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raised around the world for its dramatic conception and brilliant design, the Fort York Visitor Centre has P been acknowledged by Rideau Hall as one of the finest new buildings in Canada. Every two years, twelve Medals in Architecture are awarded by the Governor General, and the most recent announcement was on May 7. “Strategically situated along the edge of the site, the centre is fortified and defined,” reads the citation, “by a series of monolithic weathering steel panel walls.” That deep red steel never fails to impress and was a feature of the original review the steel escarpment in the December 2011 edition re-establishes of Canadian Architect magazine. sense of a defensive Their anonymous writer, like the architects themselves, anticipated the realization of the Bentway: “The Centre constructs an escarpment of weathering steel,” asserts the reviewer, “an extended wall to the site, one capable of joining with the scale of the Gardiner Expressway above to form the wall and roof of an extra-large new urban space for Toronto.” Alluding to the bluff that once rose from a narrow beach to the ramparts of the fort, Canadian Architect argued that “the steel escarpment re-establishes the original sense of a defensive site.” The celebrated designers of the Visitor Centre, built with a budget of less than $15 million from the City of Toronto, the Fort York Foundation and others, were Patkau Architects of Vancouver and Kearns Mancini Architects of Toronto.
raised around the world for its dramatic conception and brilliant design, the Fort York Visitor Centre has P been acknowledged by Rideau Hall as one of the finest new buildings in Canada. Every two years, twelve Medals in Architecture are awarded by the Governor General, and the most recent announcement was on May 7. “Strategically situated along the edge of the site, the centre is fortified and defined,” reads the citation, “by a series of monolithic weathering steel panel walls.” That deep red steel never fails to impress and was a feature of the original review the steel escarpment in the December 2011 edition re-establishes of Canadian Architect magazine. sense of a defensive Their anonymous writer, like the architects themselves, anticipated the realization of the Bentway: “The Centre constructs an escarpment of weathering steel,” asserts the reviewer, “an extended wall to the site, one capable of joining with the scale of the Gardiner Expressway above to form the wall and roof of an extra-large new urban space for Toronto.” Alluding to the bluff that once rose from a narrow beach to the ramparts of the fort, Canadian Architect argued that “the steel escarpment re-establishes the original sense of a defensive site.” The celebrated designers of the Visitor Centre, built with a budget of less than $15 million from the City of Toronto, the Fort York Foundation and others, were Patkau Architects of Vancouver and Kearns Mancini Architects of Toronto.
Arrangements were made more than a year ago to carefully extend the eastern end of the new building to house machinery and public washrooms for the skating trail of the Bentway Conservancy, launched in 2015 with a $25 million commitment from philanthropists Judy and Wilmot Matthews. The City has since committed another $10.5 million, partly from developer contributions, spread out as far as 2023. (Divisions among capital, operations and maintenance contributions from the City are outlined in a staff report to the mayor’s Executive Council on June 20, 2016; see also the Toronto Star of Feb. 8, 2018). As the first capital projects wind the original down, programming is expected site to assume a greater share of the conservancy’s effort. While the Bentway’s innovative Strachan Gate nears completion at the far end of Garrison Common, just south of Liberty Village, many neighbours are also looking forward to the eastward extension of the skating trail (reformatted for summer skate-boarding) toward Bathurst, as well as a full realization of the Visitor Centre’s award-winning architecture. That means (to repeat the citation) “a series of monolithic weathering steel panel walls” to complete the addition and confirm the conception of this brilliant new urban space. Bob Kennedy, recently retired from careers in journalism and the Canadian Army, is Managing Editor of The Fife and Drum. He lives a short walk from the Visitor Centre.
Bob Kennedy, recently retired from careers in journalism and the Canadian Army, is Managing Editor of The Fife and Drum. He lives a short walk from the Visitor Centre.
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