The Destructor
The Destructor
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Location
Toronto, Ontario
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Client
TAS
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Dates
2019 - Present
- Expertise
- Urban Design, Urban Planning, Architecture, Sustainable Design
Indigenous Rights Holders and Historical Occupants
Treaty Lands
Toronto Purchase Treaty 13 (1805)
Indigenous Rights Holders
Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation
Historical Occupation
Anishinaabe, Attiwonderonk, Haudenosaunee, Huron Wendat
*Treaty, territory and historical occupation information has been included for educational purposes, and is meant to show respect for these caregivers. This information is not intended to be a finite view, nor is it intended to represent legal rights or definitive boundaries. To learn more about these matters, please contact the nations in question.
2024 AIA International Design Award
The Destructor won a 2024 AIA International Design Award of Merit in the Unbuilt category.
SvN was hired by TAS to develop a groundbreaking concept for the adaptive re-use of the Wellington Destructor and its site. The project, named The Destructor Park, is a new type of mixed-use program, infrastructure and public space that re-purposes and transforms the area into a new iconic destination for the neighbourhood.
Built over Garrison Creek in 1925, the currently abandoned Wellington Destructor was once located at the edge of Toronto. It is now centrally located just west of the downtown core. SvN will transform the site from an abandoned post-industrial building into a publicly accessible hub organized around an indoor winter park, together with an event space, café and learning centre. A new pavilion along Wellington Street will reconnect the site to the city and contains working ateliers and a new Direct Energy neighbourhood energy system. Existing adjacent to the City’s Wellington Works Yard operations, a new park will also be created—one that will serve as a positive catalyst to rethink existing parks and landscape infrastructure. Of great natural and historical significance, this new project will help restore and acknowledge portions of the buried Garrison Creek and its banks.
SvN will be working with heritage architects ERA and landscape architects PUBLIC WORK in this significant joint venture between the city and the developer to renovate a site, then run it with a mix of public and private functions.
