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Residence College Hotel new Lecture Hall (90 Gerrard St. W, 2s, DSAI)

It's a very interesting building. Unless something really interesting replaces it, I'm actually disappointed.
 
Do we know what's replacing this, or are they just destroying this before even planning anything to replace it (which would be ridiculous)?

Such tall buildings shouldn't be allowed to be demolished while there's so much room left for construction throughout the city.
 
It says a lecture hall, but not how tall.

Why would they destroy a giant building to build a one-storey lecture hall? I don't get it. Will it be a temporary structure?
 
90gj19.jpg
 
Interesting. A deconstruction. (I guess, such is the nature of concrete panel construction--it makes for easy deconstruction)
 
It really is such an interesting building. I wonder if what replaces it will be very interesting....
 
I was mourning the loss of this building until they stripped off the panels: those interior compartments are really small, even by contemporary 'studio condo' standards. If this residence had been constructed using post and slab technique instead of poured concrete walls, I suppose it would have stood a better chance of being repurposed.
 
Well, a lot of these Corbusian student-rez types of buildings had a pretty aggressive "monk's cubicle" thing going...
 
I am definitely happy to see this one go. It's one of the worst "fortress city" buildings in the area - designed at a time when people thought city streets were dangerous places that needed to be blocked out at all costs. It is actually surrounded on all sides by a moat and 10' concrete walls. They can't tear this down fast enough.
 
Silence&Motion said:
I am definitely happy to see this one go. It's one of the worst "fortress city" buildings in the area - designed at a time when people thought city streets were dangerous places that needed to be blocked out at all costs. It is actually surrounded on all sides by a moat and 10' concrete walls. They can't tear this down fast enough.
Click to expand...
I've always found that corner unpleasant to walk by, so I have to agree.
 
Silence&Motion said:
I am definitely happy to see this one go. It's one of the worst "fortress city" buildings in the area - designed at a time when people thought city streets were dangerous places that needed to be blocked out at all costs. It is actually surrounded on all sides by a moat and 10' concrete walls. They can't tear this down fast enough.
Click to expand...

Yeah, narcissistic, but it's narcissism with style, at least as far as the Brutalist Defense League is concerned. (Y'know, the sorts who rant and rave at the philistines who vote for Britain's Ugliest Buildings and what have you.)

I'm still absolutely fascinated by the way the place is being slowly, methodically dismantled, piece by piece--the antithesis of the more conventional demolition of 45 Charles E (let alone controlled implosions). I don't know if there's been any demolition quite like this one in Toronto, ever. Together with the whole enigma of the building and its history, from nursing residence to Int'l Youth Hostel and beyond, it's practically like this unloved address is begging a biography--a biography of a building. (I can imagine such a volume being an award-winner.)
 
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