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It's easier being green: Toronto's St. Gabriel's Passionist Church

Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Wed 16 May 2007 02:33 PM PDT  



Doors Open Toronto

TheStar.com - artsentertainment - It's easier being green

May 17, 2007 04:30 AM

In the case of St. Gabriel's Passionist Church, you don't have to have faith to be a believer.

This extraordinary building, which opened just last November, embodies an approach to the environment that isn't simply religious, it's spiritual.

St. Gabriel's, one of 150 buildings included in this year's Doors Open Toronto, will be a highlight. Indeed, it is one of those rare projects that everyone should visit, not just for its architectural beauty, but for what it says about green building.

Given that this year's Doors Open Toronto theme is sustainability, its inclusion couldn't be timelier.

Designed by Roberto Chiotti of Larkin Architects, this $10.5-million facility – which received prestigious Gold certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system – proves once and for all that green building need not be expensive, or unpleasant to look at or inhabit. If anything, it makes a case for sustainable architecture that's so compelling, it's sad to think it remains the exception.

Surrounded on every side by some of the most dreary and depressing architecture, St. Gabriel's (670 Sheppard Ave. E.) stands as a beacon. Using poured-in-place concrete, recycled pews, specially treated glass and lots of (coloured) natural light, Chiotti has pulled off something miraculous. Essentially, he has reinvented that most ancient of architectural forms, the church.


Informed by Passionist principles, specifically the eco-theology of Thomas Berry, this is a building that embodies, illustrates and teaches a new cosmology based on respect for the planet.

"Berry's argument is that you can't have healthy humans on an unhealthy planet," says Chiotti, who studied theology and ecology as well as architecture. "The church is part of an attempt to create a bio-centric cosmology.

In Chiotti's hands, the church has shed its traditional elements; there's no spire here, for instance, no pointed arches, columns or flying buttresses.

Instead, there's a large glass wall, a façade made of Tyndall limestone, a copper-clad surface. Inside, the church is divided into two sections, with pews facing each other. The raw concrete walls serve as a blank screen on which light shines through a coloured glass ceiling. The effect is spectacular and – dare one say? – spiritual, even magical. The vivid reds, yellows and blues are reminiscent of those gorgeous hallucinatory canvases done by Toronto painter John Meredith in the 1960s.

This is not a building to be missed.

Neither are the SAS Building (280 King St. E.), the Toronto Botanical Garden (777 Lawrence Ave. E.), Thomas L. Wells Public School (69 Nightstar Rd.) or Bloorview Kids Rehab (150 Kilgour Rd.).

All represent a contemporary response to the environmental crisis that most architects and developers – not to mention politicians – would prefer to ignore. What's interesting, however, is not how different these projects are from conventional ones, but how much better they are.

The SAS building, for example, began as an attempt to build a corporate headquarters that enhanced productivity. That translated into a project with plenty of natural light, fresh air and open space. The hope was that by constructing a place in which employees actually liked to spend time, absenteeism would decrease and work would improve. Whatever the extra costs involved in going green, they would be more than compensated by higher output. Before long, SAS brass, with a little help from their architects, NORR, realized that workplace happiness and architectural sustainability amounted to much the same thing.

Up at the Toronto Botanical Gardens, the most obvious nod to the environment is a green roof. Given the nature of the complex, such a feature makes a lot of sense. The most recent addition to the TBG also incorporates recycled material from the two original buildings. The architects, Montgomery Sisam, deserve enormous credit for turning a small commission with a limited budget into a major accomplishment.

A lot of attention has been paid to green roofs, but also starting to appear around town are green walls, which can greatly enhance a building's internal environment. St. Gabriel's has one. There's an even more spectacular example of a living, breathing wall, several storeys high, at the University of Guelph-Humber, designed by Diamond + Schmitt Architects.

Bloorview Kids Rehab, another hit design from Montgomery Sisam, is an important project that takes what just decades ago would have been a cold and institutional facility, and reinvents it as a 21st-century building that minimizes differences between able-bodied and disabled. With its dramatically sloping roof and a grid of internal "streets," Bloorview is an extension of the city, not a place set apart from it.

But a special mention must be made of another variety of green buildings, those that adapt existing structures to meet environmental standards. By saving on material waste and rescuing architecture in disrepair, an eco-conscious retrofit is the greenest solution of all.

The Beach Solar Laundromat (2240 Queen St. E.), the Robertson Building (215 Spadina Ave.), 401 Richmond (401 Richmond St. W.) and Steam Whistle Brewing (255 Bremner Blvd.) are a few notable examples.

By returning old buildings to their original glory – then surpassing it – they are a gift to the city.

The same might be said of Doors Open Toronto itself. In just eight years, it has become one of a handful of events that help increase awareness of the city and its narrative. Public interest in architecture has never been greater, but unlike most art forms, architecture can only be indulged by allowing people to look.

Often that's easier said than done – except during this one weekend, when we're all invited to open our eyes.



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