The Downsview Complex is a provincial office site located in the

Downsview Downsview is a neighbourhood in the north end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the district of North York. The area takes its name from the Downs View farm established around 1842 near the present-day intersection of Keele Street and Wils ...

neighbourhood of

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada.

History

First developed in the 1950s during the construction of

Ontario Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a Controlled-access highway, controlled-access 400-series hig ...

and residential neighbourhood from former farmland, the site is currently the location of the

Ministry of Transportation A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

's Toronto office (and part of the overall HQ staff) and the

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the State police, provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. The OPP patrols Provincial highways in Ontario, provincial highways and waterways; protects Government of Ontario, provincial government buil ...

's Downsview detachment. Provincial driving test also takes place there.

Re-development

In 2010, re-development of the site began, in a plan expected to be implemented over a 20-year span.http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ny/bgrd/backgroundfile-20780.pdf First to be built was the new location for the province's Ontario Centre of Forensic Sciences and Coroner's office (re-located from downtown Toronto) on Wilson Avenue and Morton Shulman Avenue. Construction also began on a new

Humber River Regional Hospital The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between ...

, which would replace two nearby hospitals (Church and Keele). The hospital was scheduled to open in October 2015. Other provincial offices will be built on the site. Many of the older Ministry of Transportation buildings located there will be demolished. The OPP detachment will remain on the site. New roads will be built to provide easier access: * unnamed roadway from the entrance from Keele Street * two named roadways from Wilson Avenue: **Morton Shulman Avenue - named for former Toronto coroner and politician

Morton Shulman Morton Shulman (25 April 1925 – 18 August 2000) was a Canadian politician, businessman, broadcaster, columnist, coroner, and physician. He first came to public notice as Ontario's Chief Coroner in the early 1960s. At the same time he became ...

(formerly Agate Road) **Julian Road

References

{{Coord, 43.72280, -79.48637, display=title Modernist architecture in Canada Buildings and structures in Toronto Ontario government buildings