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by the Ryerson Graduate Studio Planning Team* If you look north from the Garrison Common you can probably see it: a hulking mass looming over the rail corridor. Built in the 1920’s, the Wellington Destructor (677 Wellington Street West) was once a high temperature garbage incinerator, but has sat abandoned since the mid-1980s. This fall, a group of graduate students from Ryerson’s School of Urban and Regional Planning investigated this local landmark, which currently provides shelter for feral cats and winter housing for contractors of the adjacent City Works Yard. Under the direction of Dr. Pamela Robinson and Jeff Evenson from The Friends of Fort York, the students undertook a creative and thoughtful investigation into how future city-builders can breathe new life into the Destructor. To this end, they produced a comprehensive History and Policy Review, summarizing the most important considerations for the Wellington Destructor, and developed a Future Life Framework designed to inform redevelopment proposals for the site. The group also proposed three possible futures for the sitethe “Delicious Destructor”, the “Weird & Wonderful Destructor”, and the “Living Destructor”- each informed by the neighbourhood context, the site’s relationship to Fort York National Historic Site, and the provincial community hubs framework released in August 2015. It is an exciting time for the Fort York neighbourhood. With new infrastructure and cultural amenities on the way, Toronto has truly cast its spotlight on the past, present, and future of this dynamic area. This student-led visioning project has shown that it is possible to hold space for the future and dream big about the community’s incredible heritage assets.
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