In May of 1909, The Globe reported that Toronto city council had authorized spending $80,000 to expand the “few rooms” of the uncompleted Kent Public School at 980 Dufferin St. into a much-needed 30 rooms. “Its Completion Will Meet a Great and Pressing Need,” read the paper’s editorial.
“As settlement is spreading rapidly west of Dufferin street, the completed building will be filled almost as soon as it is ready for occupation,” the paper continued. “There are already several rooms used temporarily in basements, sheds, halls or churches.”
When it was completed more than two years later, “over one thousand enthusiastic parents” attended a celebration. To handle the baby boom, The Globe announced in October, 1958, that $1,016,000 would be spent to enlarge the school. However, by 2012, and despite Toronto’s continued growth, decreasing enrolment meant the end of its life as a school.
But learning will continue inside those hallowed halls, which are wide, well-lit, and logical. It’s designed that way because the Edwardian Classical building was built according to the “Ogden Plan,” according to a 2020 conservation report by ERA Architects. That plan was developed by the Toronto School Board to “improve health and safety in new facilities, including egress, lighting and ventilation.”
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All that to say, the old Kent School will make for a wonderful focal point and community centre for the new, mixed-use neighbourhood nearing completion by partners Fitzrovia Real Estate Inc., and Hazelview Investments.
“So, this portion is going to be part of the community hub, and then down those steps will be the daycare,” says the hard hatted Caterina Cuda, architectural manager, residential and mixed-use, at Turner Fleischer. “We have the original slab here but this is going to be completely ripped out because the original building didn’t have any weeping system and drainage.” This improvement, she continues with a smile, means the handsome building will still be standing in 2126.
As our little tour-group – which also includes heritage architect Carlos Morell, principal at GBCA Architects, Michael Williams of Hazelview Investments and Fitzrovia CEO and founder Adrian Rocca – steps over construction materials, weaves around uneven flooring and peeks into former classrooms, we also marvel at the building’s robust concrete posts and beams.
“This building, even when at that time there was no [building] code, these beams comply with the current [standards] for load and everything, it was built really solid,” says Mr. Morell.
The team has made considered, surgical cuts into the thick stone base to allow light down into the lower level, where the daycare will be located: “The city really wanted to have daylight in these spaces,” explains Ms. Cuda. “Kids need light, there’re specific mandates for that.”
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The building will also house a community kitchen and offices for non-profits. On upper floors, Fitzrovia will lease space to businesses. In Fitzrovia’s three, rental-only towers that will surround the Kent School – the shortest tower of 19-storeys attaches to the school – there will be 889 units. In the three Hazelview towers rising to the west, there will be an additional 1100-plus rental units. Ground-level retail will line both Dufferin Street and Bloor Street West.
An eight-storey, 56-unit affordable and supportive housing building (to be operated by Homes First Society) is ready at the corner of Bloor Street and Collegiate Road while a new public street will front the new Bloor Collegiate Institute. (The old Bloor Collegiate, which included the Timothy Eaton Embroidery Factory building, is being façaded onto a new tower). Meanwhile, a new private street connecting Bloor Street W. to Croatia Street has been built. Eventually, art will arrive on the site in the form of one, very pink, two-storey tall gummy bear. The new, reinforced roof of the Kent School will be home to an amenities space – the chimney is being restored and retained to give a home to Chimney Swifts – and, to the south west, there will be a new public park.
Crunch those numbers, and they all add up to a large, interesting, new neighbourhood for the city. According to a fact sheet, it’s one of “Canada’s largest rental communities currently under construction” and it’s all being built in one phase. “We don’t typically see such a variety of uses within such a large site,” offers Ms. Cuda.
The cluster of new towers won’t turn many heads for their beauty. While there are subtle nods to the Kent School’s number of bays on the tower behind it, it’ll be the fluted panels on the tower connecting to the 1925 Bloor Collegiate (which features fluting around the front entrance and windows) that might catch the attention of passersby.
What will almost certainly turn heads – and direct feet into the site – will be the new pedestrian connections, active retail, and the life, laughter, and activity that will soon be commonplace. Which are all very good things indeed.