Downsview Hangers

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.

Edit: March 8, 2010. The hangers will be torn down. Article here.