brianmac said:
That's a fairly depressing way to start the morning in particular the talk of the amount of wood in the structure. 160 will be a fantastic addition to the city and waving good bye to the parking lot is a positive, but man we are going to miss these buildings when they are gone. We should have a policy like trees that for every old heritage building that gets pulled down, there would be three renovated and protected.
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It is a little unfortunate - and one wonder if retention along the lines of QRC West is possible. Having said that, at least the replacement is worthy.

AoD
 
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bmiller said:
I just got back from Chicago, and there is a city that could teach Toronto about preserving heritage buildings. Very little facedectomy.
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Chicago has one of the most beautiful downtown core and Waterfront area in North America. Toronto is still trying to find its identity in my opinion.
 
bmiller said:
I just got back from Chicago, and there is a city that could teach Toronto about preserving heritage buildings. Very little facedectomy.
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I don't understand why Chicago is always used as the point of comparison for Toronto heritage conservation. Around when a lot of Chicago's historical skyscrapers were built, the city had a population in the millions already, with about 3.4 million in 1940. Toronto was not even remotely in the same ballpark, with about 900,000 in 1940. The two skylines and populations didn't even come close to being equals until recently, as Chicago has been stagnating and declining in population.

Arguably, I'd say that there aren't many historical buildings in Toronto worth preserving outside of a facadectomy, as they were mostly really small and probably poorly maintained anyway. The historical buildings that we see in Toronto today were really the only ones worth preserving.
 
Agree in some respects, but then again Toronto has demolished some real gems over the past several decades and generations. We could have done a better job of preserving some of those once-amazing buildings but they were sacrificed in their day to the notion of progress and the pressures of modernity.
 
Lenser said:
Agree in some respects, but then again Toronto has demolished some real gems over the past several decades and generations. We could have done a better job of preserving some of those once-amazing buildings but they were sacrificed in their day to the notion of progress and the pressures of modernity.
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Some examples? I'm young and new to the city, quite curious!
 
Lenser said:
Agree in some respects, but then again Toronto has demolished some real gems over the past several decades and generations. We could have done a better job of preserving some of those once-amazing buildings but they were sacrificed in their day to the notion of progress and the pressures of modernity.
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At one point they even wanted to demolish Old City Hall to expand the Eaton Centre area with a skyscraper ! What a joke that would have been !
 
There's a book called Lost Toronto. Came out in the late 70s, early 80s I believe. Wonderful specimens there. I think it was revised a couple of times. Some proper historicists on this site will be better able to point out some prime examples of splendid creations that fell under the wrecking ball.
 
reteequa said:
Some examples? I'm young and new to the city, quite curious!
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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now:

Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

Note to Sal, I tend to agree with Richard White's viewpoint. If both images are of equal value, they conflict with one-another for attention. My rare attempts to merge images were in this, very simple style. I think we must be careful and allow the original scenes to be obvious. However, I...
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca


Evocative Images of Lost Toronto:

Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

Traffic on Bay St. 1964 TPL
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca


More Lost Toronto in colour:

More Lost Toronto in colour

Here's some old pics from my dad. 80's Dundas and chesnutt What intersection is this? Looks like it's in Chinatown.
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca
 
Bit of a fun silver lining: you can find parts of some of these demolished buildings in the Guild Inn sculpture garden.
 
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