Evangel Hall
Evangel Hall
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Location
Toronto, ON
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Client
Presbyterian Church of Canada
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Dates
2006
- Expertise
- Architecture
- Planning
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.
For nearly 70 years, Evangel Hall, an agency of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, has provided food, housing, counselling and spiritual support to marginalized citizens. By 2001, the organization had outgrown its original street-front location. A federally funded, municipally managed building fund gave Evangel Hall the opportunity to build a new headquarters for its drop-in centre, medical clinic, job and housing placement centre, while providing much-needed housing for 84 clients who are ready to make the transition from life on the street to housing in the community.
The architects were challenged by a narrow building site within the city’s 19th-century industrial precinct. In addition to providing Evangel Hall staff and clients with a safe and secure working and living environment, the architects were required to address the neighbourhood’s concerns about the effect on the community of an influx of residents who face a variety of social, medical and emotional challenges.
The residential component of the new Evangel Hall building provides bachelor, one and two bedroom units, which permits a flexible approach to different residents’ needs for privacy and communal living.
The Residence offers such amenities as rooftop gardens and open areas, onsite laundry facilities and large east-facing windows—the antithesis of the ‘warehouse’ approach that is all too prevalent among SROs (Single Room Occupancy).
