Ont Gov't building at 880 Bay, at Grosvenor St (ORC, 44s?, WZMH)

[DSC]

Yes, Burton Hall (an old nurses residence I think) was ghastly and will soon be demolished. My GP was also there and the whole of the Family practice Unit has now moved to the old Ontario Archives building on Grenville Street just south of the WC Hospital building.

 

[Thernan]

They've now ripped down the old bit of Women's College that is behind 880 Bay. Some progress but the office building at 880 is still occupied. I suspect that they are waiting to move those folks over to 77 Grenville once the floors Women's College temporarily took up there are moved over into the new structure next to Burano.

Maybe a start of demolition on that part later this summer?

 

[mkerian]

They've now ripped down the old bit of Women's College that is behind 880 Bay. Some progress but the office building at 880 is still occupied. I suspect that they are waiting to move those folks over to 77 Grenville once the floors Women's College temporarily took up there are moved over into the new structure next to Burano.

Maybe a start of demolition on that part later this summer?

The office staff at 880 Bay are scheduled to move into 77 Grenville in November of 2013. Hopefully that will remain on schedule.

No idea on the date of demolition for 880 Bay, but it may be a long while before anything happens. I expect once the demolition starts however, there will be more concrete plans for what will replace the two buildings.

 

[buildup]

880 Bay

This building has been boarded up for some time, is the proposal still on track or has it fallen victim to some austerity plan?

 

[innsertnamehere]

My understanding is that this got cut years ago. Given how the government will likely not be adding a significant amount of employees in the coming years either, I don't see it resurfacing any time soon.

 

[Ramako]

Presumably the approvals still remain in place. Why not sell the parcel to a developer? Build a mixed use tower and leaseback some office space in the new development.

 

[taal]

The government took over all 500,000 square feet at the old Sears building on Jarvis, were some of those workers from here ? Infrastructure Ontario is what got moved in here but not sure from what locations.


Keep in mind the idea behind this tower was not necessarily to increase office owned by the government, far from it ! It was to consolidate many other sites under 1 roof, and likely shrink square footage per employee in the process.
With that said, the optics of the project won't fly at all, not for the next few years to say the least ..

 

[innsertnamehere]

There is no way the sears building is 500k square feet.. it can't be bigger than 300k. my understanding was that the province did all the upgrades to it to sell it as well.

 

[taal]

There is no way the sears building is 500k square feet.. it can't be bigger than 300k. my understanding was that the province did all the upgrades to it to sell it as well.

To be exact it is 455 K ... it is a huge building:
http://www.infrastructureontario.ca/Templates/Projects.aspx?id=2147488013&langtype=1033

The retrofit and modernization of the 455,000 square foot government building located at 222 Jarvis Street in Toronto, Ontario is one of North America’s largest ‘green’ building retrofit projects and will transform the iconic 222 Jarvis Street building into a state-of-the-art energy efficient, environmentally-sustainable LEED® certified 'green' building.

Previously, the Ministry of Government Services had approximately 2,300 staff in 26 different locations. In March of 2013, 1300 Ministry of Government Service's (MGS) staff settled into the new state-of-the-art facility. MGS staff from Infrastructure Technology Services, Corporate Security, Government Services Cluster and Central Agencies Cluster now fully occupy the Lower Main through to the 6th Floor of the building. An additional 1000 staff will join their colleagues with the completion of the 7th, 8th and 9th Floors in March 2014.

And that works out to 137 square feet per employee, which is much closer to the new standard, whereas back in the day you'd see 200-400. So its pretty clear the government is retaining this building for the long term, with 3300 employees.

 

[mkerian]

880 Bay Street will be torn down at some point in the future. The interior fixtures etc all need to be removed, plus clean up on the interior has yet to be completed

Employees from this building moved to 900 Bay, 77 Grenville, and 222 Jarvis.

The overall plan is to reduce government office size and centralize operations. Essentially reversing a plan from a couple decades ago, when regional offices were set up. They realized how difficult it was to work with colleagues in North Bay, Peterborough, London etc.

So 880 Bay will be rebuilt at some point. How big, no one knows. Employees will always be around to fill it as there are tons of leases the Gov't would love to lose.

They would never allow a residential/commercial space to be built, as the intention is to have a complete block of government offices for logistical and security reasons. So once this building is levelled, it may sit for quite some time. It's really unfortunate, as many government office spaces are really run down, old, and set up in a way that blocks light, communication etc. So having a bright new space would be fantastic for moral.

222 Jarvis was a great example of this, as it's an incredible modern space (by gov't standards) that has lots of areas to relax and hang out with colleagues.

Of course, any money spent on giving employees adequate work environments would be a waste of taxpayer money

 

[taal]

880 Bay Street will be torn down at some point in the future. The interior fixtures etc all need to be removed, plus clean up on the interior has yet to be completed

Employees from this building moved to 900 Bay, 77 Grenville, and 222 Jarvis.

The overall plan is to reduce government office size and centralize operations. Essentially reversing a plan from a couple decades ago, when regional offices were set up. They realized how difficult it was to work with colleagues in North Bay, Peterborough, London etc.

So 880 Bay will be rebuilt at some point. How big, no one knows. Employees will always be around to fill it as there are tons of leases the Gov't would love to lose.

They would never allow a residential/commercial space to be built, as the intention is to have a complete block of government offices for logistical and security reasons. So once this building is levelled, it may sit for quite some time. It's really unfortunate, as many government office spaces are really run down, old, and set up in a way that blocks light, communication etc. So having a bright new space would be fantastic for moral.

222 Jarvis was a great example of this, as it's an incredible modern space (by gov't standards) that has lots of areas to relax and hang out with colleagues.

Of course, any money spent on giving employees adequate work environments would be a waste of taxpayer money

I'm sure they'd be viewed that way ... a waste that is ... which is a shame ... just like when they quote salaries of top government executives of various crown corporations ... everyone gets in an uproar ... when in many cases the salaries are in line or less than the private world.

I love how most folks somehow believe government works should be paid less, and at the same time expect good service ... you can pay less ... and correspondingly get the worst employees possible, as of course the rest would stick to higher paying corporate jobs. Office space is similar, companies are now going out of their way to make sure there spaces attract new employees.

 

[Bayer]

222 Jarvis was a great example of this, as it's an incredible modern space (by gov't standards) that has lots of areas to relax and hang out with colleagues.

Of course, any money spent on giving employees adequate work environments would be a waste of taxpayer money

It depends on your point of view - and on the type of work you do. I have clients who just moved there and they are not particularly happy with the new setup. They are professionals who had individual offices before, and now they are in cubicles, which is inappropriate in their case.

 

[taal]

This is a general thing many business are going through so I wouldn't say that's specific to the public sector.

 

[mrxbombastic]

Noticed that the roof of MacDonald Block 900 Bay IIRC was lit up red these past few nights. I'll try to snap a pic this evening. Does anyone know if this is a public art piece or something else?

I've never noticed this feature before

PS 900 Bay is the tall one:
http://www.wikito.org/images/thumb/1/1e/900bay1.jpg/400px-900bay1.jpg

Also sorry if this is the wrong thread but it seemed most reasonable.

 

[mrxbombastic]

Taken tonight from Queen's park fountain area looking at south east.

Lights go around the top.

Anyways just kinda cool. Government building can be hip at night too you know!