Volume 222222 --- ### 444

OCTOBER~NOVEMBER~DECEMBER 2017 Volume 222222 --- ### 444 NNNEXT DEADLINE ::: DECEMBER 15, 2017 COCOCO-CO ---OPOP HOUSING CHAMPICHAMPIONONONON PAMELA MARGARET McCONNELL ––– February 14, 1946 ––– July 7, 2017 Pamela Margaret McConnell was a municipal politiciapoliticiann in Ontario, Canada. She served on Metro Toronto Council from 1994 to 1998, and on Toronto City Council from 1998 until her death this year. City Park Co-operative Apartments Inc. ~ 484 Church St., Suite 115, Toronto M4Y 2C7 416-924-6294 always advocated for the well-being LINK is published quarterly as of January 2017. of housing co-ops and their The next LINK deadline for submissions members, and for affordable housing is December 15, 2017. for all. To her husband Jim, and her daughters Heather Ann and Madelyn, we offer the thoughts and prayers of Pam’s co-op housing friends across Canada. “Pam is a true hero – a co-op activist long before becoming a politician. She is Your LINK Team: a champion of the people.” Tom Editor/Coordinator: Bob Harrison Drue Contributors: Tom Maunder, Clement, Executive Director, CHFT John Fowler, Karin Williams and “Pam tirelessly advocated to ensure Ursula Carter everyone has a decent affordable Distribution/Events Photographer: Mitch Lambert place to call home. She served as a role model to us all.” Harvey Cooper, Managing Director, CHF Canada Ontario Region www.chfcanada.coop COCOCO-CO ---OPOP HOUSING SECTOR MOURNS THE FIRST MODERN APARTMENT THE LOSS OF COCO----OPOP CHAMPION COMPLEX IN TORONTO PAM McCONNELL (An article by Chris Bateman that was The Co-op Housing Federation of posted in August on www.spacing.ca ) Canada (CHF Canada) and the Co-op Housing Federation of Toronto The three towers of the City Park co- (CHFT) mourn the loss of our Deputy op apartments on Wood Street Mayor, our co-op housing champion, behind Maple Leaf Gardens don’t our friend. Pam McConnell has been really stand out among the numerous a force for good in thousands of high rises of the Church-Wellesley people’s lives. She was admired and Village. respected by multiple communities and organizations. But for the co-op But the anonymity of the trio of 14- housing sector, she was one of us. storey towers belies an important We have lost one of our own, and our piece of Toronto history because this hearts are broken. Pam raised her was the first modern, multi-building family in the Spruce Court Housing apartment complex in the city and, at Co-op. She has served as President the time of its construction in 1954, of CHFT. And as a Toronto Councillor the biggest residential project in the and as Deputy Mayor, she has country. 2 City Park was conceived in 1952, but the company continued to own when Toronto city council the land it had assembled, selling it formally identified the land in pieces for Maple Leaf Gardens enclosed by Wellesley Street, Jarvis and the Toronto Hydro headquarters Street, Wood Street, and the future in 1931. subway line as a target for redevelopment. By the 1950s, the department store was leasing the homes on the land it The Yonge line, under owned between Wood and Alexander construction along the western flank Streets, allowing many to fall into of the area, was expected to disrepair and subletting to get out of drive prosperity and force out slum control. conditions that had developed among the mostly Victorian housing Toronto alderman William Dennison stock. Many of the homes close to called it “a civic disgrace, an Carlton Street were in particularly eyesore of the worst kind.” bad shape due to years of neglect by the landlord, the T. Eaton Co. To remedy the situation in the department store chain. Carlton Street area, the city offered to expropriate parcels of land and Eaton’s wound up lease them to owning the future developers willing site of City Park in to put up high-rise the 1910s following buildings in a style a dizzying and “similar to the east unprecedented side of New York”. three-day land acquisition spree. At the same time, In just 72 hours, the the city was company bought up planning the 75 percent of the second phase of land in the two the Regent Park blocks north of Carlton between housing project Yonge and Church Streets. south of Dundas and had also identified the houses east of Trinity The haste was necessary to avoid Bellwood Park between Queen and news leaking that Eaton’s was Dundas as substandard and in need planning a new midtown store in the of redevelopment. area. A group of citizens calling As it happened, Eaton’s College themselves the Bloor-Carlton Street was built on the southwest Ratepayers’ Association formed to corner of College and Yonge in 1928, oppose some aspects of the College 3 Street-area redevelopment plan, The $8 million project was financed particularly the city’s unusual offer by Swiss building company, Hubert to expropriate the land. Buildings Ltd. Instead of asking the city to expropriate (as had first been “Why isn’t some other district of suggested), the developers bought Toronto named for redevelopment,” the land from International Realty wondered John Downes of Maitland Co., an Eaton’s subsidiary, for Street to the Globe and Mail . “If $500,000 in February 1954. people want to redevelop the town why don’t they do it somewhere By the start of construction, the else?” original City Park plans had been scaled back slightly. Instead of four The ratepayers’ group agreed, towers, the complex would consist of however, that the future site of the three, 14-storey towers. City Park complex was suitable for renewal of some kind. “The switch to three buildings allowed better light use The plan for City Park revealed to the and larger landscaped areas public in 1952 was designed by Peter between the buildings than would Caspari, a Jewish, German-born otherwise have been possible,” architect who fled his home country architect Caspari wrote in the Royal during the build-up to the Second Architectural Institute of Canada World War, eventually settling in Journal in 1957. London, England where he designed several Streamline Moderne Caspari also simplified his towers, apartment buildings. creating three geometric blocks made almost entirely of reinforced Caspari arrived in Toronto in the concrete. Even the walls between early 1950s and he designed the the individual units were made of Vincent Court and Buckingham poured concrete “to eliminate all Court apartment buildings on noise transmission between Eglinton Avenue and several apartments and public corridors,” others during his first few years in Caspari wrote. the country. Caspari was extremely concerned When it was announced, City Park about noise transmission. In addition was Caspari’s largest commission to to the thick concrete walls between date. In fact, it was also the largest units, “special acoustic plaster” was private development proposal in sprayed in the public passages and Canada, with an anticipated 1,000 the units were arranged so the middle-income units spread between bedrooms were separated from the four, 15-storey towers. entryways by at least one internal door. 4 Double-glazed windows made in There were sun gardens on the roof Switzerland reduced outside noise of each tower and the lobbies were and noisy boiler equipment was decorated with marble floors and separated from living areas by the polished terrazzo walls. communal laundry rooms. Bachelor apartments started at $90 The city gave Caspari special ($830 in 2017 dollars) a month, one- permission to include one parking bedrooms were $155 ($1430, 2017), space for every three units, rather and the most expensive units—two- than the one-for-one ratio stipulated bedrooms on the top floor—were in the planning bylaw. In total, there priced at $195 ($1,800, 2017). would 774 suites with 578 parking spaces underground and on the City Park was noticed around the surface between the towers. world when it was completed. The Swiss financial backing of the towers Construction began with the generated front-page newspaper demolition of the homes on the coverage Der Bund , a national Wood-Church-Alexander-Yonge German-language newspaper based block in 1954 and the project was in Bern. completed approximately a year and a half later in 1956. The UK Sunday Times also noticed the development. In a full-page story The crisp International Style on the benefits of emigrating to apartment towers were “as modern Canada written by former Chancellor as tomorrow,” according to the of the Exchequer Peter complex’s promotional pamphlet. Thorneycroft, the crisp white Church Each unit opened into a “continental Street towers appeared beside a style” hallway off which the various photograph of the Rocky Mountains rooms and closets were located. as symbols of this country. The living areas came with The towers were “an outstanding hardwood parquet floors, built-in TV example of Modern Canadian outlets, and French windows that architecture,” the piece noted. opened onto a full-length balcony. The kitchens came fitted with In an attempt to build on the success General Electric appliances in a of City Park, Toronto began seeking range of pastel colours—turquoise bidders willing to develop the next green, canary yellow, or satin block north, between Maitland and white—and a milk box connected Alexander Streets. As a sweetener, directly to the hallway for easy the city pledged to expropriate the deliveries. land and lease it to a developer of its choosing. 5 The eventual winner, Ridout Real It would be almost 10 years before Estate, proposed 1,500 residential the block was privately developed as units spread across eight 17-storey the Village Green complex.

Load more