Toronto Star

It's one thing to build a theatre, quite another to create a community. But that's the goal of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, the remarkable theatrical complex now under construction at the Distillery District. Designed by Toronto architect Tom Payne, the $14 million project pretty much sums up what contemporary urban architecture, cultural or otherwise, can be — indeed, what it should be. Starting with two of the 19th-century red-brick industrial boxes — tankhouses, to be precise — that occupy much of the old Gooderham and Worts site, Payne and his team have fashioned a brilliantly flexible series of spaces that do double, even triple, duty as performance halls, offices, classrooms, meeting rooms, whatever. The Young Centre, a joint venture between the George Brown Theatre School and Soulpepper Theatre Company, will accommodate students and professionals. They will learn and work side by side.