Architect to offer “Christmas Present” to City Hall
Stratford’s Grand Trunk site is hard to miss. It’s an 18-acre property in the downtown core, once the home of the Grand Trunk Railway Locomotive Repair Shops. It is a source of pride, featuring largely in the City’s history, but it is also a huge civic problem, due to the heavy pollution of the site and the related costs of remediation.
Architect Robert Ritz has a solution, and he’s offering it to City Hall as a gift.
“Our greatest difficulty with the site comes from the fact that we can’t know the cost of remediation until we begin work. On the other hand, we understand the problems we face with the building itself. Why not avoid all that uncertainty and use the Grand Trunk building to resolve the problem?”
Ritz’s solution includes minimal disturbance of existing lands, an innovative plan for the reuse of the old building and creative parking plans that will encourage downtown housing density. He argues that reuse of the building will be very profitable for the City: “This plan offers a five-time return on investment. The building itself is a huge open space, easy to build within.”
The plan itself will be presented for public input at an open house on November 25. For Ritz, this is essential to developing his ideas: “We need to hear from people who live and work in the City, people who really understand Stratford’s complex needs.” When public feedback has been incorporated into the plan, it will be presented at City Hall.
What: Open House on the GTR renovation
When: 7 pm on Tuesday November 25. DOORS OPEN AT 6, presentation at 7
Where: Army, Navy and Air Force Veteran’s Association, 151 Lorne Avenue E.