Artscape is Now Accepting Applications from
Non-Profit Arts and Environmental
Community Organizations to
Become Tenants in the Green/Arts Barns

[ed: Artscape is located in the old TTC barns around Bathurst St. Clair.]

Artscape is pleased to announce the beginning of the tenanting process for the Green/Arts Barns Project and is now accepting applications for space from non-profit arts and environmental community organizations. The community organizations will provide energy, imagination and programming to the Green/Arts Barns Project, creating a dynamic that will transform the beautifully redesigned heritage buildings into a model for innovative creative redevelopment in North America. Affordable artist live/work and studio tenants will also contribute to this creative synergy and individual artist tenants will be selected during a later phase of the development.

Artscape has decided to begin the tenant selection process for the community organization tenants because their needs will determine the number, size and design of the spaces in the Community Barn component of the project. Artscape also recognizes that community organizations require a healthy period of time to plan significant new developments. Applications from community organizations are due no later than Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 5:00 p.m. Further information and an application form can be obtained from the Artscape website at www.torontoartscape.on.ca/barns.

As Artscape is still in the process of raising capital funds and negotiating agreements with the City of Toronto, which owns the site, applicants are not required to make a formal commitment to lease space at this time.

About the TTC Wychwood Streetcar Barns Site The TTC Wychwood Barns are an excellent example of early 20th century industrial architecture. The 53,000 square foot complex is located on a 4.3-acre site between Wychwood and Christie Avenues, south of St. Clair Avenue West along Benson Avenue. The facility consists of five attached, brick buildings that range from 198 to 326 feet long and 38 to 44 feet wide. Built between 1913 and 1921, the barns were the hub of the Toronto Civic Railway. From 1921 to 1978, it was one of seven streetcar houses operated by the TTC. At their peak, the barns serviced ten routes and 167 streetcars. During the 1980s, the Wychwood Barns served as a testing and development facility for new streetcars and for the retrofitted Scarborough RT trains. Since completion of the retrofit in the mid 1980s the barns have been left vacant.

In January 2004, Artscape was selected by the City of Toronto as the preferred proponent for the redevelopment of the former TTC Barns. Artscape's vision for the reuse of the barns was developed through an extensive process of community consultations and a feasibility study published in May of 2002. Construction of the Green/Arts Barns is projected to begin in late 2005 with completion and occupancy planned for late 2006 or early 2007.

About the Green/Arts Barns Project

The Green/Arts Barns will be a unique meeting place and a resource serving the arts, the environment, and the diverse communities that make up the St. Clair and Bathurst neighbourhood. The Green/Arts Barns Project aims to:

• Provide affordable space for the arts and the environment
• Animate the adjacent park with programs and services
• Provide facilities for community-based educational and recreational activities
• Preserve an important part of our built heritage
• Honour the legacy of public transit in Canada

The Green/Arts Barns will be comprised of four components: The Studio Barn, The Covered Street Barn, The Community Barn and The Green Barn. Each barn will contribute in different ways to the vision and programming of the site while enhancing and integrating the community and the adjacent park. The Green/Arts Barns will be a dynamic and creative place, a home for experimentation and innovation where new ideas flourish and people from all walks of life come together to make their community a better place to live, work, and play. It will allow us to imagine a future with a sustainable environment, a robust and richly diverse cultural life, a city that offers new solutions for affordable housing, and communities that find common ground around neighbourhood issues.

Deadline for Submission: February 15, 2005 by 5:00 p.m.

Further Information and an Application Form can be obtained from the Artscape website at www.torontoartscape.on.ca/barns