McGill University has been given the key to the old Royal Vic buildings and, besides that, $37 million to be getting on with transforming the site into an extension of its campus.
I’m seeing mixed responses to this in social media, but while some people are saying the site should become social housing and/or that McGill is already a spoiled darling, I’m inclined to think this is the most logical use of the buildings. It adjoins the existing campus, it was built as institutional from the beginning, and McGill has the means to preserve the heritage value of the site.
We need purpose-built social housing: not every old structure looking for a raison-d’être can or should be transformed expensively for that purpose.
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