CHUM-City Building
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The CHUM-City Building is the headquarters of CHUM Limited, a Canadian media corporation. It is located at 299 Queen Street West at the intersection of John Street in Toronto, Ontario. With its 1914 neo-Gothic terra cotta facade, the building is one of the most recognizable in the Queen Street West neighbourhood. The building also serves as the broadcasting centre for CHUM's various media outlets, such as Citytv Toronto, CablePulse 24 and MuchMusic.
Its east wall is decorated with an actual older style Citytv news truck seemingly bursting out of the building. The front tires of the truck can be seen spinning.
On the northwest corner is the Speakers' Corner videobooth, where for a dollar anyone can record two minutes of oneself. Citytv says it receives over 50 hours of video per week, which its staff edits into short vignettes and a half-hour show.
The five-storey building was originally constructed as the headquarters of the Methodist Church of Canada in 1913 by Burke, Horwood and White. The methodists joined with two other denominations to form the United Church of Canada in 1925. The building served as the United Church's headquarters until 1959. By this time the Ryerson Press originally the publishing arm of the Methodist Church, had grown to occupy the entire building. The building was purchased by CHUM in 1985, and was re-opened in May 1987 as the new headquarters for the company and its various outlets. (Citytv Toronto's previous studio was located at 99 Queen St. East.)
While the outside facade has been restored and remains intact, the building interior has been modernized into one of the world's most innovative media complexes. CHUM-City has no TV studios: the entire building has been rigged for audio and video. The building has been engineered so that public space, working areas, offices, and even the parking lot may all be used as optimal shoot locations. Many television shows produced by CHUM outlets, such as Breakfast Television, CityLine and Electric Circus, are filmed live on the ground floor. The ground floor features giant glass sliding partitions so that the building can be open to the street. The annual MuchMusic Video Awards Show is held as a street party that takes place in the CHUM-City parking lot as well as Queen and John Streets adjacent to the building.
Tours of the facilities are also held regularly.
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