Significance of Setting: Historic Fort York and Garrison Common

The “Ryerson/ICOMOS Charrette: ‘Find out about Historic Fort York – Visitor Interpretation Center'” will address the site selection and schematic design for a Visitor / Interpretation Center for the Historic Fort York that will be placed outside ramparts of the Fort.

The Visitor/Interpretation Center to Historic Fort York will:

• link the City with the Fort
• enhance Fort York
• improve awareness, access and connections to surrounding neighbourhoods
• address the parking for the entrance to Fort York,
• reinforce pedestrian paths from TTC
• respect the Fort’s National Historic Site’s Commemorative Integrity Statement
• use the Ontario Heritage Act and Planning Act to conserve this Heritage Conservation District
• Incorporate a valued-based using the Fort’s Statement of Significances (SOS) from the Canadian Register of Historic Places and ICOMOS Charters.

All students from Ryerson and guest post-secondary training centers (total 24-30) participating in the Charrette will be offered to join one of three Design/Research Teams with 8-10 participants; each team will select one ICOMOS Charter that is to be analyzed and applied within their design proposal. Teams will have assigned Team Leaders /Coordinators (e.g. Ryerson Faculty, ICOMOS Expert, and Heritage Professionals).

Each of three Design/Research teams will receive a package/kit of selected documentation that will include the following: Goals of the Charrette from ICOMOS Canada and Ryerson’s learning objectives; Design and Heritage Parameters, the Programmatic Requirements of the Fort within the context of the Toronto Waterfront Development and the City of Toronto’s Beautiful City and urban design initiative.

TEAM CANADA – ICOMOS Canada Appleton Charter & Standards & Guidelines for Historic Places in Canada (Red team)

TEAM AUSTRALIA – Burra Charter, ICOMOS Australia, (Yellow team)

TEAM USA – U.S. Department of Interior Standards & Guidelines (Blue team)

The Charrette will take place at the Historic Fort York, the birthplace of Toronto, supervised and equipped work/stay overnight area. Students will arrive on site on Fri Sept. 22nd at 1PM; they will be introduced to the working area limitation and conditions, and will have access to the work area during the entire time. Charrette will be completed by 4PM on Sunday, Sept. 24th.

Presentation requirements: panels to be prepared for display according to the ICOMOS General Assembly Xi’an China (Oct 17 -21) submission requirements. Students will exhibit the Team panels at Ryerson University, Architecture Building during the ICOMOS Canada congress (Sept 29^th to October 2^nd)

Final presentation of the Charrette team (20 minutes per team) will take place during the ICOMOS Canada Congress at the Historic Places Initiative – Ontario Pre-Congress Workshop, on Thursday, Sept. 29^th at the Historic Fort York, Toronto. The Charrette Jury will evaluate the team presentations and provide feedback followed by a Question Period from workshop participants.

For more details, visit the ICOMOS Canada website – www.icomos.org, For Charrette, or ICOMOS Congress registration information, contact Conference Coordinator – icomos2005@rogers.com