rdaner
Senior Member
Is it time to discuss the entire district encompassing Dundas Square, the Eaton Centre, Old City Hall, NPS and Osgoode Hall as a single district that could benefit from comprehensive planning?
As I have mentioned in other posts, there was a plan in the 1990s to use the interior courtyard as a performing arts venue. Though the idea then was to insert a full opera house into the space, my initial thought was what a fantastic space to screen movies during the film festival as an initial use until 2016.
A further idea, and one that may have some people screaming, is to explore using the site where Campbell House currently sits more intensely. An advantage would be a large potential building envelope at a high profile corner with an underground connection to Osgoode Hall.
OLD CITY HALL
City to court tourists in halls of justice
Council plans to turn landmark into a visitor attraction and evict the judges when lease expires in 2016
JENNIFER LEWINGTON AND JAMES RUSK
May 29, 2008
Old City Hall is a long-time Provincial Court destination for those in trouble with the law or fighting a parking ticket.
But the city-owned historic landmark is poised for a new life as some sort of tourist destination, after council voted this week to boot out the province's largest court by 2016.
"The province should have their own court and the public should have greater access to one of the most premier heritage buildings in the country," Councillor Kyle Rae (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) said yesterday.
Earlier this week, council voted 28-6 to serve notice on the province that its current lease at Old City Hall will not be renewed past Dec. 31, 2016. Council also asked for a report in one year on potential uses, such as a museum or other high-profile public attraction.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Attorney-General Chris Bentley said the city and the Ontario Realty Corporation are working together to identify sites that would allow the province to meet its need for courthouses in the city.
With nearly eight years left on the current lease, it "affords us the opportunity to look at these issues in a long-term way," spokesman Sheamus Murphy said.
A provincially owned parking lot on Armoury Street, immediately north of the Ontario Superior Court, has long been touted as the ideal site for a new downtown courtroom. But Mr. Murphy said there are no plans to build there "at this point in time."
Mr. Rae said the province has been "babbling for 30 years" about building a new courthouse on Armoury Street.
And with 52 million visitors a year to the Eaton Centre next door, he said, it's time to think of Old City Hall, with 164,400 square feet of rentable space, as a tourist attraction.
"The only reason you go into it now is because you have a writ or you have been subpoenaed," he said.
Toronto's third city hall, built in the Romanesque Revival style by architect E.J. Lennox, opened in 1899 as a city hall and courthouse.
In 1965, with the construction of New City Hall, the Queen Street landmark was saved from demolition by activists. By 1989, it was named a national historic site. The city spent $77-million on renovations completed in 2005 to restore the exterior and the 300-foot-high clock tower. Over the next two years, the city will spend $7.2-million on interior repairs to be completed in 2012.
At this week's debate, Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity Spadina) urged colleagues to protect Old City Hall as a place for the public.
"I fear either it will be turned into a mall or a condo," he said. "That seems to be the limit of our imagination in how to deal with heritage."
But Councillor Case Ootes (Ward 29, Toronto-Danforth), who opposed serving notice on the province, sees the future of the building as a gallery or a museum. "I don't think retail use would be appropriate," he said.
Not everyone cheers the end of Old City Hall as a courthouse.
With its classical architecture and cultural significance, Old City Hall was a place where new criminal lawyers cut their teeth and "made lawyers feel like lawyers," said Frank Addario, president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association.
He said the courts at Old City Hall have a number of historic and unusual features, including a trap door in the floor of the arraignment court through which prisoners are brought into the courtroom.
COURT IN MOTION
The province will need a new home for one of its busiest courthouses when its lease on Old City Hall expires at the end of 2016. Speculation on a site has centred on provincially owned land behind city hall.
OTHER COURTS
1. Osgoode Hall
{bull} Court of Appeal of Ontario{bull} Divisional Court
2. 393 University Avenue
{bull} Superior Court: civil, family,
enforcement
3. 361 University Avenue
{bull} Superior Court: criminal
4. 330 University Avenue
{bull} Superior Court: commercial
5. 180 Queen Street West
{bull} Federal Court of Appeal
{bull} Federal Court
{bull} Tax Court of Canada
As I have mentioned in other posts, there was a plan in the 1990s to use the interior courtyard as a performing arts venue. Though the idea then was to insert a full opera house into the space, my initial thought was what a fantastic space to screen movies during the film festival as an initial use until 2016.
A further idea, and one that may have some people screaming, is to explore using the site where Campbell House currently sits more intensely. An advantage would be a large potential building envelope at a high profile corner with an underground connection to Osgoode Hall.
OLD CITY HALL
City to court tourists in halls of justice
Council plans to turn landmark into a visitor attraction and evict the judges when lease expires in 2016
JENNIFER LEWINGTON AND JAMES RUSK
May 29, 2008
Old City Hall is a long-time Provincial Court destination for those in trouble with the law or fighting a parking ticket.
But the city-owned historic landmark is poised for a new life as some sort of tourist destination, after council voted this week to boot out the province's largest court by 2016.
"The province should have their own court and the public should have greater access to one of the most premier heritage buildings in the country," Councillor Kyle Rae (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) said yesterday.
Earlier this week, council voted 28-6 to serve notice on the province that its current lease at Old City Hall will not be renewed past Dec. 31, 2016. Council also asked for a report in one year on potential uses, such as a museum or other high-profile public attraction.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Attorney-General Chris Bentley said the city and the Ontario Realty Corporation are working together to identify sites that would allow the province to meet its need for courthouses in the city.
With nearly eight years left on the current lease, it "affords us the opportunity to look at these issues in a long-term way," spokesman Sheamus Murphy said.
A provincially owned parking lot on Armoury Street, immediately north of the Ontario Superior Court, has long been touted as the ideal site for a new downtown courtroom. But Mr. Murphy said there are no plans to build there "at this point in time."
Mr. Rae said the province has been "babbling for 30 years" about building a new courthouse on Armoury Street.
And with 52 million visitors a year to the Eaton Centre next door, he said, it's time to think of Old City Hall, with 164,400 square feet of rentable space, as a tourist attraction.
"The only reason you go into it now is because you have a writ or you have been subpoenaed," he said.
Toronto's third city hall, built in the Romanesque Revival style by architect E.J. Lennox, opened in 1899 as a city hall and courthouse.
In 1965, with the construction of New City Hall, the Queen Street landmark was saved from demolition by activists. By 1989, it was named a national historic site. The city spent $77-million on renovations completed in 2005 to restore the exterior and the 300-foot-high clock tower. Over the next two years, the city will spend $7.2-million on interior repairs to be completed in 2012.
At this week's debate, Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity Spadina) urged colleagues to protect Old City Hall as a place for the public.
"I fear either it will be turned into a mall or a condo," he said. "That seems to be the limit of our imagination in how to deal with heritage."
But Councillor Case Ootes (Ward 29, Toronto-Danforth), who opposed serving notice on the province, sees the future of the building as a gallery or a museum. "I don't think retail use would be appropriate," he said.
Not everyone cheers the end of Old City Hall as a courthouse.
With its classical architecture and cultural significance, Old City Hall was a place where new criminal lawyers cut their teeth and "made lawyers feel like lawyers," said Frank Addario, president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association.
He said the courts at Old City Hall have a number of historic and unusual features, including a trap door in the floor of the arraignment court through which prisoners are brought into the courtroom.
COURT IN MOTION
The province will need a new home for one of its busiest courthouses when its lease on Old City Hall expires at the end of 2016. Speculation on a site has centred on provincially owned land behind city hall.
OTHER COURTS
1. Osgoode Hall
{bull} Court of Appeal of Ontario{bull} Divisional Court
2. 393 University Avenue
{bull} Superior Court: civil, family,
enforcement
3. 361 University Avenue
{bull} Superior Court: criminal
4. 330 University Avenue
{bull} Superior Court: commercial
5. 180 Queen Street West
{bull} Federal Court of Appeal
{bull} Federal Court
{bull} Tax Court of Canada
