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Inside the first-ever ceremony at the Symes, a restored art deco heritage building in the Junction

Carly and Jordan first met when they were 18. They stayed friends throughout their undergraduate studies at Western and McGill (respectively), lost touch when they both went off to law school, but reconnected at a mutual friend’s birthday party shortly after they graduated. “We’ve been together ever since,” says Jordan. “Since we already knew each other, there were no awkward first dates.” In the fall of 2016, Jordan surprised Carly with a proposal at their Seaton Village home. He turned off all the lights except for a movie lightbox at the front of the house that read, “Will you marry me?” He timed it so that their favourite song, “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, played as she walked in, and he picked up some of her favourite snacks from Bar Raval. “Pinchos are the key to Carly’s heart,” he says.

When they began planning the wedding, they decided they wanted a unique venue, somewhere none of their guests had been before. “I’d always envisioned a black tie wedding in an industrial space,” says Carly. Their wedding planner suggested the soon-to-be-reopened Symes, a heritage building in the Junction that used to be a garbage incinerator. They were sold. “I never dreamed of getting married in a former garbage incinerator,” says Carly, laughing. “But we immediately fell in love with the beauty, history and grandeur of the building.” Plus, they’d be the first couple ever married there.

They wanted the big day to be elegant, but not too formal. They decided to complement the the building’s 1930s art deco bones with a black-and-white colour scheme, punctuated with lots of lush greenery. “We wanted to elevate the rawness of the building with a variety of textures,” says Carly. Inside, there were crystal candle-holders, marble chargers, green box hedges and acrylic troughs. With more than 200 of their friends and family in attendance, they expected a rowdy dance floor. “Our Hora quickly escalated into a sweaty mosh pit of love, with a human pyramid, skipping rope and limbo,” says Jordan. Luckily, they had arranged for cold hand towels to be handed out afterwards.

Cheat sheet

• Date: November 4, 2017
• Photography: Lori Waltenbury
• Videography: Highrise Pictures Co.
• Bride’s gown: Custom Leah Da Gloria from Powder Bride
• Groom’s attire: The Dirty Inc., Dion Neckware and Classica Imports
• Flowers: Forget Me Not Flowers, Boxwoods Landscape
• Hair and makeup: Allison Kam, Katie Huang
• Venue: The Symes
• Caterer: The Food Dudes
• Cake: The Wedding Cake Shoppe
• Music: Sole Power Productions ft. DJ Apple Scratch (DJ); Electric Blonde (band)
• Invitations and stationery: Smudge Designs
• Favours: Custom Candy Bar Accessories from the Creative Bag Co.
• Planner: Ashley Pigott Events
• Linens and Napkins: Around The Table
• Rentals: Event Rental Group
• Vinyl: Event Graffiti
• Guests: 245

On the morning of their wedding, the couple got ready at their respective parents’ homes before stopping at Bar Raval for photos:

Carly had her hair and makeup done with her family and bridesmaids. “I loved spending some genuine time with them,” she says:

At the venue, they were hitched under an acrylic chuppah adorned with palm fronds, orchids and hydrangeas:

Guests arrived in the afternoon and received appetizers and drinks before the ceremony started. The couple had a traditional Jewish Bedekken celebration, in which the groom veils the bride just before the ceremony:

They loved the romantic vibe of the glittery fairy lights above the dance floor. “The venue was under construction up until weeks before the wedding, which added an element of surprise for both us and our guests,” says Jordan:

The tables were decorated with more white orchids and hydrangeas:

Their cake also stuck with the black-and-white theme:

The Hora featured a human pyramid:

Their first dance was to “Home,” of course:

The couple didn’t leave the dance floor until 3 a.m. (the clocks turned back an hour for daylight savings that night, so they got an extra hour to celebrate). Afterwards, the party migrated to one of the groomsmen’s homes. “We didn’t want the night to end,” says Jordan:

 

Read Article: https://torontolife.com/city/life/real-weddings-inside-first-ever-ceremony-symes-restored-art-deco-building-junction/

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Brewer and events planner find a new niche for the 1930s-era Symes Road Destructor in Toronto

DAVE LEBLANC – SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Although 99 per cent of guests will never see it, there’s a wonderful “tell” in the catering kitchen of Toronto’s newest event space, the Symes, at 150 Symes Rd. in Toronto’s ascending, former meat-packing district near St. Clair Avenue West and Weston Road.

There, partly obscured by gleaming stainless-steel sinks and snaking PVC pipes, stenciled directly onto the buff brick wall is: “NO FIREARMS BEYOND THIS POINT.”

The Symes, you see, had an industrial – and somewhat dangerous – past. Opened in 1934, the handsome, striped, porthole-windowed building was once known as the Symes Road Destructor. Until it became simply a waste-transfer station in 1977, it destroyed garbage via intense heat. Of course, dangerous flames aside, this still raises the question: Were there so many garbage thieves in the 1930s and 40s that city workers were required to arm themselves?

“I have no clue,” chirps Viviana Kohon, her excitement palpable. “We left it for the chefs because we thought they would get a kick out of it.”

Chefs, and guests alike, will also get a kick out of the fact Ms. Kohon and her partners, Namita Tandon-Walsh and Caitie Yue, have allowed the grand, old art-deco dame to show off even more of her rough charm. The massive steel beams that hold up the roof are mottled with age; the thick, concrete columns are chipped away near their bases; in hallways and bridal ready-rooms alike, there are walls of intermittent metal strapping and pockmarked plaster.

“We’re all about restoration and respecting the bones of the building,” says Ms. Kohon, who once produced television shows until she began Blast Events, which organized everything from Dîner en Blanc in Niagara to hosting Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. “We tried to keep as much original as we could.”

Indeed, when the partners first saw the building, it had been in private hands for only a few years, so it was largely intact. Surrounded by weeds and covered in graffiti, the city had declared it surplus in 2009 and had listed it for sale after that. However, shuttered in 1996 and used for storage and, intermittently, for TV and movie shoots, most Junction residents had given up hope that they’d ever see the building put to daily use again. In early 2011, light at the end of the tunnel appeared in the form of local resident Arthur Rozumek, then a University of Toronto history student, who sent a nomination to the city’s heritage preservation services office to have the building designated. Shortly after that, Councillor Francis Nunziata put a motion forth to have the office study the nomination immediately.

A City of Toronto report from May, 2013, described the building as a “well-crafted excellent representative example of a public works building” due to its “pyramidal massing, [brick] banding and linear decoration.” Designed by City of Toronto chief architect John James Woolnough, assistant and successor Kenneth S. Gillies and “brilliant young staff architect” Stanley J.T. Fryer – also responsible for the Horse Palace at Exhibition Place, the police station at Yonge and Montgomery (now the Anne Johnston Health Station), and the Waterworks Building at Richmond Street West, between Brant and Maud Streets – the building was designated in July, 2013.

While early reports suggested Junction Craft Brewery was going to occupy the entire space, by March, 2016, Ms. Kohon and her partners were invited to see a large portion of the old Destructor after rejecting a space on Sterling Road (now occupied by the Drake Commissary).

“We fell in love with this building the first time we saw it,” she says, adding that they signed a 10-year lease.

After the owner did the “base building,” Ms. Kohon jokes that her new company, the Symes, then spent “a gazillion dollars” creating a purpose-built events space that nestles comfortably between the opulence of the Carlu and the rawness of Evergreen’s Brick Works. “It’s not that we do other things and we do events on the side,” she offers. “We’re not doing [farmers markets], we’re not an art gallery … we consulted with the caterers, we consulted with the planners; we put the second elevator in because our furniture rental guy said ‘you need a cargo elevator.'”

And while the brewery has set up on half of the main floor, the Symes has also secured the second-floor space with the distinctive porthole windows: Billed the Scarlett Room, it boasts a 280-guest capacity and, it’s hoped, a full rooftop patio that will hold 250 (they’re still working with the city’s heritage preservation services office to see if that’s possible). On the main floor, Grand Symes offers 5600 square feet of floor space that can accommodate 350 people underneath those glorious, mottled steel beams.

To offer relief from the many raw surfaces, the team instructed interior designer Barbara Nelson to treat the washrooms as islands of luxury. With a side of cheekiness: In the men’s rooms, Ms. Nelson hired a graffiti artist to pay tribute to how the building was “decorated” while abandoned.

Something else likely to get the graffiti treatment, Ms. Kohon says, is the massive weight scale that was uninstalled during renovations: It will be painted and then placed in the foyer as an objet d’art. Between the main entrance (at rear) and the generous parking lot, the Symes has created another objet: the old, interior crane operator’s cab – a feature Woolnough and his team had seen in action in Buffalo and New York in the early 1930s and adopted here – has been restored and placed outside, and Heritage Toronto will be supplying an interpretive plaque.

It’s a happy ending for a building that could easily have been lost. And, hopefully, it will host many happy beginnings for decades to come.

“The good thing about a place like this is you can dress it up as much as you want,” Ms. Kohon says, “or you can just put some candles and be done.”

 

Read the article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/toronto/industrial-art-deco-incinerator-in-junction-gets-a-newlife/article36795142/

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The Drake Commissary has delicious offerings in a huge space that promises a lot, and is poised to deliver.

When Ted Corrado was interviewed in early 2013 to become executive chef of the Drake Hotel Properties, it was at the Drake 150 while it was still under construction. CEO and founder Jeff Stober and general manager Bill Simpson told him of their larger vision, which included more expansion.

“You’re gong to need a commissary,” Corrado recalls telling them, saying that they waved off the idea with a “sure Ted,” and hired him. Now, four years later, Drake Commissary has opened on Sterling Rd. north of Dundas St. W.

This 8,000-square-foot emporium offers a tasty array of food options, most of them in plain sight. Customers can walk in and nab a pastry, sandwich, slice of pizza or a full hot meal from the counter and take it home or sit down in a front lounge area.

Past the bar is a full sit-down restaurant serving the same menu, complete, of course, with liquor licence. Take a right turn and peruse the Prince Edward County maple syrup, ready to heat lasagnas, tubs of tahini and ice cream in the so-called larder. (And back at the main cafeteria counter is a bread wall offering homemade loaves to go.)

Past that, another lounge offers a (somewhat) quiet place to work or hold a small meeting. This space and the entire front of house can be rented out.

It all backs onto a 5,000 square foot kitchen separated only by glass. “Few show you this part of it,” says Corrado. “We’re breaking down the barriers.” So, you can view charcuterie meats drying, bakers attacking globs of dough and other kitchen staff dashing about, preparing food for the commissary or the company’s catering arm.

It’s a complex operation that even Corrado didn’t entirely envision when he took the job four years ago and began crafting menus for the Drake properties — which included the main hotel on Queen St. W., the Drake Devonshire in Prince Edward County and the soon-to-open 150 on York St. — driven by creativity, local foods and homemade ingredients. (He did similar work at the Royal Ontario Museum’s c5 restaurant lounge.)

Corrado soon brought on longtime colleague Jonas Grupiljonas, a chef who recently “fell in love with baking,” and he started doing homemade bread and pastries for the 150. The other Drakes then wanted the (delicious) goods, too.

In 2014, Stober gave the chefs access to an 800 square foot space on Queen St. W. he’d been using for storage and they turned it into a “mini commissary,” baking for the properties. (Someone would drive the goods up to the Devonshire twice a week.)

But things kept happening. A cool, artist-driven project would want food, and Corrado and his team would agree to cater it. “We’d say yes and then we’d have to find out how to make it happen.”

Also, Grupiljonas’ forays into homemade bread triggered interest in making other foods from scratch. They began doing more pickling and other canning. They made homemade sausages and charcuterie. Everything required room. “We hit a point where we could not do anything else,” recalls Corrado.

So the hunt began for a kitchen to support the properties and their extra projects. For a year and half, they looked at spaces. They got a tip on Christmas Eve 2016 about this place and Corrado and Grupiljonas raced over to see it.

It was empty and huge. It wasn’t in the original plan to have a public space as part of the commissary, but now it was possible. On the spot, the two started sketching out their kitchen, giving it easy access to loading docks, and an ample front of house, too.

While the new project was under construction, the Drake formally launched its catering arm last February. In June, this place opened to the public, its kitchen already broken in over the previous few weeks.

Now, just days into opening, the place is packed with loungers having coffee while holding newborns, and a hungry lunch crowd tears into brisket over beer and wine.

Already, Drake style, the place is set to host events, including one that turns the parking lot (FYI parking is tight, Commissary visitors best take the TTC) into a skate park, plus there will be art, food and cocktails. Another offers to teach macramé. Delicious offerings at a place that promises a lot, and is poised to deliver.

 

By Diane Peters.  Read the article: https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/06/22/drakes-massive-food-emporium-offers-options-in-toronto.html

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What: Production company Banger Films’ headquarters
Where: The third floor of a warehouse on Sterling Road in the Junction Triangle
How big: 10,000 square feet for approximately 50 employees

Banger Films is a Toronto company that produces documentaries, TV series and live concerts mostly about heavy metal music (its work includes Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage and Iron Maiden: Flight 666). Last fall, they moved from a run-down house on Roncesvalles into a raw warehouse. After three months of renovations orchestrated by Banger co-owner Scot McFadyen and architect Mark Franklin, the office was transformed to a rustic, homey space that has more than enough room for its team. McFadyen says it’s meant to resemble a European city, with various “streets” leading to open community hubs. And while the workspace is stunning, the staff agree that the best part about working at Banger is getting to hang out with a group of colleagues—including McFadyen and his co-owner Sam Dunn—who share a serious music obsession.

Only the walnut flooring is original to the building. The employees’ desks are made of reclaimed wood from a now-defunct post office, and the vintage lights are from Junction shop Eclectic Revival:

The bar is used for casual meetings, office parties and Thursday afternoon beers. Every Wednesday at 5 p.m., Dunn hosts a livestream here where he debates different heavy metal sub-genres with a special guest (previous guests include musicians, authors and journalists—staff admit it’s pretty nerdy):

The bar has a comfy leather couch, a record player and lots of bottles of booze gifted from bands:

Here’s Iron Maiden’s brand of wine. The band sends bottles to a few staff members every year for Christmas:

The kitchen fridge is decorated in band magnets made by Dunn:

Much of the furniture and decor, including these barnboard doors, was sourced from the nearby vintage store Smash Salvage:

A long bookshelf in the centre of the main room is filled with research materials and mementos, such as signed records:

When we visited, music was spilling out of one of the edit suites, as staff worked on an upcoming documentary called Hip-Hop Evolution. The dark editing rooms are in a row along the centre of the office:

According to the staff, McFadyen’s French Bulldog Didi is the office’s most important fixture:

 

BY JEAN GRANT | PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAYLA ROCCA Read the article: https://torontolife.com/style/inside-banger-films-renovated-warehouse-in-the-junction-triangle/

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Name: Drake Commissary
Contact: 128 Sterling Rd., 416-432-2922, drakecommissary.ca, @drakecommissary
Neighbourhood: Junction Triangle
Owners: Jeff Stober (The Drake, Drake One Fifty, Drake Devonshire)
Chefs: Executive chef Ted Corrado (The Drake) and commissary chef Jonas Grupiljonas (Thuet, Tartine)

The food

This bakery, bar and larder is the new heart of the Drake’s culinary network: all of the breads and sauces that will supply every outpost are now coming out of Drake Commissary’s 5,000-square-foot kitchen. All-day service includes bread, pastries and pizza from the grab-and-go counter, and heartier plates like rotisserie roasted jerk chicken or house-made pasta with duck confit. “It’s food with an emphasis on fermentation and slow cooking,” says Grupiljonas. The pickled herring on the smørrebrød, for instance, takes three months to cure, while the brisket is a 14-hour labour of love. Guests have the option of dining cafeteria-style or sitting down for traditional service. And it wouldn’t be a Drake restaurant without brunch.

 

The drinks

The non-alcoholic game is strong here: cold-brew coffee, Pluck iced teas, toasted oat lattes, cold-pressed juices, kombuchas, smoothies and more. But there’s booze, too. Signature cocktails include the Queen Street Sour, which mixes Gooderham and Worts whisky with carrot-apple-tumeric-lemon juice, topped with a vegan foam made from aquafaba.

 

The space

John Tong (+tongtong) has Draked up the old condiment factory. The exposed beams and brick remain, but the walls are now clad with heaps of art like a 35-foot mural of a fantasy landscape created by local artist Alex McLeod using 3D-modelling software. The room is divided into three main spaces: a sit-down dining room, a living room-inspired area perfect for enjoying a drink with a snack, and a to-go counter with 40-foot-long marble display counter piled high with pizzas, scones, pies and salads. The patio seats 40.

 

 

BY CAROLINE AKSICH | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAROLINE AKSICH Read the article: https://torontolife.com/food/restaurants/whats-menu-drake-commissary-hospitality-chains-new-production-bakery-bar-restaurant-junction-triangle/

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Drake Commissary packs a restaurant, store, bar, takeout counter and catering kitchen into 8,000 square feet

DRAKE COMMISSARY (128 Sterling, at Perth) Access: eight steps at front door (accessible separate entrance), washrooms on main floor.

Leave it to the Drake Hotel to open the most stylish prep facility in town.

The 8,000-square-foot Drake Commissary, opening Monday, June 12 in the Junction Triangle, encompasses a swank teal-accented dining room packed with custom work from local artists, lounges decked out in vintage furniture, a café and bar area, a marble takeout counter and a food shop stocked with house-made goodies.

Oh yeah, and there’s a massive kitchen packed with state-of-the-art gear that will soon channel food to all of the Drake’s properties – which was, chef Ted Corrado notes, the reason this grand project was conceived in the first place.

“When [Drake chief development officer] Bill Simpson interviewed at Drake One Fifty to take this job, he was telling me about all the new projects coming online, and as I processed it, I was like, ‘You’re gonna need a commissary kitchen.’ He was like ‘Sure, sign the papers, let’s go.’ And here we are, five years later – we’ve got a proper kitchen to do all the things I dreamed of doing.”

A few days before opening, the Commissary kitchen, which spans the west wall of the facility, is already abuzz with life, pumping out loaves of bread by the dozen in an impressive four-door oven (the Drake supplies clients like Carver and the Tempered Room as well as its own restaurants) and prepping orders for their brand-spanking-new catering division.

“We launched catering a couple months ago, and we already have a ton of interest – we did the Power Ball, Field Trip VIP. We hit the ground running,” Corrado says.

The kitchen is divided from the dining room by a huge window, and diners can even perch at a bar that runs along the length of the prep facility to watch the action.

“We want people to experience the kitchen while they’re eating, to see where their food came from,” Corrado says. “To sort of cross that barrier and get to know how real food is made is the whole underlying theme of the place.”

The new space will no doubt shift the takeout-buying habits of the Junction Triangle, but the Drake’s kitchens, from Queen West to Prince Edward County, will all feel its impact. Here they can prep batches of syrups for the Drake’s bar program, experiment with their new ice cream machine, brine buckets of briskets or age what Corrado estimates to be roughly 2,000 kg of charcuterie.

“We’re just getting in here, figuring out how far we can take it,” Corrado says.

“When I stand here, in this kitchen – two weeks ago, it was really sterile, all stainless and white. But now it’s just full of life. We’ve managed to use every inch of space already.

“I don’t wanna say we’re outgrowing it, but…”

Below, a closer look at some of the Commissary’s dishes and design features.

The Drake brought designer John Tong of +tongtong and art curator Mia Nielsen back on board to design the Commissary space, which is infused with hits of sea green and decorated with work from local artists, including Maxwell N. Burnstein and Adrian Esparza. Artist Alex McLeod created the miniature landscape in the mural that spans the dining room with 3D rendering software.

Danish smorrebrod sandwiches (with pickled herring and beets, left, and avocado, salt cod and trout roe) are a feature in the sandwich case.

“Ted’s Lasagna”, with fior di latte, basil and parmesan, is one of the rotating hot food items.

The drink menu at the Commissary bar includes a selection of cocktails created by the Drake’s baristas, including the Ginger Rogers with Lot 40 whiskey, strawberry, rhubarb honey, ginger and lemon.

The “larder” area features packaged versions of the Drake’s food products.

Charcuterie comes courtesy of the Commissary’s brand-new aging room.

The Commissary kitchen will also periodically host cooking classes.

Bonus: There’s even a patio out front.

 

BY NATALIA MANZOCCO.  Read the article: https://nowtoronto.com/food-and-drink/drake-commissary-toronto-sterling-road/

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A plan to revive a Toronto heritage building – used only as a recycling and garbage incineration plant in its heyday – into a luxury events venue, began over the sale of a pair of blue Michael Kors stiletto heels.

Viviana Kohon met up with Caitie Yue for the shoes, but the women formed a friendship after learning they both had a background in event planning. Another event planner, Namita Tandon-Walsh, jumped into the mix and the three had a vision of creating a unique venue in the city.

They discovered The Symes – near Weston Rd. and St. Clair Ave. W.

Now, the three women are partnering to turn the abandoned two-storey building into a magnificent space – complete with a rooftop space, preserved circular Art Deco-era windows and beautiful interior and exterior exposed brickwork – to be open in October.

“We started with shoes, but we became business-oriented later,” said Kohon, the co-partner and director of marketing for The Symes.

“When we first saw it in February of last year, it was leaky and gross and it was full of graffiti and we still fell in love with it,” said Yue, a real estate investor and the director of business strategy for the project.

“All three of us thought it was breathtaking. Look at this history in the building…It’s amazing to think that in the ‘30s, they created a building this beautiful for garbage, because they don’t even create buildings like this for people to live in anymore.”

The Symes is situated on 5.5 acres next to Stock Yards Village in the Junction, tucked away in an industrial zone that includes a meat packing company. The space itself – dated at 1933 – is about 9,700-square-feet over the two levels and can accommodate 600. Junction Craft Brewing will brew its suds on the main floor, next door to another beer company, Rainhard Brewery.

Most recently, 150 Symes Rd. was occupied by people who threw raves. Before that, it stood as a garbage plant that was decommissioned in the 1996.

“When the Distillery District first opened, everybody gravitated towards that because it has such historical buildings,” said Walsh, a co-partner and director of sales, who spent 10 years working in catering for the Four Seasons Hotel. “When (Evergreen) Brick Works opened, it was the same concept. Ours fits what we dreamed about.”

No word on how much the restoration costs, but Yue said “it’s not inexpensive.”

The three partners are hoping for wedding bookings, product launches, corporate events, small concerts and fundraisers. In fact, they’ve already booked their first wedding in November, even though the building is still knee-deep in construction.

Even with the more modern upgrades, the design lines still fall parallel to how the building originally was, as per the city’s strict heritage preservation rules.

“Our clients can come and dream what they want,” said Kohon. “They can hang fancy chandeliers or make it more rustic or anything they want. That’s the beauty of a building like this. It has nice bones and you can make it anything you want.”

Fittingly, this location was used to film scenes from the movie, Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe.

But perhaps the real Cinderella story is how these three women came together. And instead of a Prince Charming, they’re in search of other future diamonds in the rough.

“I think our partnership is great because we’re very different, but we’re also the same – three strong women in their capabilities in business, but we’re also moms,” said Kohon. “The three of us have families to run and we have similar priorities in life.”

 

By Jenny Yuen.  Read the article: http://torontosun.com/2017/05/28/west-end-building-project-goes-from-trash-to-treasure/wcm/dc89aec7-dbd7-46e1-81c4-87c2b23becad

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A former incinerator and waste transfer station might not sound like a sought-after venue, but once the heritage-designated Art Deco building at 150 Symes Rd., (which dates back to 1934) gets a makeover, it’ll bring a huge event space to the Junction.

We had so much fun on site. Can you imagine what it will look like when we are done with it? #thesymes

A post shared by The Symes (@thesymesca) on Apr 14, 2017 at 9:02am PDT

The Symes, located at 150 Symes Rd., is getting a makeover thanks to business partners Viviana Kohon, Namita Tandon-Walsh and Caitie Yue. “It’s a restoration project, more than a building project,” says Kohon of the ongoing construction work- led by Jedd Jones Architect Ltd. and Barbara Nelson Interior Design – that’ll revamp the space, which sat untouched for years.

The goal is to keep some of the original architectural features intact.

The venue will include two floors and will have a combined capacity for nearly 600 guests. It’ll share the building with Junction Craft Brewing when it opens under the same roof this fall.

 

Read the article: https://www.blogto.com/city/2017/05/old-garbage-plant-could-be-toronto-next-hot-event-space/

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West of Toronto’s Stockyards and the somewhat awkward urban-suburban shopping complex of the same name, many of The Junction’s remaining industrial properties are being partially adapted into commercial spaces, imbuing manufacturing facilities with the slightly twee, tap room rusticism that encapsulates the experiential retail zeitgeist. The term ‘artisanal’ comes up a lot.

On the block-long Symes Road alone, Rainhard Brewing Co. and Shacklands Brewing Co. satisfy both the taste buds and the post-industrial nostalgia for seeing things made. There’s a lot of beer already around, and there’s more coming, with the locally based Junction Craft Brewing company taking over part of the Art Deco destructor building at 150 Symes. Along with an event venue known as ‘The Symes,’ the brewery will re-animate a heritage-designated building once used as an incinerator and waste transfer facility.

As part of a later phase, four new low-rise structures are eventually set to join the overlooked Art Deco heritage building. While the redevelopment will re-integrate the site into the urban fabric, much of the ground level will be occupied by surface parking, reflecting the big box commercial typologies found east of the site. Given the site’s longstanding industrial uses, extensive soil remediation will be necessitated.

Following a Site Plan Application (SPA) in September of 2016, the project’s first phase is now well underway, with the exterior of the heritage-designated building already visibly transformed. By the end of the year, both the brewery and the event venue are set to move into the 1933 building.

While the interiors remain in a very raw state, the building’s façade has been carefully water-blasted, removing years of grime and graffiti to reveal the building’s architectural qualities. Belying its unglamorous 20th century uses, the 1933 structure is one of Toronto’s relatively few intact examples of Art Deco craftsmanship, with the horizontal banding, circular windows, and roof cornices, now more prominent.

Appointed by Barbara Nelson Interior Design, ‘The Symes’ event venue will feature two rooms, with the ground floor occupied by the larger ‘Grand Symes.’ Featuring a capacity of up to 350, the 5,800 ft² space caters to the usual gamut of events, including weddings, corporate receptions, and gallery openings. The 4,100 ft² space on the second storey will be similarly configured, with the indoor capacity of 250 more than doubled by an expansive terrace.

Read the article: http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2017/03/brewery-and-event-venue-adapt-torontos-art-deco-incinerator

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New location will be housed in former Symes Road Incinerator

Junction Craft Brewing is expanding and getting a new home at a historical Toronto site, the former Symes Road Incinerator.

The new brewery will open its doors in 2017 at 1507 Symes Road, at the corner of Symes road and Glen Scarlett Road.

The Art Deco structure was built by Toronto’s longest serving Commissioner of Public Works, R.C Harris and opened in 1934.

The building is a rare survivor of West Toronto’s early 20th century industrial era in the former Ontario Stockyards area and is a heritage property.

The new facility will feature a brewhouse, an event space, an expanded tap room, retail bottle shop and will offer brewery tours, according to the brewery’s president, Tom Paterson.

“We hope it will be a place that all craft beer lovers will enjoy and want to keep coming back to,” said Paterson in a statement.

Junction Craft Brewing is currently located on Cawthra Avenue just north of Dundas Street West and Keele Street.

The brewery opened in 2011.

Read the article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/junction-craft-brewing-new-location-1.3585877

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House of Anansi Press is the latest addition to Toronto’s new ‘cultural hub’

House of Anansi Press has become the latest cultural powerhouse to rush to Sterling Rd., with the publisher announcing plans for a head office and street level exhibition space along the rapidly revitalizing strip.

Sent scurrying from its former Spadina headquarters by rocketing rents, the publisher evaluated a dozen spaces before enthusiastically settling on a spot on the formerly industrial street, despite the fact the new office, frankly, needed a little work.

“When we went into it, it was just a big muddy room,” said Sarah MacLachlan, House of Anansi president and publisher. “But to this management team, it was the right move. It was the right price for us.

“And we’ve been in the building and we’ve seen Banger Films,” she adds. “We’ve gone over to
the lowrise warehouse area where there’s a fantastic woodworking finishing shop and axe throwing space.

“We’re going to be part of an interesting new creative hub.”

Indeed, it’s just the latest coup for an area that has recently received continual coats of polish. Perhaps most significant was the news that the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art would shift its base from Queen St. W. to Sterling, the two-lane strip dipping north from Dundas St. W. near Lansdowne.

It’s an urban industrial zone, once marked by massive factories and decay, that has recently transformed into a home for the eclectic likes of galleries, architects, paint ballers, film makers and musicians (including, famously, the site of Drake’s first recording studio).

Although Sterling would not be considered a traditional pedestrian paradise, House of Anansi was swayed largely by the presence of an 1,100-square-foot ground-level space that the publisher
will use to showcase its latest titles, stage author readings and throw parties.

MacLachlan says the move, set to take place between Christmas and the new year, has been met with enthusiasm from the literary world, with plaudits coming from author Robert Hough and children’s book illustrator Matt James.

Although publishers have traditionally cloistered closer to the downtown core, MacLachlan says splintering media have rendered centrality less of a priority.

And, she adds, venturing into a relatively uncharted area is in line with the principles of House of Anansi, which was founded in 1967 and immediately published the Manual for Draft Age Immigrants to Canada at the height of the Vietnam War.

“There’s always been that pioneering spirit within the company,” MacLachlan said. “And we’re going to be 50 in 2017, so we felt that starting fresh and new again would be appropriate.”

Along with the Nestlé factory and, soon, Henderson Brewing located nearby on Sterling Rd., there will be something special, quite literally, in the air.

“Beer, chocolate and books; it’s a good combo, right?” said MacLachlan.

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455 Dovercourt bills itself as townhomes, but it’s probably more accurate to think of the development as a small condo. All the units are, after all, lodged in the same building. About that, this is one strange looking, top-heaving structure that ever so slightly reminds me of the old Sears building at 222 Jarvis. Let’s not say that’s a bad thing, as it’s impossible to complain about Toronto’s anonymous glass condos and to criticize unique designs in one breath. Besides, the building is an adaptive reuse project, which has retained the bottom portion of the previous building on the site.

Composed of 12 units, this development is actually quite appropriate for the neighbourhood, given its proximity to College St. and the massive apartment buildings that exist just north on Dovercourt. The number of bedrooms per unit has yet to be announced, but with sizes that range from 1,000 to 1,500 square feet, you can count on some two-bedroom options.

SPECS

• Address: 455 Dovercourt Rd.
• Storeys: 5
• Number of Homes: 12 townhomes/condos
• Number of Bedrooms: TBA
• Parking: TBA
• Price: Start at mid $600,000s
• Architect: RAW Design
• Developer: Curated Properties
  

FEATURES

• Each unit features its own balcony
• Mulit-level units
• Open concept spaces
• Hardwood flooring

THE VERDICT

This is a step above your tower-based condo, with a starting price to match. But $650K to live in this area is actually quite attractive, particularly for those who don’t need three bedrooms to house a budding family. The rooftop patios are simply gorgeous, and the track record of the developer is strong (see the Laneway House project). While the building looks a bit strange, its scale is appropriate to the neighbourhood and the early designs look promising. Let’s be honest, Toronto could use more small-scale condos like this in densely populated areas.

 

Read the article: https://www.blogto.com/city/2014/06/new_in_toronto_real_estate_455_dovercourt_condos/

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