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Integrating Culture, Nature and Community: Evergreen Brick Works

Geoff Cape’s epiphany came after years in real estate development where his central concern was to maximize return on investment, the inevitable consequence of which was more buildings, more parking lots and the relegation of nature to the distant margins of the site. For Cape, this was a microcosm of what was happening to cities. He cites the example of Los Angeles, a city that grew by 300% in area, but only 45% in population over the same time period - and St. Louis for which the statistics are even more skewed. In 1991, with rapid urbanization bringing a heightened sense of urgency, Cape founded Evergreen, a national charity dedicated to the greening of cities. His idea was ‘to bring nature and communities together for the benefit of both.” (WATCH: Geoff Cape at TED-X Thunder Bay) The mechanism that evergreen chose was that of revitalizing school playgrounds across Canada, tearing up asphalt and concrete and replacing them with community gardens. More than 5000 schools have benefited from Evergreen’s interventions, and many have reported a decrease in hierarchical and aggressive forms of play, and a commensurate increase in more creative and collaborative engagement. (Note: These results are entirely consistent with the research of Richard Louv - see previous posts.) The opportunity to scale up came when Evergreen took over stewardship of a former brick works site partially in the flood plain of Toronto’s Don River Valley. The site had been expropriated by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to save it from residential development, and the reclamation and rehabilitation of the site neatly fit Evergreen’s mandate. Now the 16-hectare Weston Family Quarry Garden, a remnant of the original brick quarry, includes wetlands, wild flower meadows and four kilometres of trails.

At the heart of the larger site, but not under Evergreen’s purview, was an eclectic collection of 16 industrial buildings, the earliest dating back to the 19th century when the quarry provided bricks for notable Toronto buildings such as Osgoode Hall, Massy Hall and the Ontario Legislature. Following a successful response to an RFP from the City of Toronto, Evergreen leased the 4.9 hectare "industrial pad" with a view to transforming these buildings into Canada’s first large scale community environmental centre. This was a chance for Evergreen to demonstrate Cape’s idea of nature as a generator of urban design, and create a facility that represented the integration of "culture, nature and community." Evergreen’s philosophy is one of collaboration, a systems approach that mediates between people and place,and recognizes that environmental issues are part of interdependent, complex social and economic systems. Accordingly, the project was structured as a joint venture between Du toit Allsopp Hillier (who created the masterplan), Diamond Schmitt Architects (who designed the one new building known as the Centre for Green Cities, and now headquarters for Evergreen) and other prominent Toronto firms. For Evergreen, the heterogeneous nature of the existing structures called for a multiplicity of approaches. According to Megan Torza, partner in charge of the project for DTAH, “the strategy was to continue the site’s architectural evolution with a combination of discrete interventions, including elevating new structures above old, attaching new spaces as appendages, inserting new linings into old shells, and establishing a network of bridges connecting the buildings that allow the landscape to penetrate the site, while upholding its original integrity.”

The definition of "integrity" became an issue of public debate when the City of Toronto invoked a 2005 bylaw, issuing Evergreen with an order to remove the graffiti that adorned the walls of the abandoned buildings. This graffiti had been acquired over the 20 years or so that the site had been derelict, and used by local youth for clandestine all-night parties. Presciently the Evergreen design team had protected the graffiti with a covenant in the lease agreement, enabling them to successfully challenge the directive and so preserve this aspect of the site’s folklore. Torza believes there is an argument to be made for the value of these unselfconscious traces of history, just as there is for the often informally arranged vernacular buildings of industrial sites. She feels that the materiality and spatial quality embodied in these structures often seem forced if recreated in an intentional way. Accordingly, she prefers not to impose her will in the creation of new buildings, but rather breathe new life into old ones. At Evergreen, the "light touch, loose fit" approach has seen such buildings transformed into a garden centre, cafeteria, farmers market and other community uses.

I share Torza’s view that the adaptive-reuse of older buildings is inherently sustainable, not simply because it conserves embodied energy, but because it also preserves and enhances valuable social, ecological and cultural resources. For this reason, the carefully considered site rehabilitation strategies implemented at the Evergreen Brick Works offer an important, integrated model for urban evolution that is readily transferable to other cities. Client: Evergreen Architects: Du Toit Allsopp Hillier / Diamond Schmitt Architects Inc. Photos: Tom Arban 1) Centre for Green Cities seen from the community cycling space 2) The Young Welcome Centre is the venue for the regular winter farmers market 3) The Centre for Green Cities rises from the remnants of the old brick making shed 4) View from Weston Family Quarry Garden