Reconstructing "The Palace of Purification"
The Victoria Park Water Treatment Facility. Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1932)
The 1926 Acres and Gore Report recommended a fully duplicate water-supply system that would double Toronto’s filtration and pumping capacity and provided multiple water-distribution paths. A schematic produced from this report called for upgrading several treatment facilities along Toronto’s lakefront, most notably the Park Victoria filtration plant.
"As a whole, the Toronto Water Works Extension imposed a comprehensive network of water supply onto the entire Toronto landscape, and sustained a vision for the future."
- Steven Mannell, HTO - Toronto’s Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers to Low-Flow Toilets
The major task of this project was the recreation of the Victoria Park Water Treatment Facility as it stood in 1932. The rendered images below highlight the spatial and material qualities of the interior, as well as illustrating the visual and symbolic representation of water-supply and filtration through the building's massive infrastructure.
SECTIONAL CUT THROUGH MODEL
VIEW FROM CONCOURSE
INSIDE THE ROTUNDA
FROM MIXING WING
MIXING WING ENTRANCE
