Fort York Heritage
Fort York, considered the birthplace of Toronto, is a National Historic Site. It represents the single most important visual and contextual cultural heritage link to British military and social history remaining in the City of Toronto. The Fort's layered historical themes and it's associations with an immensely rich archaeological past re-enforces the need for a sensitivity in design to both the existing above-ground cultural heritage resources and the below-ground archaeological resources. Specifically, it is the archaeological remains and potential for further research in the Garrison Common area that guided our site planning efforts not to disturb traces of past activities and structures.
The larger challenge is not only to present the above-ground cultural heritage resources and to preserve the below-ground archaeological resources but also to contribute in making the social, military and intangible histories of this site more present, palpable and real to the people who visit Fort York.
An Architecture of Lines and Liquid Landscapes
The delicacy of Fort York as a defensive site produces an architecture that is mostly about subtle lines. Existing lines such as the lines of fort walls and the lines of sharpened logs are the source of new lines in this project, lines of weathering-steel walls, lines of docks and bridges, lines of light. The grassed defensive moat in front of the fort and the surprisingly low bermed rampart are both quiet and subtle. They are experienced as a liquid rolling of the land, a delicate 'wave' but one with severe consequences. Below Garrison Common, the foreground of the fort, seen from Fort York Boulevard, is that of a rolling grassy escarpment capped by the long horizontal line at the top of the fort wall. That escarpment is presently cut off where the Gardiner Expressway intersects the site.
The Visitor Centre participates in an architecture of lines and liquid landscapes. The south wall of the Centre acts as a new escarpment, re-establishing the original sense of a defensive site. This new escarpment stretches across the site to meet the existing grassed escarpment directly below the fort. In front of the escarpment is an extensive landscape of liquid 'foreshore', a field of grasses and loose bushes that move softly with the wind. Both building and site are quiet so that they do not detract from the fort on the hill. Both gain presence by extent. They run horizontally participating in both the existing lines and liquid landscapes of the fort.
Museum of Large Objects
The land west of the Armoury is proposed as an outdoor Museum of Large Objects, a museum that might include the large-scale artifacts of conflict (tanks, trucks, etc). The Parking Pier to the north of the museum has large steel doors under Strachan Avenue that close off the Old Railway Cut from the lands beyond. This door can be opened to allow a train to enter the site, joining the rail history of the site to the Museum of Large Objects.
Community Site
Neighbors will continue to use the flatness of the Common for play, dog walking and general recreation. The new pedestrian and bike bridge over the rail lines to the north connects across the Common, down the cut between the Steel Escarpment and the old concrete retaining wall toward the Armoury. Other bike routes connect along the north edge of the fort, under Bathurst Street to eastern neighborhoods and the new library and through the cemetery to the west. Neighbors approaching from the June Calwood Park crosswalk pass over the Solid Lake, up the path to the Common or along Fort York Boulevard, over the piers to the Cafe Terrace, the Children's Terrace or events on the Events Plaza. Cyclists arrive in the midst of all this securing their bikes at the Bike Bridge. Both the Activity Room and the Orientation Room/ Cafe have their own adjacent outdoor terraces that can be sectioned off for private use and rental. Birthdays, weddings, and other events occur alongside historical narrative. At night, the softly illuminated site and ghost screen encourage community events, signaling a new, safe, active and unique urban place to reconnect with history and play out the occasions of modern lives.
Archeological Reversals: The Oldest Site Up, the Newest Site Down
The new Visitor Centre is sited below the Common. It connects directly to the city. Inside the Centre the connection from New/Down to Old/Up is central to the visitor's experience. After being received in the Lobby, visiting the Orientation Room and the Changing Features Gallery, visitors begin to ascend. A sequence of ramps and displays link the Centre below to the Common above. The Changing Features Exhibit and the Treasury Ramp begin the ascent. Passing along the Treasury Wall visitors approach the Time Tunnel. In the Time Tunnel projected images in the walls, floor and ceiling surround visitors with simulated experiences of fort life and history. As the Time Tunnel increases in daylight, it approaches the level of Garrison Common where the Common's Archeological site is presented. Visitors exit the Centre slightly below the level of the Common in the Viewing Trench. The northern edge of the Viewing Trench marks the point of undisturbed soil on the Common. Views of recent digs on the Common are seen at a raised ground level, presented as displays. The trench slowly rises to the level of the Common. Slightly raised boardwalks invite visitors to explore the archeological digs. These boardwalks may change in location from year to year as the digs proceed. Crossing the boardwalks and exiting the field of the digs, visitors approach the defensive moat and the entrance to Fort York along the old Garrison Road.
Above, the city is partially edited out, flatness recalls purpose, structures reorient to allow for ghosts, reenactments of a past reality; evidence of time and history is presented. Daily life goes on up here but there is something else present as well.
Below, engagement with the city is lively. Events happen. Kids hang out. Lunch is served.
(From competitor's text)
The Jury felt that this scheme with its long weathering steel ‘escarpment' will endow the City of Toronto with a work of enduring architectural brilliance. In particular the long brown serpentine exterior façade of the structure recreates in the cityscape a vanished crucial topographic feature of Fort York - the lake-front precipice which was a basic element of the fort's defenses.
The Jury felt that the alternative siting suggested by this submission, locating the Visitor Centre further to the west, might be preferable, subject to further study. Some details of the "Ghost Screen / Viewing Platform" feature of this design at the level of the Common were questioned by some Jury members, requesting more information about materials and scale. The Jury felt that an attractive aspect of this scheme would be the ‘forecourt' space under the Gardiner Expressway planted in tall grasses, with boardwalk circulation routes, recalling the original lakeshore landscape.
(From jury report)
25 scanned / 22 viewable
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