I just want to bitch for a moment about the most pointless heritage "preservation" in Toronto.
This is nothing new. We all know it, we've all rolled our eyes at it. But I was walking by this weekend and was struck again by how useless it is.
Here is the Google Streetview from 2007, showing the old Ralph Day Funeral home. The red brick building immediately to the west of the funeral home, the funeral home itself, and a small gas station on the east side of the funeral home would all shortly thereafter be demolished to make way for Shoppers Drug Mart.
Here is roughly the same view in 2015. The "heritage facade" glued onto the Shoppers barely resembles the old funeral home, isn't even located in the same spot, and is just an ugly dead zone along the streetwall with covered windows. Who thought this crappy replica would be a good idea? Does anyone recall how this nonsense came about?
Sorry, I know this not new. But was simply reminded how useless it is.
ETA: MHBC
actually admits to being involved in this project ("Utilizing heritage aspects of the former funeral home, the project team was able to transform the store into a unique blend of old and contemporary" - ha ha). What's even scarier is that this page features the project renderings that were presumably supplied to the City -- they clearly show opaque, street-deadening windows. So the City knew what it was getting.
ETA2: Lovely photo of the old funeral home building on
Flickr. I didn't know this Ralph Day was the one and the same as the former mayor of Toronto. So, apparently we decided to honour the former mayor's legacy on the Danforth with this piece of crap.
ETA3: The City
actually granted an easement to the developer to help facilitate this redevelopment. Did nobody at the City ask themselves whether a half-assed token allusion (I'd call it a reproduction, but it really isn't on) to the old heritage building made a whit of sense, before they approved this thing? The Shoppers building has a long facade and it's a large site - they could have accomplished a lot more than this, while still enabling the new store to have a contemporary design.