The new building will help to renew and transform the entire 43-acre Fort York National Historic Site. At present, a very old building is used for visitors. The new one will take pressure off the historical building and will lie just outside the fort itself.

The Visitor Centre will be not only an orientation centre intended to improve the visitor experience to the fort, it will have programs for all ages, plus community and artistic events outside public hours.

The timing for the construction of the Fort York Visitor Centre is motivated by the City's bicentennial commemoration of the War of 1812, (when the U.S. declared war and invaded Canada) which will launch in June 2012. The innovative urban renewal project will be the heart of the new Fort York Neighbourhood, which by 2012 will be home to 20,000 residents, including those in 600 new units of Toronto Community Housing, and the 100th branch of the Toronto Public Library. The Fort York revitalization alone is expected to cost $35-million.

A pedestrian and cycling bridge will be built over the railway track to the north. Fort York will thus become a hub of the new pedestrian cycling corridor running north south from an expanded Stanley Park, to the new Fort York Pedestrian/Cycling Bridge, June Callwood Park, and the Martin Goodman Trail. It will also connect to a new east west trail through Northern Linear Park. Fort York will once again have an important role in community and city building, a high profile connection to the city it once protected, and a connection to the waterfront. It is the birth place of Toronto
The completion of the bridge and visitor centre in June 2012 is timed to the bicentennial celebrations of the War of 1812.

Source: Toronto Councillor Adam Vaughan’s newsletter

Toronto City Hall, Member’s Lounge
December 4-6
Noon to 6 pm
Reception, Sunday, December 6 from 3 to 5 pm

See also The Toronto Star: www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/711109--fort-york-to-bridge-the-city-s-past-and-present

Fort York bordered by the Gardiner Expressway and the
Lakeshore on the south and the railway track to the north.