Protection sought for Black's old perch

[billy corgan19982]

From The Globe and Mail

Protection sought for Black's old perch
By JENNIFER LEWINGTON

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Page A12

CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

A downtown Toronto landmark -- the headquarters of Conrad Black's embattled Hollinger Inc. -- would receive beefed-up heritage protection under a city proposal to be debated today.

The property at 10 Toronto St., built in 1853, served as a post office, a government building and later the headquarters of Argus Corp. before becoming home to Hollinger.

The Toronto and East York Community Council will vote on whether to designate the building under the Ontario Heritage Act, which offers stepped-up protection from future demolition.

The push to designate the building, located just east of Yonge Street between King and Adelaide Streets, came after city officials received informal word that developers were interested in turning the former post office into a high-rise tower.

"I say to Conrad Black and his successors: Forget it, leave it alone," Kyle Rae, a member of the community council, said yesterday.

The building's current heritage status -- it was named a national historic site in 1958 and listed on the former City of Toronto's inventory of heritage properties in 1973 -- offers no real protection against redevelopment or demolition.

It is one of the city's early surviving limestone buildings and is considered architecturally significant for its Greek Revival design.

"It's a stunning piece of architecture in downtown Toronto," said Denise Gendron, the city's manager of heritage-preservation services. "With the amount of development pressure that is going on, we felt it was critical to safeguard that piece of city history."

The building was originally constructed as the Seventh Post Office.

In 1937, it became a branch of the Bank of Canada before Toronto industrialist E. P. Taylor acquired the site in 1959 as the headquarters of Argus Corp.

Lord Black took control of Argus in 1978. Since then 10 Toronto St. has served as headquarters for Hollinger Inc.

On May 31, Lord Black was barred by court order from entering the building.

 

[unimaginative2]

Unbelievable! How can a national historic site not be protected?! I'll chain myself to the big black door to protect the building from the bulldozers.

 

[blixa442]

What a case of phenomenal stupidity. With so many parking lots in the immediate area, why would someone even entertain the thought of demolishing this beauty?

 

[building babel]

But not a ravishing beauty, because she lacks a bit up top - in the pediment department. Was this the first example of the famous Toronto Cheap-Out I wonder?

I think there's room for a slim and elegant, classicaly inspired condo tower on the Victoria Street side of the site. Her ass-end isn't much to look at, nor was it ever intended to be.

 

[ganjavih]

The push to designate the building, located just east of Yonge Street between King and Adelaide Streets, came after city officials received informal word that developers were interested in turning the former post office into a high-rise tower.

What a sad state of affairs it is that this option is even being considered.

 

[adma]

But not a ravishing beauty, because she lacks a bit up top - in the pediment department. Was this the first example of the famous Toronto Cheap-Out I wonder?

Pediments aren't always the point in the c19 Greek Revival, y'know...

 

[building babel]

... not the point, no, but a smart tricorn chapeau would've dressed the girl up with a lot more style. Other options might've been the eccentric little pillbox hat worn by that building moved to the BCE Place Galleria, the Board of Commerce or whatever it is called.

 

[building babel]

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[adma]

Oh sure. And Kate Hudson could do with double-D implants...

 

[building babel]

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[building babel]

Part of the stage set for 'Rodelinda' last night was a small Greek Revival building very much like the one we're discussing. It also doubled as a kind of armoire. It sat on the stage, shabby chic off-white and distressed, about a dozen feet tall. Several of the singers had to climb up it, and down. Doors opened in it to reveal a cabinet of swords for one act, a mirrored dressing room with a candelabra for another act. And it slid back to reveal a little red prison room in the final act -that's when I thought of Conrad Black caught on video sneaking out boxes at the rear of 10 Toronto.

But what a lovely opera. Rational and logical as befits the age of reason and enlightenment in which Handel wrote it, but audacious in the application of perverse logic: The bad guy tells the tyrant to kill people or else he will fail in his duty as a tyrant; the heroine tells the tyrant to kill her beloved son so he will never gain her love. Everyone is thrown into despair in order to set up these intense arias, but it all ends happily. Quite different from 'Carmen' and the Romantic and moral issues of a hundred and fifty years later. Like the difference between 10 Toronto and Old City Hall maybe.

 

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

Heh...