Toronto CHAZ | 150.87m | 47s | 45 Charles Ltd | P + S / IBI

Together w/the nursing residence at Gerrard + Elizabeth, it'll be some summer for Brutalist-demolition-photo fetishists...
 
17 storey tower supposedly being replaced by a 2 storey conference facility.
 
A steady stream of moving trucks has been visiting this building all week long. I imagine the place is just about empty. I think demolition is set to begin in about 2 weeks.

chazj24.jpg
 
More stuff being moved from the building today, so I grabbed a last few shots of this treasure, soon to fall

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

 
looks like they are starting to set up for demolition- this morning they started to install poles for fencing
chaz.jpg
 
Well, as an eternal Brutalist defender, I'd love to push a button and blow you suckers up...
 
Hey Adma...

As a respected member of UT, with over 10, 000 posts, what is it that you see in this building?? Is it just a heritage, preservation of a period thing?
It seems pretty bland and unadorned, and it's not like some Penn Station, or Beaux Arts masterpiece. Toronto had lost a lot of it's heritage, but does that mean save anything?
I get preserving, but not at all costs. Tearing down this in favor of a great looking , high density condo ??? Seems a win?
Perhaps there's a story I don't know about this building, an architect or a first of some kind??
 
Now this is something I get preserving, ornate craftsmanship, amazing workmanship, stone in the form of art. Notice the carved stone globes in front.... one of the heavens and on of the earth. Minnesota's coolest building thats not a cathedral!!
 

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jetsbackincanada said:
As a respected member of UT, with over 10, 000 posts, what is it that you see in this building?? Is it just a heritage, preservation of a period thing?
It seems pretty bland and unadorned, and it's not like some Penn Station, or Beaux Arts masterpiece. Toronto had lost a lot of it's heritage, but does that mean save anything?
I get preserving, but not at all costs. Tearing down this in favor of a great looking , high density condo ??? Seems a win?
Perhaps there's a story I don't know about this building, an architect or a first of some kind??
Click to expand...

Re the architect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macy_DuBois

Re the story: refer to the respective chapter in "Concrete Toronto".

And from that point onward re the rest: even if it didn't work on behalf of this case, the overall acceptable heritage-worthy threshold outgrew Sunday-painter amateurism a la "It seems pretty bland and unadorned, and it's not like some Penn Station, or Beaux Arts masterpiece." long ago. Sorry.
 
Though I actually liked that building, in all its brutalist horror, I will gladly sacrifice the loss of one of DuBois' so called "masterpieces" and the subsequent history, if it will P.O. all seven of the the smug, pompous, arrogant, self-righteous, navel-gazing, pedantic preservationists, who like a thing because in their mind their knowledge of it, proves their intelligence and superiority to everyone else, rather than its actual value, either intrinsically, actual history that happened there, usefulness or true aesthetic.

To love a building for its place in History rather than actual historical or important events happening there, makes it the Pia Zadora of architecture. It's famous for being famous and nothing else.
 
^

*Not to imply that ALL Toronto preservationists are like that. The other four are really great people.
 
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