William Taylor was digging holes for fence posts one day when he came across a type of clay that he suspected would make a high-quality brick. His hunch proved correct and in 1889 William and his brothers John and George started a quarry and factory that, for nearly 100 years, churned out bricks and kiln-fired clay products used to build Canadian landmarks such as the Ontario Legislature and Osgoode Hall.
But the once bustling Don Valley Brick Works was abandoned in 1984. The jumble of dilapidated brick buildings and metal sheds sat idle for close to three decades until Evergreen – a national charity devoted to greening communities – approached the City of Toronto with a proposal to reinvent the site as a showplace for urban sustainability.
That transformation is now taking shape as the Evergreen Brick Works is readied for a September grand opening. Forest, meadow and wetlands occupy the northern part of the 16-hectare property, which was once the clay and shale quarry. To the south is the cluster of 16 heritage-designated buildings, 12 of which are being redeveloped as part of the $55-million project.
“Our big challenge is what I broadly call healing the site. If, over many years, much of the value is paved over, it’s a process of undoing that without destroying all that built heritage,” says Joe Lobko, partner with du Toit Allsopp Hillier Architects, and the lead architect on the Brick Works project.
It’s a place for architects, designers and commercial developers to learn more about sustainable building practices, particularly on a historic brownfield site. And it’s an example of imaginative mixed use. A Saturday farmers’ market will continue. There will also be office, studio and event space for rent, a café, garden centre, winter skating rink and ongoing arts, crafts and educational activities.
“Land that previously would have been thought of as worth abandoning now embodies the possibility of making an amazing new community with a remarkable environmental agenda … and will be a landmark for sustainable community development and design,” says Don Schmitt, principal, Diamond and Schmitt Architects.
The first stop for visitors will be the Welcome Centre, where they will see environmental and historical exhibits as well as industrial-era artifacts that were left on the site, including the original John Price brick press.
Nearby is Evergreen Gardens. Roof material was removed from the southern portion of this building, but the original steel trusses remain so that white pines can grow up through the openings. The garden centre will sell native plants to home gardeners. In the winter, a contoured area will become an ice skating trail.
At 52,000 square feet, the Brick Factory is the largest of the buildings and features rows of kilns and drying tunnels. The building will eventually receive a new roof and be brought up to modern building codes, but the plan is to leave much of it in its raw state – including some of the graffiti added in the past 30 years – so that visitors can explore and fully appreciate the heritage, explains David Stonehouse, director, site development, Evergreen Brick Works.
The Children’s Nature Playground will have gardens, fruit trees, berry bushes, an open-air bake oven and an indoor children’s kitchen.
The only new building for the site is the Centre for Urban Sustainability, a 40,000-square-foot, five-storey office building designed by Diamond and Schmitt to LEED Platinum standards – one of only a handful in Canada. Among the sustainable innovations are rooftop photovoltaics and a biomass boiler that provides heat by burning pellets made of waste wood material.
Evergreen’s offices will be in the new building, and space is being offered to corporations and non-profit groups that have a strong commitment to environmental and social issues.
Some people say that ravines are to Toronto what canals are to Venice. The analogy seems entirely appropriate when you consider that the Brick Works is situated on a floodplain. But instead of fighting nature, the design team has embraced it.
