The Roundhouse Turntable Plaza (map here) has, since its opening back in the 1990s, been one of our less successful urban spaces. But, thanks to the Roundhouse Community Centre Board of Directors (notably chair of the plaza committee, Leslie Adams), that’s going to change. Here’s an update from Setty Pendakur:
After a five-year planning and building process, the Roundhouse Turntable Plaza revitalizing project is nearly complete. The platforms have been rebuilt with historical details such as authentic railway switches, which run along the edge and the turntable itself has been realigned along a north/south line.
The base and top of the new Turntable Plaza crane arrived at the Roundhouse in February. On the first day, the articulated base arrived, weighing in at a cool 8 tons. Surprisingly, the canopy support looked not unlike the Star Trek Enterprise when it was ‘flown’ into place. The base and canopy support are joined by an 8 inch diameter pin that took over an hour to hammer into place.
The Turntable Project’s intention is to revitalize the Turntable Plaza area and make it into a more inviting urban space in which to relax, play, socialize and explore neighborhood heritage.
The most obvious change is the enormous crane which sits, literally, centre stage. The crane, reminiscent of early railway cranes, was created to not only to shade and shelter the public from the elements, but also as an outdoor performance space. It will include cables for lighting, and attach points for banners and aerial performances, to increase current casual and programmed usage options.
On May 20, the Roundhouse will be hosting an event acknowledging the new look and feel of the turntable, 15 years as a community centre, and 125 years as the historic final stop for the Engine 374, which pulled the first passenger train across Canada.
We will look forward to seeing many of you on May 20th, to celebrate the new plaza.
I think the failure of the plaza has been the inward looking Community Centre which completely ignored the turntable plaza, the engine bay doors were never opened.
And the “historical details such as authentic railway switches”… well they were added to the plaza and are Canadian National hardware. With a turntable switches are redundant.
The Roundhouse plaza is a small intimate space that is now dwarfed by an overbearing canopy structure.