ProjectEnd
Superstar
Forget a tower:
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- Thread starter rdaner
- Start date
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Towered
Superstar
They could move the library branch in City Hall into the old building. Isn't it a smallish branch anyway?The Report to Executive was adopted today, with Amendments:
View attachment 628398
The Star reporting on the above:
To save Old City Hall would require hundreds of millions of dollars. Council wants to explore new ways to raise that money
Executive committee passed a motion Tuesday that will see staff report on using private equity and philanthropy as sources to turn the landmark into a museum.www.thestar.com
Northern Light
Superstar
That's been talked about lots and is in the report.
It is, but if it were shifted it would likely be upsized to a District branch.
Monarch Butterfly
Superstar
The old city hall is a 7-story building. Couldn't some of the upper floors be used as offices? Better than leasing floors in a commercial office building, if the city needs office space.
The lower floors could be restaurants or stores. Maybe an entrance for the Ontario Line's Queen Station?
The lower floors could be restaurants or stores. Maybe an entrance for the Ontario Line's Queen Station?
Richard White
Senior Member
Walter,
It was already offices on the upper floors. The Crown and TPS had offices there for Courthouse related items and I know this as a family member worked at Old City Hall in an office.
Stores and restaurants would be inappropriate in Old City Hall given its provenance and I am not adept on heritage legislation but it is a national historic site under the auspices of Parks Canada. I am not sure you could modify it to include a subway station entrance without alot of red tape.
Towered
Superstar
Plus it's literally a 2 minute walk from a subway station...
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Given the preponderance of window air-conditioners, updating the HVAC systems (while respecting the heritage interiors) will be a major challenge.
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rbt
Senior Member
Indeed. I probably wouldn't bother. Get a stack of the super-wide hanging heat-pumps designed for old New York apartment buildings and upgrade the electrical instead.
5142416
New Member
With TMU expanding to 2 Queen E, what about the City signing a long term lease at $1.00 with the university? I imagine there must be some sort of use for that building that would be beneficial to a university.
Monarch Butterfly
Superstar
Do the old city hall council chambers still exist? Where they used as a court room? The old chambers and court rooms could be used as lecture rooms for Toronto Metropolitan University.
Irishmonk
Senior Member
If I had a billion dollars I'd donate half of it to spearhead the conversion of Old City Hall into a Canadian History Museum--with a strong emphasis on Toronto and Ontario. For the first time since 1812 we are under existential threat from our previous ally directly to the south. A recent poll (can't remember which one) found that nearly 1/2 of all young people would either favour or accept an absorption into that country to the south. It seems that young people these days have no meaningful perception of, nor any strong feelings for the very country upon which they tread, sleep and receive their wifi from. This has to change.
One thing that we can do is to create an impressive national history museum in a grand old building located at the center of our largest and most prominent city. The museum would have to be dazzling, comprehensive, immersive, highly informative as well as serve as one of our country's national symbols. The building itself is already gorgeous, and it's located on two subway lines, next to major tourist attractions
I think there needs to be a strong media campaign to at least rattle the jewelry of the powers that be and their plutocratic overlords. This needs to happen, the sooner the better. I can't personally do that much from my snowed in bungalow in fake London but I'll do what I can.
Anyone else on board with this?
One thing that we can do is to create an impressive national history museum in a grand old building located at the center of our largest and most prominent city. The museum would have to be dazzling, comprehensive, immersive, highly informative as well as serve as one of our country's national symbols. The building itself is already gorgeous, and it's located on two subway lines, next to major tourist attractions
I think there needs to be a strong media campaign to at least rattle the jewelry of the powers that be and their plutocratic overlords. This needs to happen, the sooner the better. I can't personally do that much from my snowed in bungalow in fake London but I'll do what I can.
Anyone else on board with this?
Midtown Hank
Active Member
With so much remote work, I would think there is an opportunity to turn Old City Hall back into New City Hall. I know there is a fondness for Nathan Phillips Square and the existing City Hall, but imo the Old City Hall is iconic. That would certainly free up a large space (where the existing City Hall is located) and invite a new use for that. It would make a brilliant location for a major theatre of the arts (maybe a home for the National Ballet), which currently rents space at the Four Season's Centre of the Arts from the Canadian Opera Company. Also, the national Ballet could consolidate in one location as they have facilities on Jarvis. Anyway, just a thought.
Doppleganger
Active Member
I'd argue that New City Hall is at least as iconic as the old version, if not more so. I recall an image of it even appearing in a Star Trek episode(maybe 'City on the Edge of Forever' from the original series or perhaps The Next Generation). Both buildings are wonderful representations of the eras in which they were built, and I'd equally protest any significant exterior alteration or demolition of either building. As for Nathan Phillips Square, granted it has issues which the redevelopment a few years back never fully addressed, but it is an integral element of Revell's original design and in a city with few large open urban spaces, remains an important one with great potential. Erecting any significant structure on it would destroy that space and permanently mar Revell's intended sightlines of City Hall.
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A Torontonian Now
Senior Member
We do have what is notionally a national history museum, and it's pretty great, the Canadian Museum of History. But it's the renamed Museum of Civilization, and retains the broader programming focus that to Torontonians, would feel more consistent with some aspects of the ROM.
I agree that a Museum of Canadian History is actually a gap, and this would be a great place for it (if not in Ottawa).