Here you can find out

1. what is going on today, this month and upcoming events
2. you can pick up a map or brochure from the welcome desk
3. you can go on a tour
4. you can ask one of the Welcome Host a question [Introduce the Host on desk] 

• Before I begin the tour, I would like to take a moment to share with you a little bit about Evergreen and Evergreen Brick Works 

• Evergreen is the first charity of its kind to attempt this kind of environmental project
• Evergreen Brick Works is a revitalization project that has transformed the former Don Valley Brick Works from a collection of deteriorating heritage buildings intoa community environmental centre and as an internation showcase for urban sustanability and green design.
• the focus of the revitalization of the sit'es 16 historic factory buildings is through a process called 'adaptive re-use' - a process of adapting old structures for purposes other than those initially intended
• e.g. Notice the Welcome Center, the mix of the new with the old.  This building was once a place where they stored bricks before they were fired up in the kilns.  Now the this building welcomes all who come to Evergreen Brick Works and is the starting point of exploration of the site.

• All of this takes money, alot of it.    The total amount for this phrase is $55 million dollars.  So far Evergreen has paid down approximately $49 million dollars 

• Evergreen is a not-for-profit National Charity.  Evergreen Brick Works has become Evergreen's new home

• the purpose of Evergreen is to focus on making cities more livable by connecting people with nature and by empowering people to take a hands-on-approach to their urban environments through two major programs

1. Evergreens Coommon Grounds, a national service for planting tress
2. Evergreen's Learning Grounds helping schools create outdoor environments in the heart of the city where children can play and learn in 

• This is kind of heard to do as we have become a throw away society.  We take our forests, lakes and streams and the very land we live on for granted; unfotunatley we are now are paying a heavy price.  In order to 'sow the seeds of change' we now need 'to be the root of change'   

• Evergreen is a social enterprise which means that the centre wil be serlf-financing while demonstrating environmental, social and economical sustainability.

• Operating income is generated from office space and other revenue generating activities such as
• Event rentals - weddings, other company functions
• Evergreen Garden Market
• Cafe Belong
• Children's Outdoor Camps
• Bicycle Rentals 

Some of the other creative ways in which Evergreen is raising money:

• Living Wall:  a cumulative donation of $500.00 toward the campaign for Evergreen Brick Works secures a customized namesake tag on the Living Wall.  You have 40 characters to fill your name or group, so the future generations will know who to thank for this inspiring place
• The Foreman's Shed - A Forman (noun) is a person in charge of a particular department, group of workers as in a factory or the like.  Reference:  
• the front wall of the Foreman's Shed has now been -re-adapted as a Donor's Wall. 
• This is my interpretion - The birds in general are fast and get to places quickly.  Bird represent the larger donations. With larger donations Evergreen has the freedom, to bring down their debt faster and more quickly
• the Leaves - you require a lot of leaves to be of any use and yet each leaf is important.  The leaves represent the smaller donations and although every bit counts, the smaller donations take more time 

• Evergreen's focus is about respecting the past, by bringing it into the present and readapting it for the future. 

• 95% of the construction material was re-used, recycles and or repruposed as something else such as  

• this planner which in its previous life scored or cut into a length metal with a vertically mounted blade.  Not it's a desk bringing important information like these brochures. 

• John Price Brick Press is a Parkhill Martin soft-mud brick press.
• It created 4 types of bricks
• it took six works to run the press
• In it's hey day, it made up 3,000 bricks per hour
• think about this - it takes up to 16,000 bricks to build a small three bedroom home.  That means it took between 5 to 6 hours to create bricks to a small bedroom home.  
• instead of this press being sent to land-fill, it is now a historic element educating all of us on how bricks were made in the past.   

Notice the old wall with the new wall.  The Welcome Center is a multip purpose center.  Evergreen rents the space out for a variety of functions.    In order to allow people to hear one another they included on this wall Acoustic insulation to muffle the sound

• upraised beds filled with evergreen
• used in the summer as event and programming space

• in the winter months used as a skating rink
• the lighter grey cemented area freezes with the help of an underground eco-chill refrigeration system
• the waste heat that systems removes from ice surface will heat Cafe Belong 

• opened on July 02, 2011
• in qugust 2011 received their liquor license yeah
• operated by Brad Long, a well known Canadian Chef
• strong belief in seasonal and slow cooking foods 

• Evergreen Brick Works is geographically located in one of the lowest elevations in the City of Toronto
• this iarea is prone to floods
• the constructed greenways manage excess rainwater and flood waters
• plants will grow and slow down the rush of water and filter and purify the water
• water will be routed to the stormwater management ponds at the front of the site
• there will occur more filtration/purification before the water eventually enters the Don River 

The Garden Market is part of Evergreen's Social Enterprise

the focus is on Evergreen's Motto "Get Your Hands Dirty" [go to where the sign can be seen ] 

If the bricks could talk I wonder what they would say?  They would say:

• buildings represent more than bricks and mortar, thye represent history, gelogy, the spirit of people's pride in their work, their legacy in the stories of the hardships and of their joys, the architecture, the creativity and innovations in green design and urban sustanability
• most of all, awareness of what it takes to create a quality product that lasts.
• they would tell the story that during the drepression years between 1930 and 1931, the Brick Works and the surrounding river flats became the site of what ws then called "hobo jungle" - a huge encampment of unemployed men living in caves and make-shift dwellings.  in the fall of 1931, the Province initiated a Trans-Canada hightway project in Northern Ontarion to provide work for unemployed men
• during the second world war, a prisoner-of-war camp was set up on the flats across the river from Todmorden Mills to house captured German soldiers.  the prisoners, most of whom were members of the German merchant marine, apparently worked mining clay at the nearby Don Valley Brick Works and in the Greenwood clay pits. 

• for almost 100 years the Don Valley Brick works one of the pre-eminent brick factories in Canada. 
• some of the buildings included Casa Loma, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Old City Hall, Massey Hall, and Osgood Hall.
• for a 10 year period, between 1986 and 1996, there were the famous all-nigh rave parties, used by urban explorers and photographers. 
• we would have lost all of this history, if this had not been preserved.  this site would be condominums now.  

• the kiln building is the most dramatic space with a total of 4,700 square-metres (approx 50,600 square feet) 
• it was the last building to be built on this site in 1967
• there are three long tunnel kilns
• six single-track drying tunnels 
• they were gas fired, with fuel oil as back up
• bricks were moved around on a small railway tracks that you can still see in the floors.  
• theyes railway tunnel kilns were among the first installed in Ontario
• One the left are the Drying Kilns  took       days to evaporate the moisture from the bricks before being sent to the Firing Kilns which took 2 days to move along the 376 fee long kiln. 
• a rock climbing tower and ropes courses administered by Evergreen's tenant "Outward Bound Canada"
• it can be rented out for a variety of events and functions

• there are 15 cisterns on this site which holds approximately 20,000 litres (conversion chart -- 20,000 litres is approximately 5,283 gallons)
• during heavy rains the roofs can get up to 340,000 litres (75,000 gallons ) in about 15 minutes
• the cisterns are 8.5 feet in diameter, 12 feet tall - anticipating capturing 4 million litres of watter annually  
• the water passes through a series of secondar sediment filters, carbon filters whcih help to remove the scent and smell
• UV lights are used to remove andy bacteria
• used to flush toilets, water the garden mounds and to provide water for City for Green Cities cooling towers. 

• still a lot of graffiti from the late 80's and 90's during the decade the building was closed
• offensive graffiti has been removed, but the rest stayed because the graffiti represented social history of the site and has value
• the rest stayed despite the City of Toronto wanted the graffiti removed.  There is a 3 way agreement between the City of Toronto, Evergreen and Toronto Heritage saying that it can' be removed without approval from all 3 partieis 

• Dan Bergeron is a street artist is known worldwide
• the kiln represent some of Dan's work.  look at the six heads on the walls.  they are photographs taken from men who actually worked at the Don Valley Brick Works
• the photographs were cut out on site because the bricks are different sizes and the mortar varies in width and height
• these men represent the past and it is the past allows us to presently move into the future.  

• Junk Raiders is a 2009 Canadian Reality TV Show that airs on The Discovery Channel and ION Life. 
• The series follows the titular Junk Raiders, a team of seven professionals as they attempt to renovate an old steel factory in downtown Toronto and turn it into a high-end loft in one month with only $5,500.00 CA budget
• because of the extremely limited buget (quoted at $300,000 if done conventionally,) many of the materials need must be found by freecycling (finding something unwnated for free and reusing it. 

13 full figure portraits (12 m3n and 1 woman) installed in the south stair well of Building 12 (Kiln Building )

the photograph represents the different trades involved in the construction of the Center for Green Cities