Toronto Garrison Point | 118.56m | 35s | Cityzen | Hariri Pontarini

grey said:
I believe the salmon building just north of the tracks at Wellington and Strachan is a shelter. Hopefully this development will have some positive spillover for that place, because it looks pretty brutal.
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Actually, said shelter was an award winner...
 
Sometimes when I cross the Spadina and Bathurst street bridges I look east and west and imagine that instead of being built on a lake, we are a great river city and that the railway tracks are that great river. I always thought that the merging of the Lakeshore line with the Weston sub were like two tributaries merging into that great river, and that a flatiron building there would be like those buildings on the Ile de la Cité that part the Seine. It could look great.
 
The poiint of the wedge is the site of the park and bridge. I'm not sure how a flatiron would therefore look considered its wide enough here to build another tower directly to its south.
 
It turns out that alternative energy pioneer Morgan Solar, a current lessee of industrial property on the site, is concerned about having to move, and is mounting a campaign to save jobs on the site. Morgan Solar questions whether Toronto should be rezoning any active employment lands in the city to allow yet more land for condominiums. Toronto Start writer Tyler Hamilton has all of the information on his blog Clean Break: it's worth the read!

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Towered said:
... About two months ago I explored this triangle on foot for the first time after hearing that a jail used to be there...
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There was a prison on the other side of Strachan Ave and all that remains is the chapel building.

clash said:
That's interesting. The chapel is currently part of Liberty Village Park and seems a permanent fixture there, with interlocking brick going right up to it, and there's bike racks and a water fountain, and they recently removed the fencing around the park and attached metal grills to the doors and windows to keep vandals out and...yeah. I just don't see how a restaurant would work in the space and I'd be surprised if this happened. Not that the building couldn't use a good restoration. I'd love to see it repurposed rather than languishing in degradation as it is now. I'm just not sure how it would work in a public space.





As for the article, and just to be pedantic, the chapel was actually part of the Central Prison for Men which was built in 1873. The chapel was added to the south end of the prison in 1877, which makes it 132 years old by my reckoning. They're likely confusing it with the Mercer Reformatory Prison For Women which was located in the area that is now Lamport Stadium.

I've always been curious as to why they left the chapel up when they demolished the prison in 1915. Religious superstition maybe?...
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From a Toronto Sun article "Central Prison of horrors" by Mike Filey:
...While most Torontonians know the history of the old Don Jail on Gerrard St. E. (in fact, some know the jail better than others) few realize that we had another place of incarceration, the Central Prison. Unlike the Don Jail which was looked after by the city, Central (as the place became known) was under provincial jurisdiction. This penal facility, located in an industrial area of the city far from the general public with the factories of Massey-Harris and the John Inglis Co. on nearby Strachan Ave. as its closest neighbours, greeted its first inmates in 1873.

Central's initial mandate was to rehabilitate prisoners by keeping them busy with manual labour while giving them some sense of accomplishment. This was done by working out an arrangement with the nearby Canada Car & Manufacturing Co. that resulted in the inmates building rolling stock for the fast growing railway freight business. The proximity of the Central Prison to several nearby railway corridors (that are still being used by GO Transit, Via Rail and the CPR) made it easy to get these much needed box and platform cars to the railway companies in a hurry.

SMALL WAGE PAID

And in an effort to give the inmates some semblance of dignity, a small wage was paid to each man. In addition, the prison itself would receive money for manufacturing the rolling stock. This remuneration helped offset the cost of running the prison.

Unfortunately, the manufacturing company overextended itself financially and that, combined with the recession of the late 1870s (yes, there were others), led to the end of this innovative project. From then on inmates were kept busy manufacturing brooms and mops.

It was about this time that a new warden was placed in charge. He was an alcoholic ex-army officer and had a completely different method of "rehabilitating" inmates. Beatings became common place and requests for medical treatment were conveniently misplaced. There were also rumours of secret early hour burials outside the jail walls.

Before long, conditions in the Central Prison became so disgusting that provincial officials were forced to consider closing it. The man who made the ultimate decision was the Provincial Secretary, William Hanna, who is remembered in the name of a nearby street.

Toronto's Central Prison was closed in 1915 and its inmates transferred to the new reformatory in Guelph.

Today, only remnants of the Central Prison remain as silent reminders of those dark days from Toronto's castigatory past...
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http://www.torontosun.com/life/columnists/mike_filey/2009/03/15/8753321-sun.html
 
Hmm ok, so what used to be on the triangle then? There were remnants of a concrete floor and bricks laying around.
 
The Planning and Growth committee has approved an official plan amendment for adding residential permissions to 30 Ordnance Street on the condition that DiamondCorp replace the 24,000 square of employment uses currently on site. Planning staff opposed the measure, but the committee ignored the staff recommendation (local councillor Joe Pantalone supported the OPA). The proposed development will also include pedestrian connections from the parkland adjacent to the site to the future Fort York pedestrian bridge.
 
Small update:

On July 14 the Ministry of Municipal Afairs and Housing stepped into the process and accused council of approving an amendment that does not conform to the growth plan. However a subsequent letter was received on July 23 withdrawing the initial appeal. Apparently no explaination was given with the withdrawl.
 
Renderings:

30ordnancestonedevdiamo.jpg


30ordnancestonedevdiamod.jpg


from http://www.onedevelopment.com/30_ordnance.asp
 
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