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A piece of history
Toronto’s Donalda Club finds a home for its maintenance operations in a pair of 100-year-old structures.
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From housing award-winning livestock to winning an award for heritage preservation, the “barns” (as members affectionately call them) at Toronto’s Donalda Club have served many purposes for more than nine decades. Today, the two stately wood buildings are the beautiful base for all of Donalda’s golf course operations — from mixing fertilizer in the maintenance building to morning meetings with staff in the administrative barn.
This retro renovation completed over the past few years gave a facelift to two dilapidated barns that were unsafe and no longer functional, while still maintaining and preserving their historical character.
New use for an old farm
The Donalda Club lies tucked away along the Don River in northeast Toronto,
in an area known as Don Mills. In a metropolitan city blessed with a plethora
of prestigious and private golf courses, Donalda is a relatively new player,
having been built in 1960. But, while the golf course is only 45 years
old, the legacy of the land that the Donalda Club sits on is rich with
history.
The two barns (the cattle barn and dairy barn) are a big part of Donalda’s history, as the property was once an award-winning farm owned and operated by the Dunlap family. The cattle barn (now the maintenance facility) was built in 1914. Today, thanks to the restoration efforts of Donalda Club, it is the only 20th century barn remaining in the area.
Known at one time as Donalda Farms, the complex consisted of about 40 buildings. These farms were well known for their innovative husbandry practices and advanced farming techniques. The Dunlaps bathed their pigs in olive oil and toilet soap, winning many of the agricultural contests they entered. At the height of the farms’ existence, farm experts from around the world came to Toronto to learn about the Dunlaps’ farming techniques and marvel at their livestock and equipment. The farm stayed with the Dunlap family until 1946, when David Dunlap’s wife, Jesse, died. The land was subsequently sold to Don Mills Developments Ltd., which used the farm as its base to construct the nearby planned community of Don Mills.
First things first
Flash ahead 46 years.
The year is 1992, and Paul Scenna (Class A) arrives at Donalda Club as
the new course and grounds manager. When the first-time head superintendent
arrived, addressing the “barns” was an issue that was long
overdue.
“When I got here, I indicated that a definite need of the golf course operations was to have a functional maintenance and administration facility,” explains Scenna, the 17-year GCSAA member who left Donalda in 2005 to become the superintendent at Beacon Hall Golf Club in Aurora, Ontario, Canada.
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“Not only was the maintenance building not functional, but it also was not safe and it was not secure. We had a million dollars worth of equipment stored inside a building that was easily accessible, and it wasn’t safe because we had a lot of equipment stored on the second floor of an old timber floor.”
However, fixing up these battered, paint-peeling rural relics from days gone by was not the No. 1 priority of members, so the project was temporarily shelved while Scenna focused first on upgrading the course and the clubhouse. Donalda hired well known Canadian architect Thomas McBroom to redesign the golf course. This fairway facelift was done over the course of several years and was completed in 1998. “He basically kept the same routing, but redid everything else,” Scenna says.
“When those two main priorities were completed (the course and the clubhouse), we then looked at what was next and that was these buildings,” he says, pointing to the beautifully restored wooden structures.
The restoration begins
Scenna acted as project manager for this two-year capital expenditure
project. The administrative, staff and shop building was completed in
2002 and the equipment and storage facility in 2003. “This approach
split up the financial burden and always gave us a place to work from,”
Scenna says. “As well, most of the work was scheduled for the winter
months to minimize disruption to our operation.”
Before beginning the restoration, the club hired an
American consultant, Hottes DeHays of Arlington Design in Ohio, to provide
an outside opinion on how best to tackle this project. Donalda also retained
engineers/project managers and cost consultants to perform feasibility
studies, cost projections, soil tests and to write requests for proposal
documentation.
“He (DeHays) looked at how they could make it a functional golf
course operations center,” Scenna explains. “We came up with
a budget of $1.2 million to build a new facility, but renovating these
historical buildings, the old barns, exceeded that budget.”
So, initially, the members decided they would knock down the barns and build a new building. But, once an application for a permit was submitted, the City of Toronto Heritage Preservation Services department got wind of the idea. Since the cattle barn was on the City’s Inventory of Heritage Properties and is recognized by the Toronto city council for its architectural and historical significance in the former city of North York, the officials did not approve the demolition of the barns.
“In retrospect, that was a very good thing,” Scenna says. “It forced the members to invest more into the buildings, and, looking back, members are proud of doing so. In the end, we ended up winning an Award of Merit from Heritage Toronto for restoring the buildings.
“What also helped to sell the project to members was the fact that the expenditure was lumped in with the clubhouse renovation,” Scenna adds. “It was easier for members to digest spending money when they were getting something they could touch and feel at the same time.”
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The project, tendered in a design/build format, was awarded to Pilot Construction, Norman Roth and local architect Thomas Gluck. To ensure that the integrity of the buildings was maintained, the club retained Gluck, who worked with DeHays’ concepts.
“We also retained a historic-specific architect who worked with our local heritage group and recommended different types of treatments for the exterior of the building,” Scenna says.
“So, our architectural integrity was retained
and restored. That was a key component of doing the job right.”
Safety first
One of the major reasons to upgrade the two buildings was for the safety of the staff and for the security of the equipment. “The idea that they weren’t safe certainly helped speed up the process,” Scenna says.
“There was excess weight on the wood floor, so a structural engineer took a look at it. There was also only one door to access equipment. In the short term, the structural engineer told us where things could be parked safely. We then had a floor plan devised so we could have equipment parked in specific sites and then exit from the one door. It was still not functional, but it was a short-term solution to get us through until we could implement a real plan.
“In the end, to bring function and safety to the building, we removed the wood floor and built a partial mezzanine floor for excess equipment — pieces of equipment that we use once or twice a year. In the basement (ground floor), DeHays created a drive-through concept where we built nine doors — five on one side and four on the other — so that we could maximize the full floor plan and the full space on the lower floor. It was an efficient use of space and it was very functional because we could drive in and out and nothing was blocked.”
This drive-through concept also helped ensure the safety of staff when they are using chemicals. “We did that as well with the end of the building where we developed a ‘chemical bay,’” Scenna says. “They can now store all their pesticides and fertilizers in one drive-through space that is fully contained, so that they can mix and load. They fill the sprayers and fertilizer equipment in the building, and there is a dry sump, so in case there is ever a spill it is all contained inside. The chemical bay is environmentally sensitive and fire-rated so it’s contained from the rest of the building.”
Breathing room
The former dairy building, which now houses the grounds manager’s
spacious office and various other administrative spaces, has become a
much more functional and staff-friendly facility, according to Scenna.
“The mechanic now has two working bays with his office and a parts room,” he says. “The staff has a locker room facility and a proper squad room. There is space in (the grounds manager’s) office to meet with the two assistants, the mechanic and the tennis supervisor.”
Scott White, an eight-year member of GCSAA, was Scenna’s second-in-command during the restoration of the barns. Upon Scenna’s departure, White was promoted to grounds manager. He recalls his cramped assistant superintendent’s office prior to the restoration, a space that was approximately 5 feet by 7 feet — just enough room for a chair and desk. “Besides making phone calls, there was not much else you could do,” says White, who has worked at Donalda since 1999.
“The new lunchroom doubles as a squad room,” Scenna says. “As at most golf courses, the daily announcements and daily tasks are given out in that room. It’s also built big enough to accommodate everybody. It’s a comfortable space, so staff (members) enjoys it more. They’ve integrated simple things such as installing a large fridge to store everybody’s lunch, plus three microwaves so that no one is waiting to warm their lunch at noon. They also installed a coffee machine that produces an instant cup of fresh coffee. It’s a win-win situation since staff are motivated, and it’s also efficient to the club.”
A rewarding experience
While this $1.8 million renovation won an award and pleased members upon
its completion, the project certainly wasn’t without its challenges.
“It’s always challenging to invest money into something that members don’t see that often,” Scenna explains. “In this case, it does have a very visual impact on the golf course because of its proximity to some of the golf holes. So, they did get some reward out of seeing the external façade of the buildings being restored in such a manner, which was a real benefit. Another challenge was dealing with the ‘authorities’ and getting the necessary approvals.”
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Since the office building was restored during the winter months, yet another challenge was finding temporary office spaces for both the full-time and seasonal staff. The golf course staff, including the mechanic, set up shop in the basement of the pool cabana building, but they did not have sufficient meeting space. Morning gatherings would often occur at the local coffee shop, and most of the day-to-day business and planning was conducted via cell phones from golf cars out on the course.
“We spent a lot of time outside that winter, clearing brush rather than being inside and planning because there was nowhere to meet,” White says.
At the end of the day, when the project was finished — after approximately 15,000 cedar shingles were installed on the exterior walls — members were thrilled with the barns’ newfound beauty.
“There was an open house for members when the project was completed, and it was a proud time for all the staff,” Scenna says.
“From an operational standpoint, the building turned out as well as we envisioned it,” White concludes. “It’s an awesome facility. It is truly revolutionary and ahead of its time.”
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