16 June 2007
How Do You Spell Creative Bankruptcy? R-O-U-N-D-H-O-U-S-E
Toronto Ontario - There's no longer any question:
Toronto has officially gone off the rails.
Whatever doubt lingered was dispelled this week when the city announced a deal has been signed with Leon's, yes, the furniture chain,
to take over the Roundhouse, a designated national historic site.
It sounds like a joke, except that it's true, and it's not funny.
We all know that Toronto is broke, but this goes beyond comprehension, and enters into the realm of civic madness.
The bureaucrats would have us believe the deal is good because Leon's and the builders who have actually leased the facility from the
city - O&Y, Tenen and State Development - will clean up the structure, which the city has neglected for years.
What they don't say is that when it issued an RFP (request for proposals) fully six years ago, it stipulated that renovating the
building was a condition no matter who won.
The most troubling aspect of the arrangement, more worrisome than the fate of a building, is that it signals a city devoid of
imagination. We have run out of ideas. We have given up. We have no way to save ourselves but to offer the public realm, now up for
sale to the highest bidder. This in the Creative City!
Never has that term rung so hollow. Never has the self-deception been so painfully evident.
This is nothing against Leon's, but a furniture store does not belong in the roundhouse. It's that simple.
How appropriate that the city should announce its Roundhouse deal the same week the Conference Board of Canada released a scathing
report about Canada's lack of innovation, its complacency, and its decreasing ability to compete with the rest of the world.
"You can trace our poor performance to a failure to innovate in the broadest sense," said conference board CEO, Anne Golden.
She might not have had the Roundhouse in mind when the report was prepared, but in its own small way, it sums up the mindset of a
society grown rich plundering its own resources, whether natural or cultural.
What doesn't seem to have occurred to Toronto's braintrust is that the Roundhouse, and heritage in general, represent a significant
civic asset. Instead, they are viewed as a liability, something to be unloaded at the first opportunity.
The fact is that a building such as the Roundhouse has enormous potential as a destination for Torontonians and tourists alike. People
everywhere love trains, especially old trains. What better place to display them, to create a railway attraction?
Instead, the site is a disgrace. Though its lone occupant, Steam Whistle Brewery, maintains its portion of the property, the rest is a
weed-infested wasteland. The U-shaped structure, magnificent in its own way, sits largely empty. Of its 32
bays, each marked by an impressive wooden door, the majority seem not to have been opened in decades.
The turntable that once occupied space in front of the Roundhouse is gone, the circular hole in the ground also fenced off. One lone
locomotive can be seen, a hint of what might have been.
Behind the building sits old Cabin D. Clad in cedar shingles, it dates from an age when train travel was taken seriously. Although
derelict, its roof falling apart, it remains beautiful. Indeed, it surpasses in architectural quality most of the towers and slabs that
now surround the site.
The Roundhouse itself dates from 1929, the second such facility built on the property by the CPR. Though designed to service steam
engines, it was adapted to handle diesel locomotives before it was finally shut down in 1982.
Though the city has been searching for tenants since the days of Mel Lastman, it has not done well. Not until Steam Whistle Brewery
approached the city on its own initiative and signed a lease in 1999 for 11 (now 14) of the 32 bays did the Roundhouse find new life.
According to Culture Toronto executive director, Rita Davies, city council's instructions were to establish a rail museum but at no
cost to the city. That pretty well sums up the situation.
According to Davies, the developers will spend $10 million to turn three bays into a museum; the rest, 15, will go to Leon's.
"Retail is a permitted use," she insists. "Our role is compliance."
Meanwhile, the Steam Whistle people are furious because the developers are paying 89 cents a square foot, while their rent is $7.50.
"We're fuming," says Steam Whistle co-founder Cam Heaps. "Part of the city's job is to ensure a
"culturally sensitive active reuse" for the historically designated site. We submitted a proposal for an event centre/railway
museum but the city rejected our scheme."
Steam Whistle's plan, prepared with the Toronto Railway Historical Association, would have led to the renovation of 11 bays as a
showcase for old locomotives and rolling stock.
"People love our brand because of the Roundhouse," says Steam Whistle's other co-founder Greg Taylor: "We
wanted to develop a railway museum. The idea is that it would be a museum during the day that people could tour. At night it would be
an event space. We have the funding."
Sounds much more interesting, not to mention appropriate, than a furniture store.
Nevertheless Davies insists, "We are happy with the deal."
Too bad nobody else is.
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