IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO
HERITAGE ACT
R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND
CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
153 AND 185 EASTERN AVENUE
NOTICE OF INTENTION TO DESIGNATE
THE PROPERTY
TAKE NOTICE that Council for the
City of Toronto intends to designate the property, including the lands,
buildings and structures thereon known municipally as 153 and 185 Eastern
Avenue under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.O.18,
as amended, as a property of cultural heritage value or interest.
Reasons for Designation
The Dominion Wheel & Foundries Complex
The properties at 153 and 185 Eastern Avenue are
worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for
their cultural heritage value, and meet Ontario Regulation 9/06, the provincial
criteria prescribed for municipal designation under all three categories of
design, associative and contextual value.
Description
The properties at 153 and 185 Eastern Avenue are
located in the West Don Lands neighbourhood, on the south side of Eastern
Avenue between Rolling Mills Road and Bayview Avenue. The buildings were
originally part of a larger industrial complex for the Dominion Wheel &
Foundries Company that spanned from Cherry Street to (former) Overend Street.
The grouping is associated with the rail and industrial uses predominant in the
surrounding area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and contains a
collection of two-storey buildings originally constructed between 1929 and
1953. They were used for industrial purposes until the late 1980s, when they
were among several properties expropriated by the province for a redevelopment
initiative intended to provide affordable housing in a new mixed-use
neighbourhood. The project did not move forward, and the buildings are
currently vacant.
The properties at 153, 169, 171 and 185 Eastern
Avenue were listed on the City of Toronto's Inventory of Heritage Properties
(now the Heritage Register) on October 1, 2004. As a consequence of some
demolition activity by the province in early 2021, both the buildings located
at 169 and 171 Eastern Avenue have been removed, although sufficient material
has been salvaged to permit a reconstruction of the north elevation of the
building located at 169 Eastern Avenue.
Two remaining properties contribute to the
understanding of the Dominion Wheel & Foundries complex, as follows:
·
153 Eastern Avenue: a
two-storey rectangular industrial building known as the "Cleaning
Room", constructed for the Dominion Wheel & Foundries Co. Ltd. to the
designs of engineering firm Proctor, Redfern & Laughlin in 1953.
·
185 Eastern Avenue: a
two-storey rectangular industrial building known as the "Machine
Shop", likely constructed c.1930. Significant additions were made to the
building in 1940 (north addition linking the Machine Shop with the Storage
Building to the north), c.1946 (west addition) and 1947 (east addition), all to
the designs of engineering firm James, Proctor & Redfern.
Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
The properties at 153 and 185 Eastern Avenue
have design value as representative examples of a mid-20th-century vernacular
industrial style. As articulated on the Cleaning Room at 153 Eastern Avenue and
the Machine Shop at 185 Eastern Avenue, this vernacular expression is typified
by restrained classical features, including symmetrical composition of bays and
piers, brick piers with concrete footings, pediments formed by gabled
rooflines, and concrete window sills. These buildings also prominently feature
large, multi-paned industrial steel windows that maximize natural light
exposure, and which are similarly representative of the mid-century industrial
architectural style. The architectural style of these properties is rare within
the surrounding context of the West Don Lands.
The subject properties once functioned together
as part of a larger industrial site spanning from Cherry Street to (former)
Overend Street. Together, they are a rare surviving example of an industrial
complex typology in the West Don Lands neighbourhood.
The former Dominion Wheel & Foundries
complex has value through its direct associations with Dominion Wheel &
Foundries Ltd. The company was established in Toronto in 1913 and played an
important role in supplying rail and train parts to Canada's burgeoning rail
industry in the first half of the 20th century. Shortly after incorporation,
the company moved onto a large site at the southeast corner of Cherry Street
and Eastern Avenue and gradually expanded their operations eastward through the
early half of the 20th century. In 1929, the company purchased a large tract of
land from the CNOR (including the subject properties at 153-185 Eastern
Avenue), and proceeded to construct a series of buildings related to the
company's principal operations as a foundry for the railway industry.
The complex has historic value as it yields
information about the historical development of the West Don Lands
neighbourhood, which evolved from its earliest use as a Government Reserve
fortifying the eastern edge of York, to the burgeoning immigrant neighbourhood
of Corktown in the mid-19th century, to its establishment as an important
industrial centre in the city in the late-19th and early-20th centuries
following the introduction of the railways. Due to its location on former CNOR
lands, proximity to the rail corridor, and original use manufacturing equipment
for the rail industry, the subject site also yields information about the rise
and subsequent decline of the rail industry in Canada through the 19th and 20th
centuries.
The complex has further associative value as it
demonstrates the work of the prolific Toronto-based engineering firm of James,
Proctor & Redfern (later Proctor, Redfern & Laughlin), who were
responsible for the building program at the Dominion Wheel & Foundries
complex during its period of expansion from the 1920s to the 1950s. Established
c.1920 by founding partners architect Edgar Augustus James (1874-1927), and
engineers Edward Moore Proctor (1888-1972) and Wesley Blaine Redfern
(1886-1960), the firm was instrumental in civil engineering and city-building
in Southern Ontario's growing municipalities in the early 20th century. The
firm is credited with a varied portfolio of projects, including firehalls,
industrial buildings, bridges, dams, sewage treatment plants, storm water
management systems, and environmental engineering projects. The firm was also
responsible for Hamilton's High Level Bridge in the early 1930s, in
collaboration with celebrated architect John Lyle.
As a former industrial complex built between
c.1912 and 1953 on former CNOR lands and in proximity to the extant rail
corridors to the south and east, the Dominion Wheel & Foundries complex has
contextual value for its functional and historical links to its surroundings.
While the surrounding area reflects major redevelopment and master-planning
projects from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the Don Valley
Parkway overpasses directly to the north and the surrounding high-density
mixed-use West Don Lands neighbourhood, the site is part of a larger post-industrial
landscape within the West Don Lands. Surviving structures from this landscape
include the former Canadian National Railways Office Building located to the
southwest at 453 Cherry Street (and originally part of the same large CNOR
property as the Dominion Wheel & Foundries complex), the Consumers' Gas Co.
building to the southwest at 51 Parliament Street, the Gooderham & Worts
Distillery to the southwest, the Cherry Street Interlocking Station at 385
Cherry Street, and the extant rail corridors to the south and east. Many of
these buildings have been adaptively reused.
As a large site reflecting a mid-20th-century
industrial typology, and as the last remaining former industrial complex in the
surrounding area, the complex is a landmark within the West Don Lands
neighbourhood. The site also terminates the view north on Tannery Road.
Design or Physical Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
properties at 153 and 185 Eastern Avenue being representative of
mid-20th-century vernacular industrial style, forming a rare surviving
20th-century industrial complex:
·
The setback,
placement and orientation of the building complex on the south side of Eastern
Avenue between Rolling Mills Road and Bayview Avenue, which expresses the
functional arrangement of its various building components and the relationship
of the complex to its surroundings
·
The two-storey brick
streetwall formed by the extant buildings along the perimeter of the site,
including Rolling Mills Road, Eastern Avenue, and Palace Street
153 Eastern Avenue: Cleaning Room
·
The building's
location, placement (tight to the north and west property lines) and
orientation within the larger Dominion Wheel & Foundries complex
·
The scale, form and
massing of the two-storey, rectangular building with a shallow-gable roof
·
The building's
materials and their application, including red brick cladding laid in a common
bond and concrete detailing of the window sills and foundation
·
The symmetrical
design and arrangement of the building's elevations as a series of piers and
bays (four bays on the north and south elevations, six bays on the east and
west elevations), which express the classical proportions typical of
mid-century industrial design
·
The design,
arrangement and placement of the building's window openings, and the extant
large industrial steel multi-paned window units (some of the original units
have been demolished)
·
The large, two-storey
entrance openings on the building's east and south elevations
Interior
·
The interior design
of 153 Eastern Avenue including:
·
The double-height
open interior space with exposed brick walls, concrete floor slab and steel
roof trusses, purlins, and exposed wood roof decking
·
The interior fitments
and equipment of 153 Eastern Avenue including:
·
Travelling gantry
crane manufactured by Sir William Arrol & Co. Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland
·
Secondary steel
structure to support the gantry crane
185 Eastern Avenue: Machine Shop
·
The building's
location, placement along the south property line and orientation within the
larger Dominion Wheel & Foundries complex
·
The scale, form and
massing of the two-storey building with shallow-gable roofs
·
The building's
materials and their application, including red brick cladding laid in a common
bond and concrete details including window sills and foundation
·
The design and
arrangement of the building's elevations as a series of piers and bays (four
bays on the west elevation, five bays on the east elevation, and thirteen bays
on the south elevation)
·
The design and
arrangement of the building's window openings, which contain large industrial
steel multi-paned window units, and feature concrete sills and steel lintels
·
Large entrance
openings on the building's north, south and west elevations
Interior
·
The interior design
of 185 Eastern Avenue including:
·
The double-height
open interior space with exposed brick walls and concrete floor slab
·
The exposed
structural steel beams supporting steel roof purlins and exposed wood roof
decking of the original building and west addition
·
The exposed
structural steel roof trusses, girts and wood roof decking of the eastern
addition
·
The interior fitments
and equipment of 185 Eastern Avenue including:
·
The secondary steel
structures for the gantry cranes in the original building and eastern addition
·
The railway tracks
embedded in the concrete flooring
Historical or Associative Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
subject properties for their association with the Dominion Wheel &
Foundries Company and reflect their former use as an industrial complex important
to the historical development of the West Don Lands neighbourhood:
·
The setback,
placement and orientation of the building complex on the south side of Eastern
Avenue, and in particular the orientation of 185 Eastern Avenue, which is
functionally and visually oriented in the direction of the former rail yards to
the south
·
The large industrial
window units and double-height door openings of 153 and 185 Eastern Avenue
·
The interior fitments
and equipment of 153 and 185 Eastern Avenue including:
·
The secondary steel
structures to support gantry cranes in both buildings
·
The travelling gantry
crane manufactured by Sir William Arrol & Co. Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland in
153 Eastern Avenue
·
The railway tracks
embedded in the concrete slab of 185 Eastern Avenue
Contextual Value
Attributes that contribute to the cultural
heritage value of the property at 153-185 Eastern Avenue being part of a
20th-century industrial complex that is historically and functionally linked to
its setting and a landmark:
·
The setback, placement
and orientation of the building complex on the south side of Eastern Avenue
·
The placement and
orientation of 185 Eastern Avenue, which terminates the view north on Tannery
Road
Notice of Objection to the Notice of Intention to Designate
Notice of an objection to the Notice of
Intention to Designate the Property may be served on the City Clerk, Attention:
Administrator, Secretariat, City Clerk's Office, Toronto City Hall, 2nd Floor
West, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2N2.; Email: hertpb@toronto.ca within thirty days of May 16, 2023, which is June 15, 2023. The notice
of objection to the Notice of Intention to Designate the Property must set out
the reason(s) for the objection and all relevant facts.
Getting Additional Information:
Further information in respect of the Notice of
Intention to Designate the Property is available from the City of Toronto at:
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2023.PH3.12
Dated at the City of Toronto on May 16, 2023.
John D. Elvidge
for City Clerk