Kodak building nine

Kodak building 9, surrounded by brownfields.

Film and camera manufacturer Kodak operated a large plant, in Mount Dennis, Ontario, from the mid 1910s to the mid 2000s, of which only Kodak building nine remains.[1][2][3] At the height of its operations the campus contained over a dozen buildings. It was the employee recreation building housing a gym and cafeteria. Kodak hosted a weekly movie night in the Cafeteria. Although building 9 has been vandalized it has been proposed it be designated as a heritage property and preserved and repurposed. Rick McGinnis, in Blog TO, wrote: "What I can't understand is how no one can see the value of Building 9, even if just as a reminder of when even blue collar life had its touches of elegance..."[4]

Regional transit agency MetroLinx purchased the Kodak campus in 2012.[5] And has described plans to make building nine a key component of a regional transit hub to be situated on the south edge of the site.

Local Mount Dennis residents lobbied for the last remaining building to be retained and restored, even though in approximately ten years since the campus had been abandoned it had been heavily vandalized.[6] On February 12, 2014, the York Guardian reported on an initiative to get more public input as to how the Kodak campus will be re-developed.[7] Peter Frampton, of the Learning Enrichment Foundation, asserted that the 23 hectares (57 acres) site should be put to more uses than transit. In May 2013 MetroLinx agreed to take in community input in the uses of the property.[8]

Peter Gatt of the Photographic Museum of Ontario called for the building to be the museum's new home.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Ken Shaddock (2013-05-06). "Memories of a former Kodak employee: Ken Shaddock started in the order department at Kodak in 1967 and worked his way up to sales and marketing operations before he retired in 2001.". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. Kodak came to Canada in 1899 and moved twice in Toronto due to rapid growth before the company bought 48 acres in Mt. Dennis in 1912 — the site that would become known as Kodak Heights and become one of the largest employers in the area.
  2. ↑ Rachel Mendleson (2013-10-02). "Crosstown LRT project reveals — and respects — Eglinton's history". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2013-10-03. Building 9, the former Kodak employee building, is the last remnant of Kodak Heights. The derelict building will become the "heart" of Mount Dennis station.
  3. ↑ "Kodak's Building 9 was once employee hub of Toronto complex". Toronto Sun. 2013-06-22. Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. Retrieved August 2013. In 2013, the last remaining building became home to squatters, teenage graffiti artists, and the property of Metrolinx, the government organization that oversees public transportation in the GTA.
  4. ↑ Rick McGinnis (2009-07-03). "The End of Kodachrome and the Death of Kodak Heights". Blog TO. Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. I understand completely why Kodak, eager to avoid the fate of its onetime rival, Polaroid, had to make drastic decisions such as the one to close Kodak Heights. I can also understand why local residents and politicians are pressuring Metrus Properties to try and replace the industrial jobs the area has lost, instead of filling the Kodak lands with big box retail stores. I can even understand why bored local kids are trashing Building 9 - frankly, I might have been one of them if this had happened 30 years ago. What I can't understand is how no one can see the value of Building 9, even if just as a reminder of when even blue collar life had its touches of elegance, but I'm sure my dismay is largely a personal reaction to what seems like the erasure of all that history, much of it my own.
  5. 1 2 James Armstrong (2013-09-13). "Community wants to preserve Kodak building while Metrolinx plans LRT station". Global TV News. Retrieved 2015-06-09. Building 9, located on Eglinton Avenue just west Black Creek Drive, was built in 1940 and served as a key part of Kodak’s manufacturing centre until 2006 when it was closed.
  6. ↑ Patty Winsa (2013-05-08). "Weston-Mount Dennis residents want Metrolinx to preserve last Kodak building". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2014-03-25. “Mount Dennis is a sort of company town originally with Kodak as the major employer. A lot of people have a strong emotional attachment to it,” said Simon Chamberlain, a community activist. “With Kodak gone, this is the one bit of legacy that is left. And it’s one of the few significant historical buildings in the community.”
  7. ↑ Bessie Sunshine (2014-02-12). "A drive to refocus the former Kodak lands". York Guardian. Archived from the original on 2014-02-12. The 23-hectare site of the former Kodak lands should house more than LRT vehicles, Frampton said, adding unlike most communities across the city, site development is being welcomed with open arms.
  8. ↑ Patty Winsa (2013-05-08). "Weston Mount Dennis residents will have input into Crosstown LRT storage site". Archived from the original on 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2014-03-25. Metrolinx has done an about face and will now allow community input into how other developments can be incorporated into the Crosstown’s storage and vehicle maintenance site.

External links

Coordinates: 43°41′17″N 79°29′13″W / 43.6880°N 79.4869°W / 43.6880; -79.4869

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