The Powell Building’s location northeast of Dundas Square is challenging: separated by a tiny triangular parking lot from a chronically traffic-choked bend of Dundas Street East, with a 10-storey Toronto Public Health building and a safe injection site behind it and, to the east, gloomy, unfriendly Victoria Street Lane that connects Ryerson University to the north with Massey Hall to the south. Five design charrette teams transformed those challenges into an array of opportunities.

Team 1: Connect 38-40 Dundas St E. with the Toronto Public Health building that is attached to it, making 38-40 Dundas St E. an extension of the Toronto Public Health building and the new face of it.

Team 2: Retain as much of the façade of the original building as possible, add an extension to increase size, and organize programmes at the interior that allow for community engagement.

Team 3 (the winning team): 38-40 Dundas East has the potential to restore a human scale to a corner of ”super-human” Yonge-Dundas Square. Enclose the east façade and parking lot in glass to create an interior park through which the building remains visible. Inside, a food hall, with café, bar and green roof respects and enhances the historic building. Revitalize Victoria Street Lane by adding welcoming neon signs that pay homage to the neon signs previously in the area.

Team 4: Transform 38-40 Dundas St E. into a public space with minimal intervention. The triangular parking lot becomes a park with benches that local artists are invited to decorate.

Team 5: Transform the interior of 38-40 Dundas St East.into a community space for community use with programming similar to that provided by a library, while keeping the exterior of the building (including its white paint) relatively untouched.

See also: Charette summary by NextGen Vice-Chair Loryssa Quatrociocchi and NextGen Secretary in NOW magazine: Future of Yonge-Dundas fixture remains in a state of disarray 

From ACO Toronto's TOBuilt (see full entry):
In 2015, an engineering study was undertaken to assess the condition of the building. This 2015 study — not presently available to the public but referenced in public documents — reportedly notes "structural concerns with the building's masonry façade, masonry parapet walls, floor areas within the building and fire escape."

Subsequently, in February 2023, the City of Toronto issued an Order to Remedy Unsafe Building to itself noting that "NO work has been carried out to date to permanently repair the building and remediate the structural concerns that are creating the unsafe conditions to the public in and around the building." Scaffolding has since been erected around the building as of early March 2023.

Update: 38 Dundas St. East to be demolished in spring 2024 (https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2024/01/abandoned-building-toronto-soon-demolished).