The Distillery District is a heritage building community located to the east of the downtown core in Toronto. Gooderham and Worts founded the site as a distillery in 1832, and by the 1860s, it was the largest distillery in the world. The deindustrialization of neighbouring areas subsequently resulted in the closure of all remaining distillery operations by 1990. By 2003, the Distillery District was transformed into a pedestrian oriented area, allowing for a dynamic public space where the arts, shopping, dining, and events could be enjoyed by various people. The Distillery District is in close proximity to the Canary District, the Old Town of Toronto and the St. Lawrence Market, and the Lower Don Lands Waterfront (refer to appendix …show more content…
The Distillery District follows the directions of this specific section exactly, with creating pedestrianized streets open to the public. The Distillery District also follows the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe in section 2.2.4, part 4a, its states that urban growth centres will be planned as focal areas of investment in institutional and region-wide public services, as well as commercial, recreational, cultural, and entertainment uses, (Growth Plan for Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2016).
The Distillery District is a designated mixed-use area in section 4.5 of the Toronto Official Plan because it combines a variety of uses like residential, recreation, and a variety of activities, (Toronto Official Plan, 2016). A policy text that governs the space of the Distillery District states that, Mixed Use Areas are made up of a broad range of commercial, residential, and institutional uses, in a single or mixed use buildings, as well as parks and open spaces and utilities, (Toronto Official Plan, …show more content…
This is seen through the design of the store fronts and restaurant patios (refer to appendix 4). It was quite noticeable that the patio designs of restaurants and coffee shops all followed a very neutral, raw, distressed look in order to flow with the design of the district. This was done even if the exterior of the shop did not match the theme on the inside, but many of the stores interior followed the old rustic feel of the district (refer to appendix 5). Visually the Distillery district is very pleasing. This is due to the abundance of stores and shops which run along the inner streets of the district. Almost every shop has windows which contain a beautifully arranged assortment of the goods within a particular store. This adds to the aesthetic and atmosphere of the street as people can window shop while taking a stroll down the cobblestone paths (refer to appendix 6). The Distillery District may carry most of its charm with the Victorian-era feel of the buildings, but there are many new art installations and sculptures that have been added to the area to create an element of modern design. This includes a series of large sculptures that all have a modern flair, but stay on trend of the old distressed look by using older looking materials