Toronto Ontario Court of Justice Toronto | 95.7m | 17s | Infrastructure Ontar | Renzo Piano

[innsertnamehere]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...se-but-details-scant-on-cost/article18384847/

Toronto is getting a major new downtown courthouse, one that could replace as many as five aging locations that primarily hear criminal cases and are scattered across the city.

Ontario’s Liberal government revealed plans for the new facility in the budget on Thursday, but Finance Minister Charles Sousa had scant details on how much a new home for the Ontario Court of Justice in the city would cost, or when it would open.

However, the government has a location in mind, according to provincial officials. The new courthouse is expected to be on provincially owned land just north of the Superior Court of Justice building at 361 University Ave., near Dundas Street.

The site is currently a surface parking lot.

Edit: Just realized that is the wrong address. Real address of the lot would be 11 Armoury street.

 

[ShonTron]

Interesting. This would most likely replace College Park, Old City Hall, 311 Jarvis, the courts in 393 University and possibly the 361 University courts as well.

Though none of the new consolidated courthouses elsewhere (Brampton, Oshawa, Belleville, etc.) are anything worth writing home about.

 

[AlbertC]

Yay, so finally a use for this?

 

[interchange42]

Well, that's the perfect location for this. Here's hoping that they don't make a bad judgement on the architecture. As it's provincial, they would be able to refuse a request to appear before the DRP, and no one HAS to go to the DRP anyway, but let's hope they (like other developers in this city) play nice.

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[Ramako]

Interesting. This would most likely replace College Park, Old City Hall, 311 Jarvis, the courts in 393 University and possibly the 361 University courts as well.

Though none of the new consolidated courthouses elsewhere (Brampton, Oshawa, Belleville, etc.) are anything worth writing home about.

361 University is a massive courthouse. They'd have to go pretty tall to replace it in addition to all those other courthouses. I wonder if the proximity to City Hall would be in issue in that regard.

I do love the idea of being able to open 361 University up for redevelopment, and getting those courts out of Old City Hall might be a step forward in terms of turning it into a Toronto museum.

 

[jaborandi]

Why would anyone want to get rid of 361 University Ave? I love that building.

 

[SLOCRO]

361 University is the Superior Court of Justice (criminal) for Toronto and the province owns that facility; likewise, Osgoode Hall isn't going anywhere and would still operate Divisional Court (Superior Court) and the Court of Appeal for the long foreseeable future as they're owned as well and were actually built to be courthouses. Focus here is on the leased Ontario Court of Justice facilities downtown - buildings that have had certain floors of them converted to be "courthouses". Nothing is mentioned of the other Superior Court civil locations, which are also scattered in various office buildings makeshift-ly (47 Sheppard, 393 University and 330 University). So many efficiencies would be achieved through amalgamation into a central facility downtown along the subway line. Since this Armoury Street courthouse would need to be semi-tall and will tower over 361 University (and Osgoode in the distance), I imagine architecture (or the exterior materials chosen) will be very important... or at least should be...

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I think the Superior Court building had a one floor addition in early 2000s during the Superbuild (Harris version of IO) days. The building might look okay outside, but the interior is definitely dated in a 60s government project sort of way.

As a piece of architecture, it is a big giant yawn. If you want to see good court architecture, forget Ontario (or even Canada in general), look at the US GSA Courthouse program.

AoD

 

[interchange42]

I know you don't mean it quite so literally, but I'd like to have a Richard Meier here, so a courthouse wouldn't be the worst building to do that with.

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[AlvinofDiaspar]

i42:

Actually, I did think about his project in Phoenix:

http://openbuildings.com/buildings/United-States-Courthouse2C-Phoenix-profile-1351

As much as I love Morphosis (NOAA Operations Centre in particular), I would NOT want his SF Federal Courthouse here.

AoD

 

[ShonTron]

.

As a piece of architecture, it is a big giant yawn. If you want to see good court architecture, forget Ontario (or even Canada in general), look at the US GSA Courthouse program.

AoD

Here's the new Buffalo federal courthouse.
http://goo.gl/maps/upAMH

 

[AndreaPalladio]

I think the Superior Court building had a one floor addition in early 2000s during the Superbuild (Harris version of IO) days. The building might look okay outside, but the interior is definitely dated in a 60s government project sort of way.

As a piece of architecture, it is a big giant yawn. If you want to see good court architecture, forget Ontario (or even Canada in general), look at the US GSA Courthouse program.

AoD

That floor was added to 361 University shortly after it was built - in the late 60s or early 70s. And while the public areas are tired and over used (no surprise there, its a busy courthouse, afterall) some of the courtrooms are great examples of 60s civic design. And the library is a gem.

All those US courthouses are great, even the ones I don't like much. I can't imagine a government in this country every putting that much money into the design of anything.

 

[Wrenkin]

This is a good idea, and I always figured that's why the parking lot had endured for so long. I do wonder about the SCJ civil courts. You would think that if they consolidated them they'd want a location near Osgoode Hall, but what other sites are left? That little house behind City Hall?

 

[SLOCRO]

SCJ and OCJ can co-habitate; thus the consolidated courthouses being built around the province. Example (Oshawa):

 

[thecharioteer]

This proposal would, of course, depend on the Liberals returning to power after the June 12th election.