Imagine the possibilities…London Ontario’s first community rooftop garden will be 8,000 square feet and will yield herbs, flowers and produce all planted and harvested by youth. The garden will serve as an outdoor classroom for youth employed in the YOU Made It Café. Seating areas in the garden as well as a rooftop boardroom will provide tenants and visitors with a unique and beautiful vista in the heart of our city.
Click here to see the rooftop garden plan.
In 1879, the three-story building at 332 Richmond Street opened as the American House. In 1933, it was renamed The Grigg House after innkeeper Samuel Grigg. Since then the landmark building has undergone many transformations. In 2007, Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) purchased the building. In 2009, it was renamed The Cornerstone, after a public naming contest by YOU. The new name honours the building’s past as a cornerstone in London’s development and the building’s future as a place where young people can turn a positive corner and where the regeneration of this one heritage building can turn a positive corner for the downtown block in which it resides.
Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) is ready to break new ground in providing holistic services and supports for youth. The agency will receive $2.6 million from the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure. The funding will enable YOU to begin redevelopment of The Cornerstone, the three-storey heritage building at Richmond and York streets which the agency purchased in December, 2007. The total project is $4.1 million.
When it was built 140 years ago, the building at York and Richmond streets was the cornerstone of the city’s development. So it’s only fitting its new name, The Cornerstone, links the building’s past with its future.
“We loved it (the name). As soon as we saw it, it was automatic,” says Steve Cordes, executive director of Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), which has owned the building at 332 Richmond St. for nearly two years and is about to expand it to include extensive services for youth.
Most Londoners know the building at York and Richmond streets by one of its many incarnations as a bar.
Now, you have a chance to name the landmark hotel building that dates back more than 100 years ago, courtesy of its newest occupant, Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU). “We have a high stake in London having a stake in this building,” said Steve Cordes, the executive director of YOU, which operates programs for youth and is the building’s latest occupant.
Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU): Goal is to showcase an older building with youth housing while going green on the roof
There’s a picture of him on his office wall, looking for all the world like a long-distance runner. Accompanying it is the information he once ran the Boston Marathon in just seconds over three hours and three minutes. Pretty impressive for an amateur who joined a running club mainly for the exercise and camaraderie of running mates.