One of the few locations big and cool enough that it's marked on road maps, the Hearn is the most incredible building I have ever been fortunate enough to explore. With its towering smokestack visible from downtown Toronto, the former power generating station's main building is imposingly massive.
Naos and I went during a weekday to check it out. A demolition of the plant is currently underway, so we had to slip in carefully.
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The room was also full of airborne dust, probably thanks to the demolition, which instantly made us regret not having brought our respirators. We debated leaving right then, as the air was so bad; but decided to go a little further inside just for a quick look.
That quick look turned into a several-hour expedition, during which we managed to walk through a large part of the complex. Starting from the top, after a quick visit to the football-field sized roof, we slowly worked our way down through the levels. The demolition work was taking place from the ground up, stopping at about the fourth storey, leaving us free to roam in the levels above. We managed to stay out of sight, as we photographed our journey through the power plant. Nearing the lower levels, we started to see more workers below, and had to be a bit more cautious. Luckily, it was almost lunchtime- when the machines started shutting down, we knew our chance had come. We descended to the lower levels, and were nearly seen by some workers leaving for lunch. Hanging around the old office portions of the building until we were sure the coast was clear, we moved into the lower floors of the station.
Here, we quickly roamed the generator level, and some of the areas where the demolition had already gone through. It looked as though they'd already ripped nearly everthing out of the ground floor, and had a good start on the second storey. We had just passed through the generator level, and were on the ground floor looking around, when the workers started coming back.
Figuring we'd already spent too much time in the dust-laden atmosphere, we decided to make our escape. We crept through the back of the building, under the generators, and through huge old electrical areas with flooded floors. We found a stairwell back up to the generator level, and from there entered a staircase that took us up to the coal conveyor floor. In the shed at the top, I curiously lifted a hatch in the floor- and stared at the 9-storey drop below. There was also a worker sitting directly below us, so I silently dropped the hatch back down.
On the way out, looking at the building from the outside, I realized we'd completely missed the cool-looking areas at the front of the building (where the workers were); including the exhaust chimenys and the huge stack itself. Later on, we also learned that we'd missed the cool main control rooms in our haste. Yet, having not even seen all the other cool places in the Hearn, it was still the most incredible building I've ever explored.
Behind The Hearn. Amazingly massive and complex, crammed with machinery and wonder. The coal conveyors can be seen here, as well as the transformer yard behind the building where some Ontario Hydro workers toiled. That stack, which goes to the ground at the front of the building, must be at least 18 stories tall.
The climb up the conveyor; which goes from two stories to nine. We were a third of the way up when we though a worker below had seen us.
The conveyor room, which stretches all the way across the top of the building. The dust in here was frightening.
Reduxzero stands next to a huge tank on one of the upper levels. There were entire floors of this stuff; strange arrangements of machinery, repeated several times over.
The cavernous generator room.
Reduxzero, next to one of the huge generators. Compare this to the photo above- everything in this place was massive beyond belief.
One the way down to the lower levels.
More huge machinery on this level. You can just see the back end of a Bobcat in the lower right corner, and the bright light (left) is from some large floodlights the demolition workers had set up.
On the ground floor, an open bay door lets in the sunlight. The demolition was well underway down here.
At the rear corner of the building. That's me, standing in front of a large tank of some sort. The yellow fencing three stories above is the generator level. The scale of everything was mind-blowing.