| ...This
issue of Perspectives, dedicated to successful
Maiden Voyages, highlights the work of architects
who are taking on the task of designing a new
type of building for the first time in their career...
Most importantly the following pages demonstrate
that there are indeed clients with the courage
to create opportunity, clients that take a risk,
do the unexpected, and in doing so contribute
to our society's well being.....The old ways aren't
working any more, its really time for all to be
trying something new - Editor
Jiffy
Self-Storage Building
Bernard
Rasch Architecthas
made a successful enterprise of bringing architectural
design to the type of project which typically
has suffered from the lack of interest and participation
on the part of the architectural profession.
Most storage buildings are undistinguished and
ignored. However, they often cannot help but
be noticed because of their size and presence
in the city and they are hardly ever considered
a boon to the urban character of their surroundings.
Not so with the Jiffy Self-Storage Building
which single handedly enlivened a dreary strip
of Wilson Avenue in North York and created a
landmark building by Highway 401. The building
is a textbook case of how design can add value
to any building project, and how in the hands
of a talented architect, architecture can be
injected into zones where it has been denied,
the most worthy maiden voyage of all.
Client
Perspective
"We
purchased an industrial property with a view of
using it for mixed commercial/industrial uses
from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation at
public auction in 1988. It is preeminently located
at the junction of Highways 400 and 401. Traffic
from both highways is in excess of 400,000 vehicles
per day.
The mandate for the project design was to take
advantage of the highway exposure in order to
quickly establish ourselves in the business
of self storage in the Greater Toronto Area.
To meet our need, our architect Bernard Rasch,
designed the mixed use dual purpose building
to look like a conventional storage building
from the highways.
His
combination of simple, clean lines and provocative
colours provided us with the instant recognition
for our storage brand known as Jiffy Self-Storage.
There is hardly anyone in Toronto that is not
familiar with the twin peaked yellow storage building
at the northwest corner of Highways 400 and 401.
(go to top
of next column)
|
His
combination of simple, clean lines and provocative
colours provided us with the instant recognition
for our storage brand known as Jiffy Self-Storage.
There is hardly anyone in Toronto that is not
familiar with the twin peaked yellow storage building
at the northwest corner of Highways 400 and 401.
The Wilson Avenue frontage is more like a conventional
strip plaza with patron parking at both the
front and rear of the building. Retail type
services include licensed and fast food restaurants,
Purolator Courier retail store and Ryder truck
rentals. Each service provides additional exposure
for our main business, Jiffy Self-storage, and
our storage business provides retail customers
to our plaza tenants.
In order to increase vehicular traffic to the
plaza, Rash designated the area immediately
below the main pylon sign for newspaper vending
boxes, public phones and Canada Post mail box.
The mail box provides service for the entire
neighbourhood.
Our storage mix includes both residential and
business customers. However, because of the
bold design at this well travelled location
between Yorkdale Plaza and the International
Airport, we have a high ratio of businesses,
perhaps the highest in Toronto. Whereas some
storage companies depend almost entirely on
residential users, our backbone has become businesses,
which have proved to be more reliable and long
term in this economic climate of uncertainty
than residential customers, that move in and
out on a more frequent basis.
The proof of the impact of Rasch's design has
resulted each year in progressively higher occupancies
for our storage business to the point where
we are forced to turn new business away. In
our industry on account of turnover among tenants,
90% is considered to be full. For the past four
years, storage occupancies have been in the
95% range. All commercial units on Wilson Avenue
have been 100% lease since first opening in
1988. Because of continued high demand, we are
planning to break ground this year to build
a second yellow building on project excess land
that will be used exclusively for storage.'
Allan
Barkin, President
North Slope Estates Limited
|
