Metro Hall

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The Metro Centre

Metro Hall

Metro Hall is an office tower on Wellington and John St. in Toronto, Canada. The building was completed in 1992 to house the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and its employees. It is part of the three building Metro Centre complex. At the time Metro Toronto was responsible for the majority of city services for more than two million residents. It was thus decided that a new headquarters was needed. The building housed both the Metro councillors and chair and also 2,500 Metro employees.

Previously, Metro politicians and employees had been scattered in more than a dozen buildings around Toronto, costing several million dollars in rent each year. Originally, when City Hall opened in 1964, one of its twin towers was intended for Metro Toronto offices and the other for the City of Toronto; the two councils shared the central Council Chamber. Eventually this space proved inadequate and committee facilities and councillors' offices were relocated to 390 Bay Street, across from City Hall; Metro Council continued to meet in the City Hall council chamber.

There were two proposals for a new hall, one by CN saw a building next door to the Rogers Centre (previously called The SkyDome). The winning proposal by Marathon Realty was a cluster of three towers looking down on Roy Thomson Hall. It was built to the west of downtown in the former industrial area that saw a number of major developments around the same time.

The plan was not without controversy. The massive structure cost some $220,000,000, which many felt could be better spent. North York mayor Mel Lastman harshly criticized Metro Council's decision to locate the building downtown. He argued that it would be more equitable and would have been much cheaper to build the headquarters in the suburbs. Proponents of the plan claimed that the building would save money in the long term due to savings on rent.

The agreement to build the new Hall was signed in 1988 and it was completed in 1992. The building was linked to underground the PATH system and the subway, stretching that system further west. Only the main building housed Metro employees with the two smaller structures rented out by Marathon to private companies. Between the buildings is a large public square the lower level of the building contains other amenities such as a community centre and library.

In 1998 the Metro level of government was merged with the city governments and it was decided that the new city would be headquartered at Toronto's iconic City Hall. Metro Hall was nonetheless used temporarily while City Hall was refitted to accommodate the large number of councillors.

There was some talk of selling Metro Hall, but it remains in use for many municipal employees. In 2001 the city asked for bids, but the highest received was $125 million, far lower that the facility had cost.

In 1999 it was controversially decided to use the empty council chamber as a temporary homeless shelter at the behest of then city councillor Jack Layton.

The former council chambers is being converted to a 3-1-1 call centre and will be completed in July 2007.

Metro has a food court featuring places such as: Baccaro Italian Eatery and other places. It is commonly frequented by RBC employees.