2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village

The 2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village is a complex of six buildings in Toronto, Ontario, Canada built to accommodate on the order of 10,000 athletes and team officials in 1,300 units.[1][2] The Village was built east of the intersection of Cherry and Front streets, in Toronto's West Don Lands. The same village will be used to house athletes for the 2015 Parapan American Games.

The Welcome Centre of the Pan-Am Athlete's Village

Six buildings compose the Athletes Village, five are residential mid-rise buildings and the sixth is a training facility. After the Pan Am/Para Pan Am Games, four residential towers will become the Canary District housing development. The fifth will become a dormitory for students of nearby George Brown College, and training facility will become a YMCA, and serve as a men's hostel.[2] The village was completed in February 2015, and cost $709 million CAD.[3] As well, the village includes the Corktown Common park which was built a year before.

Like the Olympic Villages provided for other games, the Athletes' Village provided in Toronto for the 2015 Pan American Games was a new construction.[1][2] However, learning a lesson from the Athletes' Village provided for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, developers decided the units would not be fully completed before athletes moved in. Since the athletes were going to eat in central cafeterias the room that would eventually become the units' kitchens could serve as an additional bedroom. Hardwood, tile and carpet flooring are to be installed after the games are over. Painted concrete floors was seen as more appropriate for housing for athletes, who could mar the surface of more expensive flooring, with spiked shoes or other athletic gear.[1]

The 2015 Pan American Games Athlete's Village in January 2015

The village is built on the site of former railway and industrial lands, including the William Davies Company, at one time the world's largest pork processing facility. After the meat industry moved out in the 1980s, the area was taken over by government to build a public housing project. The "Ataratiri" project failed in the 1990s, leaving the site mostly vacant for over ten years before the Waterfront Toronto agency was created to speed up the redevelopment of harbour lands in Toronto. The project was fast-tracked once Toronto was awarded the games, changing a twelve-year plan for redevelopment into a six-year plan.

References

1. Dakshana Bascaramurty (February 6, 2015). "The Canary District: Here comes Toronto's instant neighbourhood". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015. From the outside it appeared a polished complex of two mid-rise towers – but the interiors looked more slapdash, a dormitory of kitchenless suites and tiny bedrooms that will soon house bunkbeds.
2. "Toronto 2015 Athletes' Village / West Don Lands / Explore Projects / Waterfront Toronto". Waterfront Toronto. Archived from the original on February 22, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
3. "Pan Am Games athletes village complete: Premier Wynne and Toronto Mayor Tory make official handover announcement Friday". CBC News. February 20, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015. Almost five months before it opens its doors to the first athlete, the construction of the Pan Am Games village is complete.