299 Queen Street West, also known as CTV Queen Street, is the main studio complex in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building now serves as the corporate head office of CTVglobemedia (CTVgm) and previously served as the headquarters of CHUM Television, a division of CHUM Limited, and was once known as the CHUM-City Building until 2007, when CTV acquired CHUM. It is located at the intersection of Queen Street West and John Street. With its 1914 neo-Gothic terra cotta facade, the building is one of the most recognizable in the Queen Street West neighbourhood.
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Overview
The building houses various CTV-owned media outlets previously owned by CHUM, such as CP24, MTV2, MuchMusic, MuchMore, The Comedy Network (as of 2008), Bravo!, Star! and Space, as well as the master control facilities for the A television stations in Southern Ontario (specifically A Windsor, A London, A Barrie and A Ottawa). In addition, CTV's entertainment news program eTalk has been produced at the building since 2008.
Although the building bears a CTV signage on its east façade, it does not currently house the studios of CTV Toronto nor its news bureau; that station is located at 9 Channel Nine Court in Scarborough where most of the other CTV-owned channels are based including the master controls for the CTV stations in Eastern Canada. (see below).[1]
Tours of the facilities are held regularly.
History and architecture
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, for which the building served as the 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, including Citytv Toronto (which was previously located at 99 Queen St. East).
The building's east wall is decorated with an actual older style news truck seemingly bursting out of the building; the front tires of the truck can be seen spinning from time to time. The truck previously bore the old CityPulse Live-Eye decal; has been overhauled with the CP24 Breaking News decal following the acquisition by CTVgm.
On the northwest corner is the former 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. CTV plans for future use of the video booth for their portfolio of channels.
While the outside facade has been restored and remains intact, the building's interior has been modernized into one of the world's most innovative media complexes. 299 Queen Street West 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 the various outlets operating out of the building, such as Citytv's Breakfast Television, CityLine and the former 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 parking lot, rooftop, as well as Queen and John Streets adjacent to the building.
299 Queen Street West served as the national broadcast headquarters for the 2007 Live Earth concert, with several CTVgm-owned media outlets and personalities collaborating to broadcast the live event nationally for 28 hours. The building also served as the headquarters for CTV's multi-platform coverage of the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007, acting as the launching pad of red carpet coverage, galas, film parties, film premieres, festival breaking news, and other related events. Various corporate divisions, such as eTalk, Star!, MuchMusic, MTV Canada, Bravo!, FashionTelevisionChannel and Canada AM, collaborated on the event coverage.
Although acquired by CTVgm together with other CHUM entities, Citytv Toronto was sold off to Rogers Media in 2007. Since then, the Citytv signage at the front building was replaced with an eTalk logo, the former Citytv satellite landmark mural was replaced with logos of various CTV-owned media outlets (in addition to those logos of various CTV-owned channels, The logo for CTV's entertainment news show eTalk was also mounted on the mural) [2], the CityPulse banner on the truck was replaced with a CP24 logo, and the main Citytv signage on the building's east façade was replaced with a private balcony, looking out off the company's boardroom. Citytv finally moved out of 299 Queen Street West into its new home at 33 Dundas Street East on September 8, 2009.
Other CTV facilities in Toronto
- 9 Channel Nine Court: CTVglobemedia's Agincourt headquarters, where CTV Toronto, CTV News Channel, TSN, TSN2 and Discovery Channel are based, that location also houses the master controls for the CTV stations in Eastern Canada, (including; CTV Winnipeg, CTV Southwestern Ontario, CTV Ottawa and CTV Montreal).
- 250 Richmond Street West: studio for 104.5 CHUM FM and CP24 Radio 1050
- Masonic Temple: studio for MTV
- 720 King Street West: studio for Business News Network
- 444 Front Street West: The Globe and Mail
References
- ^ CTV building, Toronto Flickr.com
- ^ satellite mural Flickr.com
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 299 Queen Street West |
- CTVglobemedia
- Emporis.com: The ChumCity Building, Toronto
- CTV's Festival Headquarters - Press Release
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Coordinates: 43°38′59″N 79°23′25″W / 43.649701°N 79.390233°W
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