Heritage preservation and adaptive reuse comes with neighbourhood push-back

Ecclesiastical architecture, like every other type of architecture, can be pre-eminent, merely beautiful, average, or utilitarian. And with all due respect to the original architect of 225 Brunswick Ave. in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood, the former Christian Gospel Mission Hall (1910) was average at best. It featured a dramatically sloped gable roof with a little bell-niche underneath. Bold keystones over windows punctuated its solid red brick façade. At the rear, a pair of twin circular windows added whimsey.

But its best attribute was that it stood on its corner lot no taller than its residential neighbours on either side. It had a quiet dignity that fit in nicely with the leafy, affluent neighbourhood a stone’s throw away from the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. The thing was, the shrubbery around it was overgrown, the brick needed cleaning and repair, and, according to developer Jeff Kopas, it was horribly underused.