ACTION REQUIRED – IMPORTANT HERITAGE MEETING 14 JUNE, 2022

Breaking news re the development application affecting the Basilian Seminary building at 95 St Joseph Street. The City has given notice of a meeting on June 14, 2022 of the Toronto Preservation Board to discuss the alterations that will be allowed to the existing building, which has just been granted Part IV heritage protection.

Counterintuitive as this may sound, the City recommendation is to allow demolition of the majority of the building, preserving just the façade and moving the chapel.

Please act today – you must lodge your comments with the City before noon on Friday 10 June, 2022 for them to be considered at the meeting.  The meeting will take place on Tuesday 14 June, 2022 at 9.30am. Send your comments via email to hertpb@toronto.ca and councillor_layton@toronto.ca. Tell your friends!

If it would help you, here is a draft for you to cut and paste into your email:

To: The Chair and Members of the Toronto Preservation Board                                                                                                     

As a member of the local community, I would like voice my disappointment at the lack of heritage protection being proposed in an Alterations Report concerning the Ernest Cormier-designed Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre, located at 95 St. Joseph Street. This building was designated for Part IV Heritage Protection less than 6 months ago. This designation would appear to be meaningless, and the Alterations Report undermines my faith in the system to protect Toronto’s heritage.

Respected expert Phyllis Lambert from the Canadian Centre for Architecture has written you no less than three letters since 2019, and her opinion is that the planned degree of conservation is unacceptable. I urge you to demand better, and to refuse the easy answer of demolition and facadism. You can force a rethink of the future of this building – thereby preserving a unique building, and a special area adjacent to Queens Park, for the sake of all Torontonians.

You must supply your name and address.

You may want to check out this article in the Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/toronto/article-university-of-toronto-has-ernest-cormier-building-in-its-crosshairs/

For further information about the Heritage Designation, click here: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/decisionBodyProfile.do?function=doPrepare&decisionBodyId=1899#Meeting-2022.PB35