Notice of intention to designate

497 Richmond Street West (Waterworks Building)
Take notice that Toronto City Council intends to designate the lands and buildings known municipally as 497 Richmond Street (including the portions identified as 505 and 511 Richmond Street West) under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Description
The property at 497 Richmond Street West (including the portions identified as 505 and 511 Richmond Street West) is worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, and meets the criteria for municipal designation prescribed by the Province of Ontario under the three categories of design, associative and contextual values. The Waterworks Building (1932) is a public works complex rising one and two stories around an interior courtyard and containing an administrative building, workshops and warehouse that is located on the south side of Richmond Street West between Brant and Maud Streets and includes St. Andrew's Playground on Adelaide Street West. The site was listed on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties in 1983.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
The Waterworks Building has design value as a representative example of a public works complex that is distinguished by its highly crafted Art Deco detailing with decorative stonework. The interior of the south workshops displays a rare and original wood floor with pieces of wood inlaid to resemble masonry.

The property is associated with the architectural career of J. J. Woolnough, who held the position of City Architect during the 1930s when the Waterworks Building was designed and constructed. During his extended career with the City of Toronto, Woolnough oversaw the plans for an important collection of public buildings, including the Horse Palace at the Canadian National Exhibition and the Waterworks Building, which embraced Art Deco designs.

Contextually, with the size of the property that incorporates St. Andrew's Playground, the scale, placement and appearance of the building on Richmond Street, and the position of the complex to terminate the vista south on Augusta Avenue from Queen Street West, the Waterworks Building is a local landmark in the King-Spadina neighbourhood.

Heritage Attributes
The heritage attributes of the property at 497 (with 505 and 511) Richmond Street West are:

• The scale, form and massing of the structure that rises from one to two extended stories around an interior courtyard that is entered from both Richmond Street West and Maud Street
• The brick cladding, with brick, stone, wood, metal and glass detailing
• The flat roofs covering the complex, with wood monitors with metal detailing above the workshops and gabled skylights with metal trusses over the warehouse
• On the administrative building on Richmond Street West, the stone base, the stonework around the entrances to the offices and the courtyard, the band courses dividing the stories, the stylized corner quoins, the tripartite stone banding above the piers, the coping and decoration along the roofs and, on the frontispiece at the west end of the north facade, the chevrons and date stone
• The fenestration, with piers organizing the flat-headed window openings that are aligned vertically and horizontally on the administrative building, workshops and warehouse, some of which retain the original metal sash windows
• The surviving wood exterior doors
• On the interior of the workshops and warehouse, the unique and original wood floor, the metal trusses along the ceiling and in the skylights, and the brick piers with stylized geometric detailing
• The setting of the complex to terminate the vista south along Augusta Avenue from Queen Street West overlooking St. Andrew's Playground and Adelaide Street West

Further information respecting the proposed designation is available for viewing from the City Clerk's Department.

Notice of an objection to the proposed designations may be served on the City Clerk, Attention: Rosalind Dyers, Administrator, Toronto and East York Community Council, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, 2nd floor, West, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2N2, within thirty days of July 3, 2012, which is August 2, 2012. The notice must set out the reason(s) for the objection, and all relevant facts.

Dated at Toronto this 3rd day of July, 2012.

Ulli S. Watkiss
City Clerk