nopacnone said:
Agreed. The european system of mindless preservation of everything makes living in the city very elitist and less functional than here IMO. Hence why I immigrated.
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Funny thing is, a statement like this vindicates a controversial observation of mine some time ago--that is, the tendency of certain UTers who've been a little obtuse re the "heritage thing" to be, well, non-native, and sometimes w/a "we've got centuries-old monuments in our homelands" hubris going on. As well as the possibility that they came to Canada *exactly* to escape the dead wood of that centuries-old heritage, to a land that's apparently-to-them a tabula rasa as far as any of that's concerned.

Contrary to the Trudeau-vian enlightened multicultural mythos, they're actually more like *refugees* from so-called culture. (And imagine that to their surprise, not only does Canada have an active heritage community, they'd even side with that dreaded elitist "european system"...)
 
A temporary tower crane will be used for the demolition of the existing 100 Adelaide building. The crane base, 300 cubic yards of concrete, is being poured today. After the demolition is complete, the crane base will be dug out, as part of the overall excavation for the site.
 
nopacnone said:
Agreed. The european system of mindless preservation of everything makes living in the city very elitist and less functional than here IMO. Hence why I immigrated.
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I really disagree that Europe preserves everything anyway. Look at Paris, they bulldozed huge swathes of the city in the late 1800s to set up the 'grande avenues'. Now a lot of the residential buildings are just boring crap, only they're 150 year old crap. Look at Italy, they've got so much to preserve that the coliseum is falling apart and the hall of gladiators in Pompeii collapsed into rubble a few years back. I think we will see a lot more roman architecture disintegrating in the next 50 years as the Mediterranean countries are broke.
 
rpeters said:
I really disagree that Europe preserves everything anyway. Look at Paris, they bulldozed huge swathes of the city in the late 1800s to set up the 'grande avenues'. Now a lot of the residential buildings are just boring crap, only they're 150 year old crap. Look at Italy, they've got so much to preserve that the coliseum is falling apart and the hall of gladiators in Pompeii collapsed into rubble a few years back. I think we will see a lot more roman architecture disintegrating in the next 50 years as the Mediterranean countries are broke.
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We're getting off-topic here, but Venice is doomed too: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jun/20/coming-death-venice/?pagination=false
 
AHK said:
A temporary tower crane will be used for the demolition of the existing 100 Adelaide building. The crane base, 300 cubic yards of concrete, is being poured today. After the demolition is complete, the crane base will be dug out, as part of the overall excavation for the site.
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The crane is up, and more pieces of the roof of the parking garage are gone.
 
androiduk said:
Last look before demolition.

richadm14.jpg
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I so hope that the third-world looking, bent, rusted, wire-filled heritage poles are retained. They will surely compliment the forthcoming glue-job facadectomy that poses as heritage preservation.
 
We should see mass replacement of damaged, old poles over the next couple of years which begs the question, " What will the forum talk about then?"
 
I wouldn't worry. Complainers will still complain about everything and anything. I realized as a young guy that you can't make people happy. If wires and poles make someone unhappy enough to post sarcastic comments, then new/replaced poles will be also criticized for being too new and not gritty enough. I often see these types of comments about wires seen in 2D photographs, when in 3D reality you just look through them and don't take notice.
 
I know I am in the minority here but I really don't see a ton of value in this building. I understand it's historical context but I just really don't like it's aesthetic all that much. Bring on the new tower!!!
 
To be honest though, the state of the public realm in the financial district leaves much to be desired - it's a pretty legitimate ground for criticism, debate and discussion, though this thread probably isn't the place to have that done in a sustained manner.

Isn't there going to be a Financial District BIA? Wait, there is: http://torontofinancialdistrict.com/

From their 2013 Plan: http://torontofinancialdistrict.com...oronto-financial-district-in-2013-and-beyond/

CHAMPION OF THE PUBLIC REALM

The towering architecture of Bay Street and the Financial District are a magnet for public eyes. Our area is seen by countless workers, tourists, and visiting businesspeople from around the world each year.

We define the public realm as all elements between building faces, including the sidewalk, street, and other public areas.

Our organization will be an advocate for public realm improvements that create a street-level experience up to par with the beautiful designs and monumental architecture we can already boast in the Financial District. Our signature project for the year will be improvements to the Bay Street corridor through our district. Keep your eyes out as we implement a standard look for our most prominent street and improve the condition of current public realm features.
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AoD
 
maestro said:
We should see mass replacement of damaged, old poles over the next couple of years which begs the question, " What will the forum talk about then?"
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Grey spandrel, my biggest pet peeve! (oh, and don't forget those ugly overhead electrical wires & streetcar wires) Oh trust me, we got lots to complain about. How about drinking fountains that never work.
 
maestro said:
We should see mass replacement of damaged, old poles over the next couple of years which begs the question, " What will the forum talk about then?"
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Please give me a timeline of when this will occur. I'm sick of most of the poles either being rusted or wood with wires hanging all over them and why must they all be grey? Why can't we use a different colour like black or even green which look better. I bet you it was probably the cheapest option there was which it was chosen. Why must everything in this city look grey??

As for other things to complain about there are too many lists, how about we actually start caring about our public realm for once. Why can't we get more nicer looking sidewalks like what was done in Roncessvalles or what is being done in York region with the Viva rapidways?How about actual dedicated bike lanes instead of the crap we got on Sherboune? I swear we always settle for the mediocre cheapest looking option for mostly everything in this city?
 
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