Community members sent a clear message to Royal Ontario Museum directors Tuesday night: a luxury condo sandwiched between U of T and the Royal Ontario Museum is not wanted in their backyard.
In a heated meeting held at U of T’s Mechanical Engineering Building, residents and U of T representatives angrily voiced criticisms of the proposed 46-storey tower to be built on the site of the closed McLaughlin Planetarium.
“There is virtually unanimous opposition to the luxury condo proposal,” said SAC vice-president Jen Hassum amid excited cheers. Presidents of the Victoria College Students’ Administrative Council, the UC Literary and Athletic Society, the Music Undergraduate Association, and others also spoke out against the plans, which they say would increase property costs and traffic, and are simply inappropriate for a cultural and educational district.
The faculty of music, which is located next to the ROM on Bloor St. West, released a statement Monday morning of their opposition to the tower, which they worried would overshadow their three-storey building.
“I am totally opposed to the development and will cancel my longstanding membership at ROM in protest,” said one music patron.
The chief architect of the project, Brian Brisbin of Graywood Developments Ltd., who attempted to speak over boos and catcalls from the audience, described the proposed condo as a symbol that “people would point to and say, ‘That’s where the cultural district is.'”
The area is currently zoned for institutional use only, and the meeting with residents was part of the process necessary to change it to allow a mixed residential building-it would include 35,000 square feet of gallery space-a change many in the community worry would open the floodgates to other, similar developments in the area.
“Are we not establishing a precedent for new 40- or 50-storey buildings built in the area for the same reasons-budgetary needs?” asked one Bloor-Avenue area resident.
“[The area] acts as a relief to our intensely dense metropolis, a chance to breathe,” said another.
Trinity-Spadina councillor Olivia Chow, who had chaired a similar meeting in which residents rejected plans for a new Varsity Stadium complex, oversaw the discussion, which was attended by several hundred people, many who had to wait outside for a chance to speak.
The proposal incorporated a front “plaza” with a bridge to Philosopher’s Walk, a holographic wall of images related to the Edward Johnson building, as well as a refurbished, “more symbolic” entrance to the Museum TTC Station, according to Brisbin.
“The tower wasn’t merely a financial justification,” he argued. “It tells a story that refers down to the museum.”
With such strong opposition to the development, ROM CEO William Thorsell’s plans to simultaneously finance the Renaissance ROM renovations and transform the Queen’s Park cultural space have been dealt a huge blow. Though the ROM could technically go ahead with its application with the city, it’s an unlikely prospect at this point.
“If the community is completely united in opposition, then it won’t get built,” said Thorsell to applause at the end of the night.
