GOOD BIKE

401 RICHMOND ST W ——- In another life, 401 Richmond isn’t there, cratered, like so many other sturdy industrial buildings near the Queen and Spadina hub, to make way for newer, shinier, more commercially viable projects (and yes, I mean condos.) Such would have been its fate had the Zeidler family not stepped in in 1994 with a vision: Keep the building, and keep the arts in the central downtown core. As anyone can see by its immediate surroundings, the threat was real: The Gap, H&M, Club Monaco, HMV — you can hardly tell this was the centre of the city’s vibrant art scene in the 1980s. 401 RIchmond both preserves that legacy and allows it to grow anew, providing below-market rents for seminal artist-run centres like YYZ, A Space, Gallery 44 and Prefix Photo, as well as venerable commercial galleries like Wyntick Tuck. ——- Written by Murray Whyte