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The atrium of the recently opened addition to Milton Town Hall. The expansion gets an A+ in Christopher Hume's opinion. (Photo Courtsey of Ventin Associates)
In today’s Toronto Star, Urban Issues and Architecture writer Christopher Hume wrote a piece on Milton’s new Town Hall expansion.
And get this: shockingly, there was nary a mention of the famous (or now infamous) million dollar glass wall.
It was a glowing review of the new expansion, actually. Hume focuses on the positive, quoting architect Carlos Ventin on the materials used and inspiration of the design.
Yes, the glass wall has had it’s share of criticisms — most of them quite valid, but you have to admit the expansion overall is stunning. The best part is that it doesn’t look out of place in the surrounding neighbourhood with it’s old ‘castle-like’ exterior meshing with the modern, Escarpment-inspired extension. It’s full of character — Hume points out the fact that it’s made up of a series of smaller spaces avoiding that ‘cavernous’ feel — unlike many of the boring and bland civic buildings you see in other communities.
I’m sure the design will stand the test of time. It’s good to see Milton get some cultural kudos on this one — not only for those involved in the project, but also for the rest of us living in Canada’s fastest-growing town, often criticized for it’s out-of-control urban sprawl.
Here is Mr. Hume’s article:
1800s castle-like jail and courthouse transformed into hub of suburban community
If it’s true a community reveals itself in its city hall, Milton must be one of the most enlightened corners of the GTA.
Given that this town of 80,000, like so many others across southern Ontario, has been buried alive in sprawl, the facts of its civic precinct are all the more remarkable. Combining old and new, heritage and modernity, Milton Town Hall presents an ideal architectural image of the successful small city. It is a complex that imparts a clear sense of its origins, acknowledges the past and anticipates the future, no mean feat at a time when drive-through culture has all but obliterated any attachment people feel to place. In the endless homogeneity of suburbia, this stands out.
The story goes back to the early 1980s when Milton bought a mid-19th-century courthouse from Halton Region for $1. The building was abandoned and falling apart, but eminently worth saving. With its battlements and thick limestone walls, it resembled a castle more than anything. Considering its role as a seat of justice, that obviously seemed the right way to go. Today, courthouses are little more than judicial warehouses with waiting rooms attached, but in the 1850s, the local courthouse was a potent symbol that the Canadian promise of “peace, order and good government” had been delivered.
Milton would eventually hire restoration architect Carlos Ventin to renovate and adapt the building to its new use. His intervention was sympathetic and respectful, yet sensible, practical and appropriate. Council meets in converted second-floor courtroom, and office space was carved out of the rest of the building.
“The building was a mess,” Ventin explains. “I didn’t think Milton Council would have the fortitude to go ahead with this project. Everyone running against the restoration of this building was defeated in the election that year. From then on, it was pretty easy. I had full backing of council. The building was in such terrible shape, we had to do it in two stages. First, we had to stabilize the building and prepare it for restoration.
“I always try to incorporate exterior of building with interior. For example, I created an atrium that joined the new and the old. It’s a conversation between old and new. The building wants to be the heart of the community. Milton needed something flexible. From the day I started I asked myself how would I like to spend eight hours a day in this building. The biggest compliment is when people tell me they love to work in the building. I always tell my client you can’t recreate yesterday’s stage for today’s play.”
Ventin even managed to incorporate the jail and the prison yard that were added to the courthouse in the 1870s. Indeed, the latter serves as an exquisite walled garden whose environs are well protected from the world beyond.
But in the decades since the original building was refurbished, Milton’s population has nearly tripled and the restored town hall was no longer big enough. The town decided to expand to the south, on the site of what had been a parking lot.
In an unusual move, the design for the addition was also given to Ventin’s firm. Though his practice isn’t known for doing new architecture, it handled the job with amazing grace. The structure begins where the old one left off, literally and aesthetically. In other words, the addition continues the material palette of the courthouse but brings it into the 21st century. Though the language is thoroughly modern, the new wing feels right at home next to its aged neighbour. The big difference between the two may be the amount of glass, which means a degree of light and transparency not expected from either a courthouse or prison.
“The three natural elements we wanted to incorporate,” says Ventin’s colleague, architect Paul Sapounzi, “were the Niagara Escarpment, Sixteen Mile Creek and the woods.”
The first comes in the form of the limestone, quarried from the escarpment. The creek is represented by a water feature that runs through the site and into the building. The woods can be seen in the finishes.
As the public face of the civic complex, the expansion is where residents conduct their business and where city staff of 200 has its offices. Arranged around a large light-filled atrium, the interior space flows easily and effortlessly.
The smartest move, perhaps, was to design the addition as a series of smaller elements, rather than one enormous structure. Keep in mind that the town hall is located in a residential neighbourhood, historic and low-rise. Sitting across the road from Victoria Park, the building takes on the appearance of a pavilion, light, airy and decorative,
The town hall is an important reminder that the future of Ontario’s small towns does not require the destruction of the past. Indeed, history gives so many of these communities their appeal as well as their identity. When everything looks and feels the same, it makes no difference where you are. But as Milton reminds us, not all towns are born equal. And not all die equal.
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