From Grain to Gallery Pt 2: MOCA Toronto
The old site & context
MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art), founded in 1999, was a textile factory in its former life. With Toronto’s gentrification effort, MOCCA as a contemporary art museum also expanded to become larger and more sustainable. In the late 2010s, the building rebranded as MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada) and relocated to a heritage-designated industrial building at 158 Sterling Road — the Tower Automotive Building in the Lower Junction/West Toronto industrial precinct.
Why build the museum at Tower Automotive?
The move met multiple needs: more space for programming and display, long-term stability, and an opportunity to anchor cultural regeneration in a wider gentrification project changing formerly industrial areas to a more modern creativity use. The building contributes culturally to the city and the neighborhood and was a microcosm of the city’s broader strategy to conserve heritage buildings while providing new public uses.
The architect & design philosophy
The Tower Automotive conversion was led by architectsAlliance (design direction by Peter Clewes) with heritage architecture and conservation input from ERA Architects and interiors by other collaborators.The studio approach to adaptive reuse tends to be pragmatic, urban-minded and respectful of heritage fabric: they typically balance contemporary interventions with careful restoration of defining historic elements. The firm works in an modern urban context where programmatic re-imagining of industrial sites required update to its infrastructure and integration of new public circulation, accessibility, services for exhibitions, and climate-controlled storage and conservation for artworks.
Intentionality — what they wanted to do and why
The mission was to create a cultural hub with multiple storeys complete with ground-floor meeting spaces, workshop areas, cafes, galleries, and areas for rehearsals. The design focused on preserving the heritage of the old museum and combined that with the programmatic flexibility (so the rooms could be adopted for different exhibition types and events), and urban engagement (to improve accessibility for street presence). Zeitz emphasized on sculptural carving, whereas MOCA Toronto focuses on programmatic layering and heritage preservation.
How they did it — methods, tools and craft
Upgrade to its contemporary code was necessary for Tower Automotive conversion to protect its key characteristic elements. Engineers needed to insert new floor plates, elevator course, and building services such as humidification for art, and to provide controlled gallery environments. Giant saws were used but the emphasis was on careful conservation methods, structural reinforcements and integrated MEP (mechanical/electrical/plumbing) design were imperative. The project is an example of a modern adaptive resume in practice, especially a large contemporary North American city. MOCA demonstrates that it can be done to upgrade a historical building to modern museum standards and flexibility.
Impact today
After MOCA’s relocation, the measum was able to secure a much larger facitility, allowing for the expansion of art programming and education in Toronto. These MOCAAs set precedents of using old industrial buildings as sites for art exhibits, however Tonroto differs with less sculptural intervention and more programmatic conservation.
