The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Toronto's historic Distillery District, which opened in 2003, languished for years as a collection of 47 decaying buildings, some dating back to 1832 when the Gooderham and Worts distillery was operating there. The Globe's guest columnist David Israelson writes that by the end of the 20th century the site was derelict, until partners Cityscape Development and Dream Unlimited bought it for a white-elephant price of $10-million and turned it into a major Toronto destination that includes shops, galleries, offices, dining and theatre. Ken Greenberg, principal of Greenberg Consultants and former director of architecture and urban design for the City of Toronto, says the revitalized Distillery District shows that it is not impossible to do something spectacular with a difficult site. Mr. Greenberg says, "You just need to look at something like the Tate Modern in London." It was a decommissioned power station that stood empty from 1981 to 2000, when it was reopened to become one of the world's most visited modern-art galleries. Mr. Greenberg says, "Keeping the heritage of legacy buildings is better than becoming a throwaway society when it comes to buildings."