The Ontario Heritage Conference – a joint event hosted by the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) and the Community Heritage Ontario (CHO) – will take place June 7-9 in Sault Ste. Marie. Chris Borgal (Principal) and Sharon Vattay (Associate) are both speaking at this year’s conference. For more on the CHO, go to the CHO website.
With the Hall set to close next month, restoration has already begun on the 120 year old stained glass windows. GBCA (heritage consultant for the revitalization project), in conjunction with Eve Guinan, glass conservator, completed a detailed condition assessment of all of the windows in the summer of 2017 – for some windows it was the first time anyone had seen them in decades. While the whereabouts of two important Composer windows were initially unknown (as reported in the Toronto Star), those panels have since been found.
Interest is growing around our historic Weston Bakery Building project. Since 2016, GBCA has been working with Graywood Developments on the adaptive reuse of the former bakery building at 462 Eastern Avenue. After sourcing primary archival sources, the century long evolution of the industrial building complex was determined and the condominium design, as prepared by Diamond Schmitt Architects, will now see much of the historic building conserved for true loft conversions. A few of the articles include Dave LeBlanc’s May 1, 2018 article in the Globe and Mail and an entry on BlogTO.
GBCA’s recladding project (with RJC) at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library on the University of Toronto campus was included in a recent article on heritage in the U of T News. The project required a carefully thought-out intervention that would solve the building envelope issues without impacting the character-defining features of this 1970s Brutalist building. Read more here.
