museum, the home of William Lyon Mackenzie, political reformer and Toronto's first mayor, attendance was a bit down. A volunteer at this elegant Greek Revival home (built in 1858) speculated this was due to the competition from sites located from the lake to Black Creek Pioneer Village at Finch Ave.
And that's too bad, because Mackenzie House needs help.
A delightful feature of this beautifully furnished house is the basement kitchen, which boasts a built-in cast-iron stove (circa 1855). This unique antique cooker requires expensive repairs. Visitors to the house were encouraged to contribute to its refurbishing.
Doors Open is now over, until 2008, but citizens interested in Toronto's heritage can still come to the aid of the Mackenzie Museum, at 82 Bond St.
For 2008, French says the theme of Doors Open next May will be "Sacred Spaces and Sacred Circles."
