Northern Light
Superstar
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Toronto Metro Hall Fire Station & Child Care Centre | 7.62m | 2s | City of Toronto | Diamond Schmitt
- Thread starter Northern Light
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rdaner
Senior Member
^Wasn’t Farmboy rumoured to be going in there?
nightstreak
Active Member
Ugh, this looks terrible. I've always enjoyed the little parkette here. I get that fire stations are needed downtown but for a giant concrete pad (and surface parking lot!!) to take up the space of a park in a part of town already deficient of green space, is egregious.
Northern Light
Superstar
True.
However, remember the trade here, this is a replacement station for 260 adelaide:
Not exactly a looker either......
It's being replaced by a 61s tower with affordable housing, which is the subject of this thread:
260 Adelaide West | 196.8m | 61s | CentreCourt | Sweeny &Co
I found a reason for the delays here in the latest Housing Tracker... https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2025/ra/bgrd/backgroundfile-254369.pdf Its been impacted by Hospital Flight Path MZO. @HousingNowTO
In turn the parking lot just to the north:
Is being turned into a park, which is the subject of this thread:
New Park at 229 Richmond West | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Gow Hastings
As part of refining the design for this Park, the City has a survey out, which is open until October 7th (next Monday). https://cotsurvey.chkmkt.com/?e=414011&d=l&h=9F1BC40363FF8BF&l=en From the above:
nightstreak
Active Member
Thanks for the summary, I'm aware of all those details but this new park was going to go ahead independently of the fire station relocation. They're different parcels. When Wawatesi was announced, it was to address the deficiency of green space in the neighbourhood. The fire station could've stayed where it is though I would've loved it if the park went all the way to Adelaide instead.True.
However, remember the trade here, this is a replacement station for 260 adelaide:
View attachment 689743
Not exactly a looker either......
Its being replaced by a 61s tower with affordable housing, which is the subject of this thread:
260 Adelaide West | 196.8m | 61s | CentreCourt | Sweeny &Co
I found a reason for the delays here in the latest Housing Tracker... https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2025/ra/bgrd/backgroundfile-254369.pdf Its been impacted by Hospital Flight Path MZO. @HousingNowTOurbantoronto.ca
In turn the parking lot just to the north:
View attachment 689744
Is being turned into a park, which is the subject of this thread:
New Park at 229 Richmond West | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Gow Hastings
As part of refining the design for this Park, the City has a survey out, which is open until October 7th (next Monday). https://cotsurvey.chkmkt.com/?e=414011&d=l&h=9F1BC40363FF8BF&l=en From the above:
When I heard of a Metro Hall fire station, it made sense both for the location and to reenergize the use of Metro Hall but it's just so terribly executed. Does it need surface parking for cars? Could it not retain trees on either side? A lack of trees is not for visibility because those 2 pavillions already block sight lines. Besides beautifying, trees help mitigate noise.
An earlier rendering you shared showed trees. See this is fine:
What's happening to the dog-bunnies?
UtakataNoAnnex
Superstar
^I've always had the temptation of taking one of those home with me... >.<
nightstreak
Active Member
Now's your chance!
AlexBozikovic
Active Member
A good project in principle, and this was never going to be a great work of architecture, but… oof.
junctionist
Senior Member
It’s ridiculous that they couldn’t at least make the garage doors and fire station signage symmetrical to compliment the original architecture. Is this still a Diamond Schmitt project? It looks like a random home renovation contractor’s work.
TossYourJacket
Senior Member
Yeah based on a signage rendering that was part of an application in 2019. Obviously a lot has changed since then. Personally I'd love for them to put a Farm Boy in the concourse but it's been so long I don't think we can still assume that the Farm Boy and LCBO (because that was the other major tenant) from that rendering are happening.
Yeah this is gonna be hideous. The brown cladding will look awful next to the vaguely pink cladding of Metro Hall and there's no symmetry to the design. Also gonna be a ton of fun for anyone working on the North side of Metro Hall having to hear fire trucks sound their alarms constantly all day every day. Honestly this all should have been part of a broader upgrade of the building to improve soundproofing, integrate the fire station properly, etc. But the city doesn't have the money to do that so we get this mediocre-at-best mess.