Toronto development wins brownfield award
A Toronto project to restore a century-old landmark has received special recognition at the Canadian Brownfields Awards.
Auto BLDG—a 102-year-old, industrial-deco landmark that variously served as an aluminum extruder, auto parts plant, a music video and film set and incubator for graffiti artists—won the Rebuild Brownie award for demonstrating excellence in site-specific responses that accelerate regeneration, enhance public realm and exhibit an imaginative approach to adaptive re-use of heritage structures.
The award was presented to developers Castlepoint Numa Inc and architects architectsAlliance at the awards gala on November 23.
"This site required a unique series of collaborations to invigorate Toronto's Junction Triangle," said Castlepoint Numa president Alfredo Romano. "These collaborations have brought a renewed and palpable energy to the Auto BLDG and the surrounding community for which it serves as an anchor."
The restoration of the Auto BLDG from conception to completion took five years with a development team that also included heritage architect ERA Architects, environmental engineering firm WSP Global and lender Equitable Bank.
"It was a privilege working with Castlepoint Numa to revitalize this local landmark, and add new cultural and employment uses to a site that had been dormant for a decade," said Adam Feldmann, founding member of Toronto's architectsAlliance. "The rebirth of Auto BLDG has laid the groundwork for a transformation of the Lower Junction, with more housing, employment and public spaces in its future."
Toronto's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the lead tenant occupying three of ten floors, shares the building with a select group of eclectic companies that includes ad agency Junction59, Zeidler Partnership Architects, Pride Toronto and arts group The Toronto Biennial. The Akin Collective maintains studio space for 20 working artists. FuseFX, an award-winning visual effects company based in Los Angeles, is relocating its Toronto studio to Auto BLDG.
In presenting the award to Auto BLDG, the Canadian Brownfields Network (CBN) noted that Auto BLDG "serves as a model for other architects and developers for preserving employment land and significant heritage assets."
It specifically commended the team for revitalizing Auto BLDG in a manner that is "complementary and sympathetic to the building's original use and character" and for taking pains to restore "significantly contaminated soil."
As part of its restoration of Auto BLDG, in 2020 Castlepoint Auto BLDG Inc. acquired and protected a 400-acre forest north of Toronto that offsets 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.