Fort York's $18 million visitor centre will portray site as it once was – flanking Lake Ontario shore
The Toronto Star, December 22, 2009
Plans to make Fort York a well-connected part of the city, rather than an increasingly isolated plot of land flanked by road and rail, have moved another step forward.
"Fork York has been secluded for years," said David O'Hara, museum administrator at the Fork York National Historic Site. "We are going through this transitional period," he said, adding that the fort has a chance to grow with and become part of the expansion at its borders.
The city announced Friday that Vancouver's Patkau Architects Inc., with Kearns Mancini Architects Inc. of Toronto, had won the competition to create a new visitor centre.
Of 31 architectural firms that expressed interest, five were invited to submit designs, and four submitted proposals for a jury review.
The centre will cost about $18 million, with construction expected to start in late 2010 or early 2011 for completion in 2012, the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. Toronto has pledged $5.3 million and the federal government has approved a $4 million grant.
"One of our big challenges was how (to) tell the story of a fort that was founded on that site, because it was on the water's edge," O'Hara said. At its establishment in 1793, the fort rested on the shore of Lake Ontario – but the water is now 750 metres away, thanks to infilling and shoreline development.
The design's reanimation of the original water's edge excited one of the project's big supporters, Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone.
"You are bringing the interpretation of the fort to where people are, in an historical, interpretive way, but at the same time with respect and remaining truthful to the fort as it was," Pantalone said.
The visitor centre will be built outside the old fort's walls, alongside the elevated Gardiner Expressway. It will create a hub for visitors to the entire 17.5-hectare historic site, which also encompasses the former shoreline to the south, the Garrison Common battlefield, military cemeteries at Strachan Ave. and Victoria Memorial Square, the Fort York armoury and Garrison Creek parkland being developed to the east.
According to the architects, the visitor centre's design aims to create a "new escarpment" of weathering steel, "re-establishing the original sense of a defensive site," with a "simple foreshore of grasses" to remind visitors of the fort's original placement overlooking the harbour.
O'Hara said the next step is to sit down with the winning team and finalize the details to make sure the project stays in line with the budget.
Running Fork York, including on- and offsite research, costs about $1.3 million annually. The fort will remain open to the public during the visitor centre's construction.
Source: The Toronto Star