CANADA MALTING SILOS New life for a historic landmark on Toronto Harbour Two monumental silos book end Toronto Harbour: the Canada Malting silos at the foot of Bathurst Street and the Victory Soya Mills silos at the foot of Parliament Street. Given their scale and prominence, this pair have vital new roles to play in a revitalized waterfront. Every time we walk along the water by the Music Garden, we try to imagine what the future use of the Canada Malting silos might be. The Canada Malting silos, built in 1928 at the height of Toronto's early twentieth-century industrial expansion, were abandoned in the 1980s. They have somehow survived, legacies of a past of which few other traces remain. Over the years, there have been numerous plans for their adaptive reuse, but there were difficulties: deterioration of the structures, finding the right combination of uses, and arranging financing. The timing for repurposing them may now be right. Their heritage status has been acknowledged, and a program of rehabilitation began in late spring 2021.

There is enormous potential for public use. There are two distinct parts to the Canada Malting silos. The central opening between them is being opened up as a gateway to the water's edge. The night lighting of the silos will give Toronto a gleaming, glowing western bookend for the harbour. When the structural rehab on the silos is finished, the fences will come down and a great new park will be created around the base. This is part of the larger Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Plan, approved in 2017, which aims to improve the surrounding unused city-owned property with new public spaces, including a promenade connection to Ireland Park. There is a plan to eventually turn the silos into a cultural and community services hub and destination on the harbour. OCAD University has already been engaged with plans to use the silos to facilitate critical dialogues on climate resilience through the lens of art and design and will include activities such as public arts programming, exhibitions, installations, and symposiums, done in collaboration with Indigenous, local, national, and international partners.

The start of refurbishment of these long-neglected structures is a hopeful sign of renewal connecting past, present, and future. It is encouraging to see that similar plans are being developed for the Victory Soya Mills silos at the other end of the harbour. The pieces are falling into place to reconnect the waterfront from the central harbour to Port Lands and the new mouth of the Don River. GETTING THERE Address: 9 Eireann Quay, Toronto, TTC: The Canada Malting Silos are a short walk from the stops along the Queens Quay LRT line, which runs from Union Station. CYCLING: The Martin Goodman Trail on the waterfront passes right by.