Construction has started on the ambitious
Fort York Visitors Centre that the city hopes will renew interest in the 17.4-hectare patch of mostly grass where Toronto was born.
The $18-million project has been designed by Vancouver firm
Patkau Architects, who are working with Toronto's
Kearns Mancini.
"I always tell people, Fort York represents the city's founding landscape," says Karen Black, manager of the city's Museum Services department, "and there aren't many cities that still have right at their core the founding landscape intact. But most people think Fort York consists of the little walled seven-acre site."
In addition to recreating the original shoreline just north of the Gardiner Expressway with its weathered steel facade, the new building will enable the site's administration to move out of the old officers' quarters and school, which in turn will be opened to the public.
Funding for the project has come from the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport ($5 million), the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund ($5 million) and there are hopes of raising $6 million privately. One million dollars has already been donated by the
W. Garfield Weston Foundation, intended to be spent on the grounds at the north of the property known as Garrison Common, the site of a battlefield from the War of 1812.
Work is expected to take 18 months, with an opening scheduled for April, 2014.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Karen Black
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