PAST AND PRESENT
about ourselves and our communities; it’s part of what makes us different and unique. This also helps to further the “15-minute city” concept, which has grown in popularity throughout the pandemic. People want to live in areas where their needs are easily acces- sible, thus rejecting urban sprawl while choosing a neighborhood that reflects them and the stories they tell about themselves. The concept, also known as re-urbanism, advocates for the redevelopment of historical or obsolete buildings to facilitate a more sustain- able and accessible city while building a stronger sense of community. When you consider the trends associated with all these benefits (carbon capture, waste diversion, increased sense of community and place, and improved connection to our past and our personal stories), it’s easy to see that it’s an ideal time to consider adaptive reuse as an option more often. Increasingly, consumers are looking for ways to slow the
effects of climate change and choosing companies that demonstrate they are responsible corporate citizens who take environmental impact seriously.
Apple’s Adaptive Reuse Project Apple Self Storage is a company that has taken this concept to heart. Being a family owned and operated company, we recognize the importance of respecting, engaging, and honoring the communities in which we are involved. An integral part of this is recognizing and maintaining historical narratives and a community’s stories. A great example of this is a recent adaptive reuse project in the Leaside neighbor- hood of Toronto.
The building, located at 20 Research
Road, was part of the Research Enterprises Limited (REL) campus, a top-secret, government-owned manu- facturing facility that produced optical equipment and radar sets for the military during WWII. The building at 20 Research Road was originally the
REL Radio Stores Building No. 16 and is one of two main buildings remaining from the original WWII complex designed by the firm of Allward and Gouinlock. After the war, the building was converted to a consumer goods manufacturing building and Pankhurst Knitwear occupied the space from 1946 to 2016. Shortly thereafter, we began the long process of converting this building to a self-storage facility, with the goal to keep the heritage of the building intact. In October 2019, the Toronto Preservation Board recom- mended it for inclusion in the City’s heritage register, which was confirmed by city council in November 2019. The documentary photographer,
Peter MacCallum, wrote an excellent article on the building in Spacing Toronto (
spacing.ca/toronto/ 2021/03/12/research-road-redux/), in which he describes the befits of adaptive reuse perfectly when he writes, “Having survived against the odds, 20 Research Road serves as a link
October 2022
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