Fort York Visitor Centre
The Visitor Centre at Fort York National Historic Site pays homage to Toronto’s founding story and Canada’s military past.
Situated beneath the Gardiner Expressway on a 43-acre site in downtown Toronto, the center serves as a museum and explores the relationship between natural landscapes and the built environment. The museum is a hub, connecting visitors to the site’s rich history and surrounding areas while providing enhanced public program facilities. The center includes multi-purpose meeting rooms as well as a theatre.
Introba (formerly Integral Group) provided mechanical and electrical services for this project, offering a truly innovative approach to museum design. Careful consideration for the varied historic collections informed mechanical and electrical design strategies utilizing such systems as displacement ventilation to maintain humidity levels. The facility is designed to the Canadian Conservation Institute’s Class A Museum standards.
Additional features include radiant slab heating and cooling, an air source heat pump system with condensing boilers, and a fully adjustable lighting control system. Exterior LED lighting illuminates the site boardwalk and is suspended from the causeway to provide lighting from above. Lighting solutions were developed to meet the museum lighting quality, quantity, and operational aspects for each exhibit space. Artworks were defined in each exhibit space based on their sensitivity to light and corresponded with the selected lighting solutions.