Generating Change : Sustainable Adaptive Reuse of Urban Power Plants In-Depth Case Studies and Planning Implications for the Hearn, Toronto

Cities across the western world are making the transition away from coal energy, and towards greener methods of power generation; as a result, abandoned power plants, including Toronto’s Richard L. Hearn Power Generation Station, are now features of many post-industrial urban landscapes. Largely out of use since 1983, the Hearn has seen a variety of redevelopment concepts over the last 30 years, but recent initiatives to revitalize Toronto’s Waterfront and industrial Port Lands have spurred renewed interest in the site. In order to provide direction for the Hearn’s impending redevelopment, indepth case studies of two adaptively-reused urban power plants, London’s Battersea Station and Austin’s Seaholm Plant, were performed via document analysis and key informant interviews. Salient themes, issues, and commonalities shared by all three cases were identified and explored, and used to formulate a series of seven development recommendations for the Hearn.