Symes Waste Transfer Station
The Symes Waste Transfer station is probably the favorite of local kids of the junction, it also has seen its far share of late night tekno parties, kids getting high and even big budget Hollywood movies like Cinderella man since it closed in the mid 1990’s. It is interesting enough to hold my attention because it the main building was built in 1933 in an Art Deco style. Toronto does not have very many buildings in this style (the most recent being the recently converted Tip Top Lofts).
Historical Drawing, Symes Waste Transfer Station
The first time we visited Symes, the entire loading area of the building was crammed tight with shiny new dumpsters for apartment buildings that the city had not distributed yet. There also was a really old model tractor parked inside which disappeared more than a year later. Our second visit at sunset, more than a year later was far more interesting. The space was now empty – and lighting was great!
Although the building now is located in an industrial area populated mostly by light industry and slaughterhouses, there was community outrage from the nearby citizens who were concerned about stench of garbage and smoke. Symes was once one of four incinerators operated by the city. Wellington , Commissioners, Symes and the Don burned there way through 1700 tons of the city’s garbage a day until they were shut down in the 1980’s. Symes was converted to a waste transfer station in 1977, but following the mid nineties was only in use as a storage and distribution facility storing blue boxes and dumpsters. Symes main highlight is a view of Black Creek community just due North, a large weigh scale in a side room, and a few hand painted logos throughout the building. The city, in its infinite wisdom, maintained full power to the place 24/7 illustrating that while municipal cuts of social programs are indeed expendable, unnecessary costs like leaving power on in a unused facility like this are status quo.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Infrastructure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.