Last week’s entry for Firestone has all the required history you need on the Firestone Complex. These photos are supplied from the six story steam/boiler house complex next door that supplied steam for the 500,000 sq. ft building next door. No longer accessible, it has had huge boilers salvaged long ago leaving gaping holes in the corner of the building. Between pools of mercury glistening on the floor around the control room to consoles oozing black sludge everywhere, it’s probabily not the best place to hang out for long or to have your lunch.

Firestone’s mammoth warehouse complex in Hamilton is one of the largest facilities in Canada we have been in. Most of the plant is currently used by the city of Hamilton for garbage sorting/recycling. A couple of buildings totaling more than 500,000 sf feet close to part of the Hamilton harbor and are abandoned. Many people dismiss the location as boring because there is no machinery present . It was removed long ago. The site does offer the best view in Hamilton to peer into the still active Hamilton heavy industry next door, National Steel Car and Dofasco’s steel plant further along the harbor. Firestone was next door neighbors with the great Stelco Rod Mill but that has since been torn down. It is one of the few places you can wander around in for hours and always find something new to look at in a relaxed atmosphere.

The Firestone plant in 1924.

Firestone’s history goes back to 1919 when Harvey S. Firestone was drawn to establish his first international manufacturing facility in what was then the township of Barton to manufacture tires for the Canadian marketplace. Hamilton actually annexed this particular area from the township of Barton. Harvey also created an industrial neighborhood called “Firestone Park” around his manufacturing facility bordered by Burlington Street, Beach Road, Kenilworth Avenue, and Belfair Avenue. The first tire rolled off the line in 1922 and the materials were mostly supplied from Drummondville, Quebec. In 1928 the plant further expanded and had 1,100 employees.

Firestone mostly manufactured tires for cars and farming vehicles until WWII when they won a contract to manufacture tires for military vehicles. By the end of the war, Firestone had 1,400 workers. Firestone had two 17 week long strikes where workers gained the right to a 40 hour work week and the first non-contributory pension in Canada.  The company further expanded in 1953 and they expanded to make all types of products. Further expansion in the 1960’s greatly increased the size of the plant. Firestone’s 1,800 workers now made over 1, 000 different types of tires. In 1973 Firestone recognized it would have to start switching over production to radial tires and in 1974 opened a dedicated plant in 1974 in Whitby, Ontario.  A lengthy 8 month strike followed in 1974 however Firestone enjoyed good fortunes into the 1980’s when they had 11 plants in Canada.

In 1982 Firestone received a grant to modernize the plant for $15 million however this could not prevent the plant from closing as demand for bias-ply tires happened very quickly. Firestone went through some restructuring in 1987 and three US plants were closed and the large Hamilton plant closed along with the nearby Stoney Creek warehouse. Firestone was taken over by the Japanese firm Bridgestone in 1988, and the head offices moved from Hamilton to Mississauga, located about 30km nearby. The plant was used as storage for a few years, but was later purchased by the city of Hamilton and partially turned into a garbage facility.

Upon first glance, an abandoned kid’s camp sure doesn’t sound exciting, especially considering the sleepy town it was located in.  However once we arrived and realized how old and extensive the place was we spent two whole days there. This camp must have been a pleasure for city kids to visit while it was operational from the 1930’s onward. It’s actually for sale, and it’s to be hoped that it doesn’t see much traffic other than the local juvenile vandals we ran into who were smashing windows.

Its located on a 340 acre site of varying topography with a water feature for teaching kayaking and swimming. It’s fairly hilly with about a 500 ft elevation change from the top near a recently built school which is now decommissioned, to the lower camp section with 32 wooden cabins, a large main lodge with dining area and auditorium, a repair shop, a caretakers house, a gym and large pool. There are other buildings used for training and dining. The school alone is over 10,000 sq. ft.

Map of school and Camp.

We found the kitchen and the dining hall to be the most interesting spaces, since they contained complete kitchen facilities and the tables and chairs for the eating areas. Additionally there were the old pan-abode cabins which still had odd prizes and trinkets lying around like plastic “champion trophies” and dolls awarded to studious kids who were “model campers”.

It was quite surprising that the buildings were almost all open and accessible. Sadly this gave an opportunity to some ‘kids’ and the kitchen and mess hall area were totally trashed between our two visits, probably less than two weeks apart.

It was an enjoyable visit because it provided a nice break from the usual urban hustle and bustle that summer. This is what the children who were selected to be campers experienced. This camp provided that “ outdoor camp experience” for over 70 years for Toronto children who couldn’t go up to the cottage areas like the Muskokas and Kawarthas during the summer holidays.

Considering it sat idle for more than a decade,  it’s truly amazing that it managed to stay in the overall good condition it was in. This is most likely due to the fact that no one knows it’s there, so there is no vandalism attributable to “visitors”

Things have been super busy around here. Between all the work involved for the book to general life ’stuff’ we just don’t have the time to put out some of our better entries, so to appease the masses we decided a small entry of recent images to a visit to Toronto’s Centerville islands would lighten things up around here between the power stations and steel mills we have coming up, to say nothing of the places we have recently visited. Expect a few more image heavy posts, CF stuff and a huge entry on a certain steel mill no longer around this summer.

These images were taken this past month on a visit to the Toronto islands where I poked around a bit in the miniature village and related farms (haunted barns) nearby. I missed the chance this past summer to visit the islands which are normally packed with people with Capt.Canada who wanted to go out via boat taxi, but we never got around to it, as we were busy doing other things. Winter is a good as time as any to avoid the masses, as the only people on the islands are those who live on Wards Island and the maintenance and water treatment plant workers who work at the island all year.

If you ask me, nothing is more relaxing then heading down here to the boardwalk and listening to the soothing sounds of water crashing into shore. Check it out sometime, ‘exploring’ is about alot of things, even if it’s lame sometimes.

Camp Bison, which is the familiar name for the correctional center located here, is actually Burwash Industrial Farm or Burwash Correctional Centre. Camp Bison was one of the sections of the jail which wasn’t bulldozed in 1994, long after it was closed and abandoned by the government when their policies changed regarding prisoners and work.

Burwash industrial farm was a self sufficient correctional institution situated on 35,000 acres of scenic farmland, lakes and woodlands where the inmates actually grew their own produce and raised cattle. Policy changes affecting prisoners and whether they should be allowed to work while incarcerated changed this and the facility closed in 1973 after being open since 1914.

The prison not only was self sufficient for the needs of all the inmates and staff, it also sold the produce it developed and the area had its own post office, church, school, barber/tailor/shoe repair shops and a Laundromat, power generation plant as well as a slaughterhouse (obviously) saw mill (logging was also done here) a dump, a 20 bed hospital as well as cemetery.  Most of the prisoners at Burwash corrections were non-violent offenders, with one guard, Ira Sefton Smith killed at the site by inmate in 1959 since its opening in 1914. The jail housed most of its inmates in cells with wooden doors, and you could move throughout the complex without having to bypass many double locked doors as in other maximum facility prisons where personal security is much more of an issue. The communal showers had a wonderful view of the surrounding area and the entire area from where the train station would drop off the inmates to the 5 km walk to where the prison was can be described as ‘picture postcard’ beautiful.  The crossing where one can basically drive and then has to walk the rest of the way is already a few kilometers inside the property itself which is now controlled by the DnD.  Depending on weather and your vehicle, you can drive into the location if the road isn’t flooded out, or you can walk. Freight trains seems to run through the area regularly, which is where the old Burwash station was located. The train was the only means of accessing the prison when it was operational, before highway 69 was built and provided access to the property.

Burwash Industrial farm is the most remote location we have ever been to, and for that reason we were not expecting the placed to be more trashed then locations we have been to in downtown Toronto. However there was extensive damage to the buildings. At first we assumed maybe the prisoners came back to trash the place, but we quickly realized that drunken locals were just coming here and starting fires and having parties. Much of the place is trashed beyond repair with no a single piece of ceramic piece left intact anywhere n the facility, except for the showers which seemed to be wholly intact. The atmosphere of the jail is somewhat creepy just because all the windows are knocked out and the drafts randomly slam doors throughout the building surprising you as you are walking through. We did find a few metal doors hidden in the corners of facility where they must have placed inmates for ‘time out’. The light is wonderful in the place, but its well past it due date for being photogenic. Recent fires and more partying at the location seem to have just made the place a total mess not even ideal for squatting since 2007 when we visited. Although who would want to squat in the middle of nowhere anyhow?

Additional Useful Burwash Links as well as historical photos found online in a now defunkt msn group.

Additional Burwash Resources :

http://burwash.ontario.tripod.com/

http://www.burwashontario.ca/

Originally Visited during 2005-2006.

The R.L Hearn power station is know to everybody in the city either affiliated with power generation, exploring or the movie industry which still uses the site today for mammoth sets. Completed in 1951 and fully in-service by 1953, the station was first set up to be coal fired. In the 1950’s there was already talk of shutting the station down.  In 1961 the plant reached full capacity at 1200 MW and the boilers burned through an astonishing 440 tons of coal per hour ! How is that for inefficient!

From the historical photos you can see the station originally had four chimneys, one for each of the boilers, then when 4 additional 200 MW units were installed, there were four more chimneys added. The last three were taller then the first five, but then they were torn down and replaced with electrostatic preciptators. The smokestack everyone now knows was completed in 1971 and was the tallest one in the world until that status was taken by the CN Tower in 1976. At the same time in 1971 the plant was also
converted to burn natural gas however the station became mothballed in the early 1980’s with the shutting down of units 1-5 in 1978-79. The generators in the plant was utilized as synchronous condensers until 1995 with a skeleton staff of 10 workers. The site was a location of interest for a movie production company called Studios of America but the plans to convert the 300,000 sq ft power station into a production studio called Great Lakes studios was abandoned in 2006.

The location did have quite a few accidents onsite  with workers while operational and explorers over the years as the location seems to deteriorate a bit more each year. Most recently it became the subject of public attention when an explorer had an accident on site died later on from his injuries. There are no immediate plans for the site itself, however it remains unknown how long the station will sit completely empty next to the Portlands Energy Centre which is located right next door as its been totally gutted and looks nothing like the images seen here from 3-4 years ago.

Probably the best collection of Pre-2004 images from Hearn power station, before we went.

Seems that a fair-bit has changed down the old Lakeshore strip in Etobicoke over the past 3-4 years. Many of the great 1960’s motels that used to welcome people to Toronto for the night have been torn down to make way for condos. Shame really as they remained in business for almost 50 + years. Change is a good thing right?

I’m sure the new condo owners are going to pleased to be either hit with sugary and yeasty smells from the bakery next door, or the stench of sewage (yes it stinks) from the treatment plant nearby. Progress is great, no?

One evening, what seems like ages ago, we dropped by this place only to find the gate and building open which obviously experienced a flood.  Its was completely empty, and quite uninteresting but the shots that came back from the lab were amazing with the nearby flood lighting.  Apparently it was involved in rubber production but no one or nothing I have found has been able to substantiate that as fact (hence the ‘mystery’). The 3 or 4 dobermans who kept trying to get at us from the property next door, weren’t. But you win some and lose some. You didn’t think everything about exploring was like Spaulding Fibre or Beth Steel, did you?

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, unlike 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.

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

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.

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.

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 demotion of the hangers has started. Article here.

We here at Ntropy love our graffiti and street art. A City Renewal Project was a brilliant project hatched by Dan 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 demolition started in April 2010.

A nice long bridge that straddles a huge ravine, this bridge actually brought my friend and I refuge from one of the super storms that blew through this past summer when we were caught off guard nearby. Climbing up a 150′ hill you come to the edge of this bridge that has two conveniently placed walkways (one being a DIY affair) that is being utilized for the construction of extra lanes next to the existing section.

Nothing too spectacular other then my love of geometric forms and the awe inspiring vibration that shakes the whole structure encouraging you to hold on the further out you walk. Once you reach the middle you are a good 150′ above an active trail where can crack open a beverage and finish your lunch and go unnoticed to the people below.

About 4 years ago the Junction area of Toronto had alot of sites to offer one seeking to look at delicit industry. One had NRI also next door, and also down the street, Tower Automotive a bit further south and ‘Bunsmaster’ right next door.

There was a move to redevelop the land that the Sherwin Williams Company had a paint manufacturing plant on, but the city stepped in to prevent the development from going further. It was supposed to become a condominium, but its hard to believe anyone would  want to live on such contaminated soil, and next to a very active train line and yard, across from the very classy chain of Delta Bingo.

This was over three years ago, and nothing remains other then the hoarding around the site and some rubble. It was only  interesting and photogenic when half the building was already knocked down, but this building is what much of Junction areas ‘revitalization’ began with. We will have rest of the spaces up over the next few months as we get around to them.

Some first time nostalgia here on NTROPY. St.John’s convent is long gone from its 401 and Yonge area location, now relocated to Cummer. It was demolished almost three years ago, now only an empty field remains, soon to be a catholic school. It lies right on the edge of hogs hollow overlooking the 401 highway and the huge ravine underneath. I didn’t find this location all that interesting, except it was the first place we explored one Saturday afternoon during a particularly bad thunderstorm.  It was not a particularly large convent, you could find maybe 30 dorm rooms, a chapel, library, office which were in pretty good condition on our first visit. The second time I brought back someone with me to visit, the place was totally trashed, walls and ceiling ripped apart, not one remaining piece of copper found.  It was here I also learned not to invite anyone who might bring their dumb friends who would throw furniture around for amusement, scream and shout. Since the convent  was now wide open, several homeless people had moved into the rooms which still had locks. I believe it was demolished in later 2006, and haven’t heard of the place since.

What is this…a church post you ask? On Ntropy? I’m not a church goer, and as such when I found the opportunity to visit this place it was because I was waiting for someone nearby and had some time to kill. It was sold, with the intention of redeveloping it for lofts, but nothing has happened since the past three years these images was taken. It lies in the  Bloor and Dufferin area off a small street now boarded up, minus the wonderful windows which seem to have been removed sometime ago.

Nothing much more to say, this is a photo essay of sorts.

Bunsmaster is a large (50,000sq ft factory) in the Junction neighborhood that has sat empty since at least 1993 where we found some of the oldest graffiti around dated from that year. Its a somewhat triangle shaped building with an area where boxcars could be pulled into for loading and unloading of cargo since it sits right next to a very active rail line.  It doesn’t really have much else, but it seems to have preserved the past of Toronto’s graffiti scene well from the elements with pieces by Recka, Sec (MSK) Kwest, Teck and more. The neighborhood kids also seemed to have enjoyed the place setting up a make shift skate park inside with small ramps and rails from makeshift materials they swiped from the nearby big box parking lot. It also seems to function as a spot for the occasional rave since its in an area that is bounded by a loud and active rail yard, the somewhat sketchy neighborhood doesn’t probabily even notice a party is happening next door.

And the name you ask? One of the loading areas of the plant had a sign called Bunsmaster. The building is now owned by someone else, and is used a parking lot for dormant trucks but not much else seems to be happening here, unless the developer who is now putting up a condo on the other side of the tracks plans on expanding on this side.

The Canada Linseed Oil mills is one of the buildings in Toronto that everyone seems to know about and has visited, but no one really knows anything substantial about.  At three stories tall with 20+ ft ceilings and a flooded basement area, there is no trace left of the machinery or even what went on here almost 40 years ago.
It was a Linseed plant, built in 1915 where Linseed (flax seed) was pressed into oil and other uses, which has been abandonded for almost 40 years, since 1965. It hasn’t seen any other adaptive reuse, apart from the local graffiti artists painting inside and the occasional rave. In 2000, the city purchased the land for $2 million, but nothing was done with the site except occasional attempts at securing the location. Last year a small building next to the main plant was turned into a small meeting space and bathrooms for the park nearby.  So far nothing much has happened, but the Wabash community Centre project has its own website with more details on the progress. If you have worked here or have historical pictures of the plant we would love to hear from you. We both happened to love the graffiti inside, because it looked like a time capsule that had been reopening much like Bunsmaster, which probabily will be our next entry.