Two timely things to mention tonight.
1. Check DEALICIOUS today (Tuesday) and tomorrow for local deals! Today’s is Madame Gateaux at Danforth and Woodbine..
Here’s the deal…The fine art of cupcake baking and decorating is perfected through hands on practice and expert instruction. Learn how to create your cupcake masterpiece with today’s Dealicious Deal: For $40 You Get $80 Worth Of Cupcake Classes With A Red Seal Certified Pastry Chef At Madame Gateaux
Madame Gateaux offers a wide range of classes in the edible arts. Whether you are a hobbyist or someone who wants to upgrade their skill, there are classes that will suit you. Their private or group classes are taught by professional pastry chefs. Madame Gateaux also carries large selections of baking utensils, accessories and ingredients at affortable prices.
Noel Yim is a Red Seal Certified Pastry Chef who is totally in love with the pastry arts. As a pastry chef in Windsor Arms Hotel and Head Pastry Chef in the Humber College, she gained years of experiences in the baking industry. Being a product of George Brown College, and taught by well known chocolatier, Noel will teach you the why and how to. You’ll find that she enjoys putting some oriental essence to her creations.
Toronto East General
2. Wednesday night is the next community meeting regarding the Toronto East General renovation – March 2nd from 6:30 – 8 p.m. at the East York Civic Centre at 850 Coxwell.
If you’ve been following the blog comments on this, you’ll know that Leo Gonzalez has been very vocal about keeping the building. Leo has posted another comment and it was pretty darn interesting so I thought you would like to read it too.
So I decided to take up Shelley Darling’s offer for a tour of the building today. I went in not knowing quite what to expect; I knew what a lot of the problems were with the original structures, and I’ve also attended enough public meetings where proponents of a certain plan are merely going through the motions of consulting the community, rather than taking any concerns seriously. With these thoughts in my mind, I was greeted by Shelley, Carmine Stumpo and Rob Devitt, the President and CEO of TEGH. As they greeted me, I assumed (rather logically) that there must be several other people attending this tour. But when I was led into a room adjacent to Mr Devitt’s office, I realized this was going to be an exclusive tour for me. Not only that, Mr Devitt proceeded to outline all of the steps and the path that led them to finally decide that a new structure would be required. A quick summary: they initially planned on renovating the original structures but realized there would
be several insurmountable obstacles (many of which are listed in the above post). What surprised me is that they took the additional steps of consulting with some developers about the possibility of re-using the original structures for other purposes (condos, seniors’ residence, that sort of thing). These developers also had serious reservations about the ability to re-purpose these structures, and ultimately the decision was made that the buildings couldn’t be part of any future plans for the site. Again, I won’t go into the many other details that Mr Devitt outlined. Suffice it to say that they did their due diligence before reaching this decision. And that’s a very significant point. I was under the mistaken impression that these old structures were being cast aside without any regard for their architectural or historical significance, but in fact the opposite is true. In addition, this isn’t going to be another ad-hoc addition to TEGH. There is a 50-year plan to
redevelop the entire site and turn it into a far more cohesive campus than what we have today. This should bring much more unity to the various buildings and address most of the problems that exist there today.
After speaking to me for about 15 minutes, Mr Devitt left me with Shelley and Carmine to tour some of the problems areas he had described. Both were very receptive to suggestions, and in fact Carmine indicated that the original rendering for the new structure on Sammon was outdated and that revisions had been made based on community input. Several existing features of the original buildings will be incorporated into the new structure, and they expect to have new renderings soon. However, the process still isn’t closed, nor is the design set in stone. For example, I mentioned that incorporating some of the old brick in the new building, whether inside the lobby, outside around the entrance or as part of the new garden fronting onto Coxwell, is something I would want to see if we’re going to lose the old buildings. They agreed and were very receptive. I also suggested that as the project proceeds, presentations could be set-up at EYCC for the community to have direct access to
view and comment on many of the options that will be available for the new building. They agreed and referenced a hospital in Peterborough that did exactly this, and their plan is to keep the community involved in a very direct way throughout the whole process.
So, has my opinion changed? Well, I will say that my position has softened considerably. I’m still upset that we are going to lose the original buildings, and I still wish they could have been preserved somehow. But overall, I have to admit it’s hard to argue with their plan.
