N*TROPY

Images by Kathy

Spaulding Fibre was definitely one of the best places we ever explored. Not only was the building accessibly and open, it was graffiti free and only showed signs of natural decay, unike many other locations we have visited where everything was slowly looted. It was located in a particularly nasty part of Tonawanda NY near public town-home projects and giant liquor stores. It sat on 43 acres and occupied 860,00 sf of space in more than 24 separate buildings almost all of which had access to one another internally. You could walk in and not been seen for most of the day and move from the office tower, the laboratory, loading area, the press sections and so forth.

Images by Jan

Spaulding Fibre made all types of boards, weatherboards, transformer boards, Bakelite (as Spauldite) and vulcanized fibre and fibreglass tubes. Spaulding Fibre had its roots in Townsend Harbour, Massachusetts when Jonas and Waldo Spaulding formed the company in 1873. The company expanded in Milton and North Rochester, New Hampshire. In 1911 the brothers established a vulcanized fibre operation in Tonawanda (the one featured here) which was built on a farm at 310 Wheeler Street where production began April 1, 1912 with 40 employees. It was quite a large facility then as the daily capacity at the plant was 5 tons of fibre sheeting and one ton of fibre tubing per day. In 1924 a continuous vulcanized fibre making line was built. In  1927 the name of the company changed from J.Spaulding and Sons to the Spaulding Fibre Company. In the 1930’s the company introduced a pseudo bakelite product called Spauldite. Once the last Spaulding brother died in 1955, Spaulding Fibre Company became a part of a charitable trust set up by Huntley Spaulding and his only sister who died shortly afterwords. In 1956 another large expansion took place that doubled the size of the paper mill and the vulcanized fibre making capacity of the plant. The head office moved operations to the Wheeler street plant. Another product line was added sometime in the 1960’s called Filawound which was a fiberglass tube product. At this point the plant covered 610,000 sq feet (almost the size it was when we visited) and employed almost 1500 people.

In 1966 after the company enjoyed great profits and expansion the charitable trust sold off the company to Monogram industries and slowly the company started to decline. In 1984 Spaulding was sold again to Nortek and in 1988 Nortek changed the company name to Spaulding Composites. Spaulding Composites closed the Tonawanda plant  on August 24, 1992 and it subsequently sat empty suffering the ravages of time and the elements. Demolition work did not start until late 2006 shortly after we visited the space and spent a whole 12 hours inside. One of the more interesting highlights of the demolition was the “Spaulding Fibre” stack getting demolished here. A whole secondary industry has also developed around class action lawsuits for the former employees of the plant.

Some other tasty highlights I found on the City of Tonawanda’s web page shed more light on the timing of the sale of the company as well as its bankruptcy…

1930 to 1972 - Sludge Settling Ponds were excavated into native soils to settle grinding waste from the Spauldite tube department.

1960s - A transformer allegedly exploded outside the northwest portion of the plant, releasing PCB transformer oil to the ground surface.

1960s to 1970s - The Therminol Building housed a Therminol heat exchange unit utilized during SpaulditeR production. Oil containing 85% PCBs was the heat exchange media of the Therminol Unit. At time of system failure, PCB oils were discharged to the grounds adjacent to the Therminol Building or to floor drains discharging to the K-Line storm sewer serving the northwest portion of the facility.  This oil contaminated the waste and fill in two of the sludge settling lagoons.

Fall of 1977 through September 1978 - The Laminant Dust Landfill was utilized by Spaulding for the disposal of approximately forty (40) tons of fiberglass, asbestos, cellulose and resin dusts.

February through September 1978 -  The Resin Drum Landfill was utilized by Spaulding for the disposal of 750 drums of resin wastes.

Between 1983 and 1986 - Wet paper sludge was spread over a 5,000 square feet area (the Paper Sludge Application Area) south of the plant building and allowed to dry prior to disposal. Contaminants released from this practice impacted area soils.

August 1985 - Spaulding excavated the Zinc Chloride Sludge and Drum Landfill. This area was a 60 cubic yard landfill located beneath the plant floor inside the main plant building and contained zinc chloride sludge contaminated with cadmium and lead, drummed lab chemicals and resin solvent mixtures. The pit was backfilled and a new concrete floor installed over it;

1985 - Spaulding removed lead contaminated zinc hydroxide sludge from the Zinc Hydroxide Sludge Storage Tank. The sludge was disposed of at a permitted off-site secure landfill. The storage tank and surrounding area were decontaminated with high pressure water.

In the late 1980s - A consultant under contract with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) conducted a RCRA Facility Assessment (RFA) at the site. This assessment identified 36 Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) and several potential Areas of Concern (AOCs).

1992 - Manufacturing at the facility is terminated and the company files for bankruptcy;

September 1992 to February 1993 - Spaulding initiated decommissioning activities at the site in August 1992 following plant closure. The majority of these activities were completed by February 1993 with the remaining decommissioning activities completed by mid 1995. These activities are documented in the Plant Decommissioning Final Report dated August 1995;

Early 1993 - Spaulding constructed an on-site water treatment system to treat PCB contaminated water from the Spauldite basement sump, the on-site K-Line storm sewer and other waste waters generated on-site;

September 1994 - A permanent on-site water treatment system is moved into its current location;

October 1994 - The portion of the K-Line sewer impacted by PCB contamination was isolated from the remaining K-Line system and is pumped to the on-site water treatment system and discharged to an off-site storm sewer;

October 21, 1994 - An out-of-service transformer was vandalized, resulting in a spill of PCB transformer oil. The area was subsequently excavated, with the contaminated soils and concrete placed in roll-offs for off-site disposal;

July 21, 2004 - Phase 1 of the NYSDEC’s IRM PCB contaminated soil removal action in OU2 begins;

March 25, 2005 - Phase 1 of the NYSDEC’s IRM PCB contaminated soil removal action in OU2 is completed;

June 6, 2005 - Phase 2 of the IRM soil removal action in OU2 begins;

June 25, 2005 - The City of Tonawanda and Erie County submitted an application to the Department for funding under the ERP program.  The application requests $3,600,000 for the demolition of the plant buildings ($3,000,000) and remedial investigation ($600,000) of areas of the site not investigated as part of the previous work conducted by the Department and Spaulding;

March 2007 - NYSDEC completes Phase 2 of a IRM soil removal action to address highly contaminated PCB contaminated surface soils.  The work completed during this phase included: demolitions of concrete building pads, excavation and disposal of PCB contaminated soil, cleaning of storm sewer lines and removal of contaminated debris.  Total of cost of this work to date is approximately $3,000,000,

Additional reading

Tonawanda News; Spaulding Fibre: From Prosperity to Decline; Dave Hill; January 16, 2008 
ouster’s Daily Democrat; “Post Civil War Growth Sets Stage For Spaulding Fibre’s Huge Success”; Spaulding Fibre 100th Anniversary Supplement; 1873-1973

admin Manufacturing brownfield, contamination, pouution, spaulding composites, spaulding fibre, tonawanda

Images by Kathy

The TTC Greenwood yards hold a secret but we won’t be dealing with that today. The Greenwood shop is one of the TTC’s (Toronto Transit Commission, for those not local) two heavy repair facilities. The Greenwood shop, located at Greenwood and Danforth, and the Harvey shop (Bathurst & Davenport) which is located on the old MacNamara market garden, and where Taddle Creek now flows, underground are two locations where much of the TTC’s heavy maintenance work on trains and streetcars get done.

The two shops provide major vehicle overhaul work and component rebuilds (everything is made on site!)  for the Subway, LRT lines and the streetcars. Its quite a large complex at 31 acres and the shop covers  approximately  190,00 sq. ft of space and employs 200 people. The Greenwood complex is divided into 8 cost centres including Vehicle overhaul and body repair, truck/axle/gearbox/re-wheeling, millwrights/machinists/electricians, shop services, electrical repair, pneumatic repair and a work car section. The greenwood yards seems somewhat larger then the Harvey shops, but that is just because the greenwood yards also have a subway yard.

Kathy Transport greenwood, greenwood shops, ttc

Images by Kathy

Sometimes having to go off the beaten path has its rewards. We were hungry and looking for a washroom break while on our way to another place, when we pulled over in Hastings and noticed this abandoned, half burnt down mill in the process. It was wide open, no one was around and it was filled with random bits of junk you would find in a house (if I were ever to get desperate and explore one). It had a boat, paintings, toilets, lawn furniture, appliances and even a heap of toxic waste barrels and water tower. A small creek flowed very close to the  building as well, so close that I wondered what would happen if there was ever flooding. Granted its not the most interesting location, although pretty photogenic, I’d love to hear from a local, or anyone else who knows the full story of the place.

Kathy Manufacturing, general abandonment, lame ass UE arson, factory, hastings county, havelock, mill

Images by Kathy

CFB Downsview, Downsview airport (YZD) or Downsview Park as it is now known has had its days numbered for a while. It has gone through several reincarnations before becoming a private complex that has TTC service, skate parks, basketball courts, rock climbing centres and elite athlete schools. It was originally a military base, with an airport that still functions today and which will for the foreseeable future operate privately under the management of Bombardier.

Historical images from Virtual Museum Canada.

Downsview airport has been around since 1939 when the de Havilland Company operated it. It wasn’t until almost a decade later that the Department of Defense (DnD) purchased the property, and the area around it, which was all farmland to create Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) station Downsview to provide a local space for the RCAF. It became known as Canadian Forces base Toronto (Downsview) in 1968, when they dropped the RCAF designation to more accurately depict that the Army (now known as Land forces) was also on the base as well.

de Havilland facility, WWII Production.

I first heard about Downsview closing around 1995 and space became available for cadet groups to utilize the larger hangers on site for weekly meetings. Space was always an issue, and cadet groups were always being bumped from local community centres and schools because any of the spaces that were used had been decommissioned earlier, like  1140 Avenue road (now high end town homes and a catholic school) and Denison armories. Land force Central Area is still on the base, however they built a new facility closer to Sheppard and Dufferin Streets.

In 1998 a crown corporation (known as Downsview park took control of the former base and has slowly leased it out as sports/recreation space, with future housing and retail developments. Bombardier Aerospace still manufactures on the southern end of the property and tests their aircraft at the airport. The TTC Wilson subway yard is also on Downsview Park property.

There are several historically significant buildings on the property, one being the de Havilland Canada facility from 1929, and the CFB Downsview hangers which are in the process of being torn down. The downsview hangers currently have a 60-day reprieve from demolition, however no one really knows what will happen with them afterwards. This building was probably easier to single out for ‘redevelopment/demolition’ because it sits tucked into the back of the park, between the runway and the DRDC research facility, totally isolated from any other building, such as the group of hangers on the opposite side of the runway which all have found adaptive reuse.

The Downsview hangers actually played a larger role in the wartime production of aircraft as the original de Havilland facility was quite small. In 1992 the building was recognized as a heritage building by the federal government and the control tower actually operated until 3 years ago when the facility moved into the Bombardier plant. All the suggestions that people have made that the building is too old, unstable is unfounded. Apart from the control tower seeing use until a few years ago, the building was actually used by the military for urban warfare training. The other hangers were refurbished across the runway and they were from the same period. Anyhow, as of 3-4 weeks ago, the consoles and related equipment have been removed from the control room, the large doors have been ripped off and nothing remains inside the buildings themselves. Sneak a peek before they get knocked down for more generic condos that we cannot seem to get enough of in this city.

UPDATE Jan 4, 2010: The Department of Defense has pulled a cheap trick out of the standard playbook of getting around  their promise to consider adaptive reuse of the hangers. On Christmas eve they sent a letter to the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario demanding $20,000 a week to hold off demolition with payments required before the holidays. This was all the while they said the would consider reuse of the buildings as they have been designated a historic Federal Heritage Building Review Office,  Downsview Park was willing to discuss a land swap to take them over, and the Canadian Air and Space museum was interested in occupying the space. They even had a prominent Toronto Developer,  Paul Oberman of Woodcliffe Corporation willing to invest in the project, to say nothing of the public who I must say impressed me in actually attempting to stop this from happening. This is status quo around here, but this really doesn’t happen elsewhere with such precision.

Kathy Military airport, bombardier, cfb downsview, de havilland, downsview, hangers

Images by Kathy & Jan

We here at Ntropy love our graffiti and street art. A City Renewal Project was a brilliant project hatched byDan Bergeron (Fauxreel) and Gabriel Reese (Specter). This installation collaboration recreates some of their personal landmarks in Toronto with a twist. In the Queen West area near Dovercourt, at Lisgar St, is the wall of a long blue warehouse complex that is supposed to come down for a condo project. It’s here that “A City Renewal Project” was installed, in an abandoned building.

At street level is a façade of a constructed storefront, “Mr Loogie”. A play on the “dollar store” Mr Loonie, itself a bit of Canadiana since the “loonie” is slang for a Canadian dollar. You enter through the store, to a city street, which is the installation itself. The streetscape is comprised of constructed storefronts on both sides. There are real and fake tags and graffiti on the walls and a real TTC shelter along with a bus stop post. Just past the stop is a Viacom billboard advertising “Condos for Babies” on the wall. Washrooms, street vendor stand, park bench and an accountant’s office are at the back of the warehouse. At the back, a wall is covered by an enormous print from car tire tracks made and contributed by artist Matt Janisse.

Some additional features of the exhibit include a zoo preservation sign, leaves, bins and bags of garbage accumulating on the cement floor.  The storefronts inside 39 Lisgar are near life-size scale black-and-white portraits of store fronts of closed or derelict stores from all over the city. The photographic interpretation is by Fauxreel / Dan Bergeron. The stores were constructed from recycled materials including condo placards. The actual signage was constructed by Gabriel Reese an urban artist who installs his work in locations to reinterpret the urban environment. The graffiti on the warehouse walls is by Bergeron, Reese, and countless other street artists and friends who helped with the installation over the four months of construction. Obviously Bergeron and Reese are totally comfortable with a table saws, cameras, and corporate sponsors

A City Renewal Project was described by Reese as “a work you look at more than once,” because there are “so many little subtle things.”  This warehouse was filled with the images of the city amassed by Bergeron and Reese. Everything in it is material that was used by them. Along with those who helped them was Bergeron’s dad Don who rolled up his sleeves to help in the construction of the space for the installation. .

Dan Bergeron is not against that change, but this latest project contains the ambivalence towards a changing city that his recent Luminato project of Regent Park portraits did. His concern is the ongoing life cycle of real estate in the city will keep producing “new ghettos” Bergeron sees the landscape’s uncontested demolition and reconstruction as proof that “we don’t do anything to ensure we remember our past.”

Gabriel Reese, a low profile artist who uses the nom of Specter has kept his identity secret. He splits time split between New York, working through a Canada Council grant, and Toronto, working on the”City Renewal Project” and believes in “restoration, not destruction” as the way to go. He views A City Renewal Project as a “monument, archive and validation” of the spaces that the two artists have fabricated. This piece provides the work’s name: “we’re renewing spaces using objects and artifacts that are on the street.”

The project was made possible, in part, with Red Bull sponsorship and Gallery 381. Some Toronto media have been critical on a personal level regarding the intent of the installation. There was discussion in the press that the project was compromised by corporate sponsorship however the artists’ view is all projects need money so receiving financial support from Red Bull, who provided the only detectable bit of branding, a Red Bull umbrella, at Bergeron’s initiative. They believe it is the same as receiving funding from the L’Oréal sponsored Luminato or Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche.

Bergeron, is capable of navigating the rocky water that is a mix of art and business. His position is the project wouldn’t, have been possible without funding from Red Bull. The show’s other sponsors include Show & Tell Gallery and Grolsch. It should be appreciated that both men poured their own money into the exhibit so there is a piece of them in this commitment.

Bergeron and Reese are considering taking this to Vancouver. Bergeron says that he would like this for Vancouver which is undergoing similar changes to Toronto but which are being driven by the upcoming Olympic Games in 2010.

A City Renewal Project ran from , November 7—to November 23, 2008 and was taken apart shortly afterwords after the famous closing party where too many drunk hipsters had the police come out in full force. The building has now sat empty and quiet for a full year, but recent developments hint that it will be the next for the developers axe.

Kathy lame ass UE a city renewal project, dan bergeron, fauxreel, gabriel reece, specter