General: The 1981 reconstruction of Hurontario Street within the B.I.A. reinforces the overall coherence of that portion of the street. Streetscape improvements included providision of sidewalk pavers, planting, attractive lighting fixtures, street furniture, and banners. The reconstruction also included revision of the curb line, creating a widened sidewalk between parking bays. At the bays, the sidewalk is between 5 and 6 metres wide, while the widened portions are about 7.5 metres near intersections, and close to 10 metres at mid-block locations. The overall effect is a pleasant and "softened" pedestrian streetscape. The angle parking continues a nose-first tradition that goes back to the horse, eliminates the interference of opening car doors on the pedestrian area, and provides a buffer between pedestrian and vehicular zones that increases the feeling of enclosed security on the sidewalk. The layout of angle parking on a wide main shopping street is a rarity in Ontario, and contributes to the special quality of Downtown Collingwood.

West Side: The recent Loblaw's store at First Street is sympathetic in scale and detail to heritage buildings but falls down on street presence, being designed to address the parking lot rather than any of the three streets it faces. The demolition of the fine buildings at Nos. 34 & 38, means the absence of heritage structures on 65% of the street frontage. The remaining buildings are all of heritage value, particularly the Federal Building at No. 44 and the vigorously vertical Victorian next door at No. 50.

East Side: A large and fine collection of two and three-storey brick heritage buildings, including some particularly grand ones, interrupted bya few unsympathetic modern on-storey infill buildings. Of particular heritage are the ornate pedimented parapets at Nos. 49 & 55, the pierced parapets at Nos. 51 adn 53, the richly decorated mass of the Carmichael Block at Nos. 19-25, and the elaborate corbelled brackets above the windows at Nos. 73-77. No 55 is particularly notable as the original Lindsay's Liquor Store, the first building erected after the 1881 fire. About 70% of the frontage has heritage value, mostly of a high order. Taken as a whoke, this is a glorious heritage block.

West Side: a fairly good collection of heritage buildings with some modern one-storey gaps, and a couple of adequate non-contemporary 'context' buildings that share scale and materials with the heritage stock. Heritage buildings are of very good quality, with some outstanding: a very fine three-storey block at Nos. 72-76 on the corner of Simcoe Street, with its appended two-storey mimic next door at No. 78, and a restrained polychrome brick with stone composition at Nos. 140-142. The replacement for the recently burned heritage Temple building is sympathetic to heritage values. About 60% of the frontage has heritage value, and another 10% is contextually adequate.

East Side: Another good group of mostly two-storey brick heritage buildings, dramatically punctuated by teh clock tower of the Town Hall. No. 32, the Bank of Montreal, post dates teh Victorian commercial buildings by a generation, but shares the vocabulary of brick and stone with punched windows. Of the commercial buildings, Nos. 87, 91, 93 (Stokes 35) are of particularly high quality, and the two southern bays have been lovingly restored. Nos. 105 and 119 are one-storey modern buildings, creating gaps in the street enclosure. No. 115 is a three storey modern building which takes the trouble to mimic the massive arches of the town Hall. Taken as a whoke, this is a vauable heritage block with a lot of rich detail, particularly in the cornices. About 75% of the block frontage consists of heritage stock.

West Side: This block possesses a limited number of heritage buildings, and most are only averge quality, the very nice block at Nos. 164-166 being the exception that proves the rule. This is mitiaged somewhat by the fact that a recent infill development at No. 186 made a quite successful effort to reflect heritage qualities in scale and detail. No. 159, at the corner of Third Street, is a very modern building, but executed in a way that it doesn't clash with townscape. It almost meets the vertical scale of the adjacent heritage building to the south, and the sloping roof along Third serves as an introduction to the gables of the residential area to the west. It makes an effort, though it can't claim heritage character. About 33% of the frontage has heritage value, and another 20% is sympathetic recent construction.

East Side: Survivors of the original continuous commercial streetscape occupy the lower 2/3 of this block. To the north, surviving heritage buildings are freestanding, most of which as residences converted to commercial use. The original design of the Gayety Theatre at No. 155 shows only on the Third Street flank, although the canopy and sign are representative of a different and later style of exuberant commercial expression. Very good two-storey brick commercial blocks remain at Nos. 161-179 and 201-203, the later possessing distinctive pedimented cornice lines. Though interrupted by an unfortunate modern building at 191-199, and its attendant parking lot, this is a fine stretch of heritage buildings. Converted residences at 219 adn 237 at the corner block at 243 possesses heritage value, and 40% of the frontage is in the form of continuous commercial blocks.

East Side: A new sympathetic bank building is located at Hurontario and Fourth Street East. New development is underway south of the bank building. Note: The heritage house pictured above, has been taken down and moved to a new location. The school building (Admiral Collingwood School) has been demolished.

West Side: There are three heritage house-form buildings on the block, which is mostly occupied by large unsympathetic commercial developments and their parking lots.
 

On the east side at Hume, 311 Hurontario is an intact heritage commercial building, and the adjacent property is a commercially zoned house-form building. South of this point, the character of the street is primarily residential, with a mixture of heritage and non-heritage buildings.

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