Red Mars said:
Sun Oct 25, 2020

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The staging platform on the west side of the King Toronto site is now complete and in use. Demolition activities for the balance of the structure behind the heritage facade have also resumed.

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Demolition of the west portion of the legacy building is now almost complete - will try to get a photo tomorrow (the gate was already closed today).

Meanwhile, a photo of the former 495 King Street West building - and the amount of work required to stabilize it, and incorporate it into the new structure. When one looks at the building - it is a very basic, elementary brick, post and beam structure, with (to my mind) no visual esthetic appeal. While in the past there have been numerous examples of outstanding buildings in Toronto that were casually dismissed and demolished - that is not to say that every building that is just old, no matter how prosaic in its history or unappealing in its visual appearance - needs to be saved. When one considers
  • the sheer cost of saving, stabilizing, and incorporating this small building into the project - steel bracing structure, extensive shoring and foundation structure around the perimeter of the building, etc.;
  • located at the back of the site - not going to be very visible (if at all) from King Street; and
  • the architectural compromises that were required in the final design, to be able to work in this structure;

Toronto's Historical Preservation Services department could (in my opinion) be more profitably served by addressing other more worthwhile buildings on its pending list.

And people wonder why the cost of building new housing in the downtown can be so expensive....

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The westmost portion of the building behind the heritage facade on King Street has now been fully detached from the facade, and is almost completely demolished. One more section to go, to the east, and then the demolition activities on site are basically complete - the building components still remaining are to be incorporated into the new structures.

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Is anyone else disappointed in the height of this build? I mean this was a good location for a nice tall building
 
They could have built something tall here, but I'm perfectly happy with this density.
 
No this is not an appropriate area for a tall building just for the sake of it. This is/was one of the best stretches of older heritage lower scale buildings in the city. That’s one of the areas draws. There are so many other areas that are appropriate and are currently being dramatically densified with height.
 
This is probably my favourite in the city under construction after The One. Impressive skylines architecturally make good first impressions with cities however I would contest that the street level experience this one promises provides a more intimate experience.
 
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The Preservationist said:
This is probably my favourite in the city under construction after The One. Impressive skylines architecturally make good first impressions with cities however I would contest that the street level experience this one promises provides a more intimate experience.
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couldn't agree more, I'd take a really good street experience over what kind of hat the building's wearing. The good thing is in this case, hopefully we're gonna get a little bit of both.
 
This is a gorgeous mid-rise structure and the height will fit perfectly in this area. We don't need to stick tall glass condos all over the city now, do we? :confused:
 
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