Ossington Fire Hall restoration project

[AlbertC]

More details:

Ossington BIA - 100 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M5G 1P5 | Websites.ca

MEET ME ON OSSINGTON - Ossington BIA | The Ossington Avenue BIA - Information about Ossington, and the upcoming Ossfest and The Ossington Crit July 23, 2016 | Ossington BIA

www.ossingtonbia.ca

WHAT WE'RE DOING

The Ossington Clocktower Project has embarked on creative thinking about the historic, City-owned Fire Hall #9 site at 16 Ossington Avenue, with an aim of preserving this important heritage structure and enhancing its attributes as a community resource.

For more detail, think of the site involving two main components:

1) The 'Exterior': the building as considered in its externally visible, architectural aspect;

2) The 'Lot': the surrounding marshalling yard; and

At present, we think it would be great to do the following:

Regarding (1) the Exterior: make sure Fire Hall #9 is in a state of good repair and able to stand for the next 140 years; reveal and restore the original, 1878 facade conception of Stewart and Strickland, with its brickwork and ornamentation; reconstruct the clockhouse pediment, with four-direction clockworks; and introduce historical plaquework to commemorate Fire Hall #9 in the context of the Toronto Fire community.

Regarding (2) the Lot: reallocate local Green P parking capacity away from this small, 20-space lot, and toward some of the extensive recently constructed or potential local parking facilities; re-landscape the existing parking lot as a much-needed outdoor public community gathering space.

Article from August 2019:

Ossington community organizations search for old fire hall clock tower’s clock

The city has also joined the quest to locate four clocks that used to perch on an Ossington Fire Hall five decades ago

www.theglobeandmail.com

City planning, transportation services and archives are among the municipal departments that will be assisting the community groups, following Councillor Joe Cressy’s July motion, which passed in council. Mr. Cressy, of Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York, said he expects staff will report on opportunities for revitalizing the parking lot in early 2020.

Past:

Present:

Artist's illustration of potential concepts for future planning:

 

[AlbertC]

Toronto Architectural Conservancy - TO Built = Ossington Men's Withdrawal Management Centre

www.acotoronto.ca

 

[Northern Light]

Great little project............can we rebuild the old Toronto Fire HQ while we're at it?

There's a forgettable office tower there today...........what's a billion or so to buy and demo'it? LOL

From TPL collection here: https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-2193&R=DC-PICTURES-R-2193


To think, we replaced that, with this:

From Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/4s2rpo

 

[LUVIT!]

Urban renewal at its worst! Meanwhile the Ossignton Firehall 'rebirth' is a very wonderful idea. Will there be a fundraiser ?

 

[AlbertC]

Urban renewal at its worst! Meanwhile the Ossignton Firehall 'rebirth' is a very wonderful idea. Will there be a fundraiser ?

It's expected that majority of the funding comes from the city, although there should contributions from the BIA and community groups as well. Hullmark and Bellwoods Brewery are also on the planning committee.

 

[LUVIT!]

Thank you!

 

[DSCToronto]

I assume they never found the 4 clocks.

 

[AlbertC]

I reckon that finding the original clocks is a near impossible task right now. The Globe and Mail article does mention that the Ossington Community Association have started prospecting ideas for finding replacements. They've been quote to be between $25,000 and $75,000 for a full set with the same size.