U of T, ROM agree on purchase of Queen's Park property

[Ramako]

http://www.news.utoronto.ca/campus-news/u-of-t-rom.html

By Laurie Stephens, posted Monday, January 26, 2009

The University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) announced Jan. 26 that they have reached an agreement for the university to purchase the property at 90 Queen's Park from the ROM. This is a landmark agreement between two public institutions at the centre of Toronto's cultural and educational district.

The purchase of 90 Queen's Park will provide the university with a development site in the heart of the St. George campus. The purchase agreement also ensures that the property will continue to be used for institutional purposes. The site had been used as the McLaughlin Planetarium from 1968 to 1995.

Currently the museum uses the facility for office space and collections storage and has maintained a presence since the property was transferred to the ROM by U of T in 1967. Under the agreement the ROM will continue to occupy the premises until development takes place. The ROM will have the option to lease significant space in any future development.

"This is a win-win-win for the U of T, the ROM and the public," said Professor David Naylor, president of the university. "This acquisition will deliver long-term benefits to our students and our community and provide much-needed room for expansion of U of T's academic facilities. We are very pleased to have been able to work with the ROM on this historic purchase."

"The redevelopment of 90 Queen's Park has been an essential element of our Renaissance ROM strategy from the beginning," said ROM board-of-trustees chair Sal Badali. " This sale supports the capital goals of Renaissance ROM, provides the opportunity to meet our future space needs and, importantly, allows the property to remain institutional in use - a wish of the community that will be well served by development on this site by the University of Toronto."

The university will begin developing a plan for the academic use of the site. Future use will ensure that development of the site will improve its relation to surrounding amenities that will benefit the community.

The sale, for $22 million, has been approved by the governing bodies of both institutions and is subject to the fulfillment of a number of conditions prior to closing, including consent from the City of Toronto for severance of the land.

 

[Conrad Black]

Good to see this site won't become another condo.

 

[unimaginative2]

U of T gets room to grow, ROM gets out of a jam



JOHN BARBER

January 27, 2009

It's no more newsworthy to report the death of yet another condominium project in Toronto today than it is to note that dog bites man. But man bit dog on Queen's Park Crescent yesterday, with a commendably fatal result. News that the University of Toronto has purchased No. 90 from the Royal Ontario Museum means a definitive end to the museum's controversial plan to replace the mothballed McLaughlin Planetarium with a 46-storey residential tower.

"This is a win-win-win for the U of T, the ROM and the public," said university president David Naylor. The museum gets $22-million to help pay off the $84-million left owing to the provincial government after its $270-million expansion, the university gets badly needed room to grow and the public gets relief from a persistent threat to despoil a treasured landscape.

The museum tried twice to develop the site, withdrawing the first proposal shortly after a heated public meeting revealed public opposition that, according to ROM director William Thorsell at the time, was "too deep and broad" to overcome.

Eighteen months later, however, Mr. Thorsell said the museum was considering several proposals to redevelop the planetarium for residential use. Considering the small size of the site, just south of the museum proper, another tower was the only foreseeable result.
Print Edition - Section Front

Although proponents cited public opposition, resistance from the university next door was likely more influential in stalling the museum's scheme. The $22-million the university has agreed to pay to re-acquire 90 Queen's Park Crescent, which it transferred to the museum free of charge in 1967, is roughly the same as the net profit ROM once hoped to make by speculating in residential real estate.

"In my view it's a very fair price," said ROM board of trustees chairman Sal Badali, adding the expectations of even greater yields were based on the achievement of a clearly unpopular rezoning. "That wasn't going to happen," he said. "So here we've got a great deal."

Although the university was never shy about criticizing the scheme, it never previously revealed itself as a potential customer for the site. Now that the deal is done, the obvious question is why it took so long.

The site could be incorporated into ongoing plans to expand the nearby U of T law school. But nothing is settled yet, according to university spokesman Robert Steiner.

"We don't know exactly what we're going to use it for," he said, "The only thing we know is that we have a massive space crunch at the St. George campus. ... We're landlocked."

One possibility, according to Mr. Badali, is that the museum could end up leasing space in any new development that will remain wholly institutional - "a wish of the community that will be well served by development on this site.'"

jbarber@globeandmail.com

CORRECTION

A column published last week stated that Rob MacIsaac quit his post as head of Metrolinx, the provincial transportation agency. In fact, Mr. MacIsaac will remain with Metrolinx on a part-time basis after he becomes president of Mohawk College next week.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The sale of the site helps the Museum financially in the short term. But I think it probably makes future expansion - an east-west linking wing similar to the Crystal at the north end of the site - more difficult to achieve.

 

[jks]

The sale of the site helps the Museum financially in the short term. But I think it probably makes future expansion - an east-west linking wing similar to the Crystal at the north end of the site - more difficult to achieve.

What are you talking about?? The southern half of the "H" that old building makes is filled in with that concrete building which houses various learning centres.

 

[MetroMan]

No, Urban Shocker is correct. The ROM's next natural expansion is south. A new crystal extending on to the Planetarium site would be a natural main entrance for large groups.

It's true that they can remove the 80s block and build an extension in its place but they would no longer have Queen's Park exposure.

 

[Urban Shocker]

They could leave the administrative and curatorial centre exactly where it is, renovate the south end of the 1914 wing to extend the galleries already housed in that wing further south and into it, and join the 1914 and 1933 wings at their south end on all three floors with a linking wing on the Planetarium land. It'd involve a bit of fiddling with the Faculty of Music building, I think ( can anyone post one of those Google Earth map things? ) but I believe it could be done. The original plan for expanding the Museum called for something of the sort, and the Crystal achieves it at the north end.

 

[wyliepoon]

No, Urban Shocker is correct. The ROM's next natural expansion is south. A new crystal extending on to the Planetarium site would be a natural main entrance for large groups.

How about this idea: build a massive glass crystal around the planetarium, transforming it into something like Libeskind meets the Hayden Planetarium in New York.

 

[MetroMan]

The Hayden Planetarium is one of my favorite buildings. It's innovative as a planetarium and stunning when lit up at night. I also hoped for the planetarium at the ROM to be revived in this manner.

While the selling of the land to UofT dashes those hopes, there remains a possibility that UofT could build and manage a planetarium on that site. Something tells me though, that for $22M on the land, they're going to want to build an expansion of classrooms on that plot.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Metro:

Personally I think the new planetarium should be built at the Science Centre instead of the ROM - space science just seems to be a better fit there.

The use of the planetarium site is still somewhat limited by the fact that it's bascially in front of the loading docks for the ROM - though opportunities exist for access for both Faculty of Law/Music and ROM to be reorganized a bit (see the KPMB proposal for Law - the one great idea in what's otherwise a very boring proposal).

In fact, I can see the site being used by the Faculty of Music, which lacks street exposure.

AoD

 

[Observer Walt]

I'd agree with Alvin that the Science Centre would be a better location for a planetarium. The University can find better uses for this site, I'm sure.

I notice that there is no mention of how large the site is (or will be, after severance). $22 million is an awfully high price, and I wonder how it was justified. This transaction is good news for the museum, undoubtedly, but as I try to visualize the size and configuration of this site, my first impression is that the price seems to be well above a reasonable market value.

 

[Blovertis]

I'd like to see a 46-storey student residence.

 

[Urban Shocker]

It's unfortunate that the ROM is throwing away the opportinity of future expansion - linking their galleries at the south end of their site - for a mere $22 million. The smarter thing, surely, would have been to reach some sort of agreement with the Faculty of Music to ( kaboom! ) reconfigure the north end of the Edward Johnson Building?

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

While the selling of the land to UofT dashes those hopes, there remains a possibility that UofT could build and manage a planetarium on that site. Something tells me though, that for $22M on the land, they're going to want to build an expansion of classrooms on that plot.

The way they dumped the Dunlap Observatory also suggests they have their own astronomical agenda. I'd say there's no chance at all for a revival of the planetarium and the purchase does somewhat make a mockery of the observatory as "surplus" when they could have established some kind of astrophysics campus up there.

Oh, well.

 

[greenleaf]

I work at the Faculty, so if I have anything to say that I am allowed to say, I can pass that on.

Also, the north end of the building is MacMillan theatre, which is used year round. I don't think anything is going to happen to that space.

I don't know how true this is, but someone told me here that when they built the building in the late 50s they had the opportunity to configure the foundation to support a future expansion (2-3 stories) on top of the building. However, they felt that they didn't have the funds necessary to do it, so alas, they did not.