The Eaton Centre effectivly destroyed the west side of Yonge, and the East is slowly but surely following up. Sad day for Toronto.
 
HHC said:
The Eaton Centre effectivly destroyed the west side of Yonge, and the East is slowly but surely following up. Sad day for Toronto.
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I hear this over and over again ... yet in my books it accomplished the exact opposite - it's a huge draw for those throughout the 905/416 - even though they all have their own respective malls. Like many cities in North America (unlike Europe) there was a lot of pressure to de-centralize and a flight to the suburbs - to many this is mythical in Toronto but it happened / it happened everywhere. Things like malls downtown in many areas helped keep the area attractive. It's true that the Toronto of today probably doesn't need this draw but I think helped over the years. The whole decentralizing has already happened in terms of offices (due in part to Toronto's own policies) but every effort should be made to keep Toronto attractive (and it is).

To put it short - I know a lot - and I mean a lot of people who come downtown just for the Eaton center - and they venture out because of it i.e. let's go to the eaton center oh and then we'll check out Queen W / or the waterfront / or blah ... would they come without a Eaton center if say Yonge street / Queen W was just as commericalized (and the later is close) - some yes but not all - and particularly not in the winter months.

Anyway, the east side is pretty safe with the theatre - unless you're referring to dundas square.
 
Sad sad loss. :( I hope Ryerson doesn't build there. We have enough ugly Ryerson buildings in this part of town
 
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Well, so much for restoring this!

And it didn't even take 10 Dundas down with it. A complete loss in every way.
 
^ Ha ha Grey. It's a shame to lose this historic structure. But I don't see how a condo would ever go there as someone said. The ground level of anything at all would be commercial.

We could do worse than have Ryerson build there. They have made it clear that they want a higher presence on Yonge and this may provide an opportunity. Careful design would give us something to complement their building on the opposite corner, and in harmony with the nearby street as well.
 
Sad story. Awesome photo. Leave it to urbantoronto.ca to have the best picture of this breaking event. I love this site!
 
HHC said:
I just want to see the property owner get slammed for arsen, fraud, attempted murder, and anything else that comes with it. Couldn't have made it any more obvious.
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Unless, of course, a counter-suit is laid upon the the City and its heritage authorities. Y'know, "heritage can kill people", something trumped-up like that. Again, fueling a "Stop the Heritage Gravy Train" sentiment. Sure, it'd be a little like a wife abuser claiming "she had it coming", but...in the Rob Ford era, expect anything.

Heck, it might not even start there--perhaps Hizonner might take on the opportunity to "clear out the crap" on Yonge a la Brantford, and utter sod-you to the hysterical preservationists who have no regard for public safety bla bla. Oh, and perhaps w/a little Rob Ford/Jeff Melanson synergy to spin it in terms of "clearing the deck for something better", like a whole horde of Aga-Khan-replacing-Bata cases'll be upon us...
 
Observer Walt said:
^ Ha ha Grey. It's a shame to lose this historic structure. But I don't see how a condo would ever go there as someone said. The ground level of anything at all would be commercial.

We could do worse than have Ryerson build there. They have made it clear that they want a higher presence on Yonge and this may provide an opportunity. Careful design would give us something to complement their building on the opposite corner, and in harmony with the nearby street as well.
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Isn't Ryerson already short of money for the north-east corner?
 
Interesting foretellingish thing about the fears for Toronto Death Square early in this thread: in the past, I've described it as akin to those shoddily built Asian urban megamalls which wind up catching fire and killing three figures worth of people...
 
Realistically this building was going to come down one way or the other. It was structurally unsound and I don't see how it could have been restored after the partial collapse. It would be like putting a crushed egg shell back together. Perhaps if they can reclaim enough bricks they can replicate the design of this building in a new structure.

We can be very thankful that no Fireman were killed last night. According to reports 2 firemen fell 15 feet off the roof of the HMV building and it took about 20 minutes to find them. I was listening to the live fire department feeds last night and actually heard the dramatic mayday calls. It was a very tense situation for a while.
 
Peepers said:
Realistically this building was going to come down one way or the other. It was structurally unsound and I don't see how it could have been restored after the partial collapse.
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If it had been that structurally unsound, city engineers would have ordered it pulled down months ago as a public hazard. I'll bet it was salvagable prior to the fire -- which points to a possible motive.
 
Blovertis said:
If it had been that structurally unsound, city engineers would have ordered it pulled down months ago as a public hazard. I'll bet it was salvagable prior to the fire -- which points to a possible motive.
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Actually the fact that they erected hoarding a good distance from the building - closing off one lane of Yonge to do so - suggests to me that they did not consider the building to be structurally sound.
 
Blovertis said:
If it had been that structurally unsound, city engineers would have ordered it pulled down months ago as a public hazard. I'll bet it was salvagable prior to the fire -- which points to a possible motive.
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This fire was the result of deliberate neglect.. I don't think the owners went out of their way to set this fire, at the same time they didn't go out of their way to stop homeless people from squatting there either.

From what I've read today, seems that this building was pretty popular among the homeless peeps. - And now they need to find a new place to hang.

Of course there is always Mr.Cooper.
 
Well, I'm not too surprised this happened.

What really is a shame is the fact that 10 Dundas East didn't burn down with it.
 
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