Toronto King East Centre | 140m | 39s | First Gulf | WZMH

[Towered]

I think its removal perfectly encapsulates the times. There is no room for public art in Rob Ford's Toronto.

 

[maestro]

I'd be very surprised with respects to the direction this city has been on that the ownership is not binded to replacing the lost art. It's unfortunate something was lost to begin with however, that's comes with using a brick wall as a canvas.

 

[CityPainter]

Here are a couple photos of the demolition. The first, with the blue tarp, was snapped Friday, I think. The second was taken just this evening, around 6pm. The demo is proceeding very rapidly and took place almost entirely over the weekend.

For reference: http://goo.gl/maps/Hihc

 

[grey]

It would be nice if the No Frills or LCBO recreated the mural on the inside of the store in the same manner as murals painted in Loblaws stores...

 

[Homer]

I think its removal perfectly encapsulates the times. There is no room for public art in Rob Ford's Toronto.

I think it was a company decision to put it up and and a company's decision to take it down. Eithier way nothing to do with whoever the mayor is;
in fact I bet the plans for this building were in place during Miller's time.

 

[DSCToronto]

Here are a couple photos of the demolition. The first, with the blue tarp, was snapped Friday, I think. The second was taken just this evening, around 6pm. The demo is proceeding very rapidly and took place almost entirely over the weekend.

They did not, as far as I could see, have a demolition permit posted and I cannot see one listed on the City building permit site. Perhaps why they were doing the work on Saturday and Sunday?

 

[Edward Skira]

additional photos here

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2011/06/toronto-sun-mural-front-street-coming-down

 

[CityPainter]

They did not, as far as I could see, have a demolition permit posted and I cannot see one listed on the City building permit site. Perhaps why they were doing the work on Saturday and Sunday?

Nah, I don't think there's anything "wrong" or shady going on here that requires that kind of evasive tactic. There are many building permits already open for the building which is undergoing major renovations in numerous areas, and I'm sure that the restructuring of this wall is covered by those. Similarly, I don't think this has anything to do with any Toronto mayors, past or present. This is a private commercial renovation.

I actually heartily support the redevelopment of this building, as I support the population intensification of the surrounding areas -- this project is bringing some much-needed shopping infrastructure to the area to service all the people living in those new condos nearby. When this is all said and done the new south wall will meet the sidewalk in a much more lively and useful manner than the old brick wall did. In a way, that old mural was probably an attempt to disguise what was an enormous unfriendly blank brick wall. I just wish there could have been some sort of cursory effort to somehow preserve the mural in whole or part, as a nod to the history of the (admittedly very ugly) building and the city.

 

[nfitz]

I'd wondered how they were going to deal with that wall in the renovations. The big blank wall made sense when there were all the printing presses behind it. But as the building becomes more commercial, having no windows made no sense. The end result will be a much more walkable streetscape.

I must say though, it is sad to see Sue-Ann Levy resorting to working the cash an No Thrills.

 

[Towered]

I think it was a company decision to put it up and and a company's decision to take it down. Eithier way nothing to do with whoever the mayor is;
in fact I bet the plans for this building were in place during Miller's time.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to imply that Ford had anything to do with it, just that the timing of the mural's removal couldn't be more fitting occurring during the tenure of a mayor who is a cultural philistine.

And while the mural was indeed a nice piece, I agree with some of the other comments saying that it was just an apologetic attempt to mask a very ugly blank wall that damaged the pedestrian realm immensely. It's sad to see it go, but I'm sure the street will benefit greatly from the changes.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Hmmm... this might be heretical given the tone of this thread, but that mural was pure, unadulterated Cheez Whiz cheesy. It was a crappy attempt at disguising a crappy wall. The Sun building has been a blot on King/Front east, and this redevelopment is doing all kinds of good things -- at the removal of that wall and mural and adding a retail streetscape is fabulous.

 

[beaconer]

On both the King Street and Front Street streetscapes, the Toronto Sun building was a bit of a vacuum that disconnected pedestrians from Sherbourne to Parliament. The addition of multiple retail entrances on both sides will go a long way at fixing that.

A pipe dream, but it would have been nice to some how re-locate the mural with in the Distillery district or first parliament site.

 

[Edward]

I hated that mural. Ugly.

 

[junctionist]

I'd wondered how they were going to deal with that wall in the renovations. The big blank wall made sense when there were all the printing presses behind it. But as the building becomes more commercial, having no windows made no sense. The end result will be a much more walkable streetscape.

The wall didn't even make sense with the printing presses. After all, it was in the 1970s that planners started to recommend that even commercial operations have windows to allow the public to get a glimpse of the interesting production processes behind ordinary goods. (See, for instance, On Building Downtown). That was an intelligent recommendation, because production can look quite interesting to outsiders. It makes it clear that useful and interesting things are happening within the industrial buildings of the city.

We've seen a pathetic end to an artifact of an uninspiring celebration of a major milestone for the city: its 200th birthday. That anniversary called for some monumental public projects and some incredible celebrations and cultural works, but it was underwhelming. What's most disturbing about the mural was just how casually it was destroyed, in spite of the most obvious meaningfulness of its subject matter. It's a stark reminder of the times when some of the greatest and most inspiring landmarks were demolished, treated just cold capitalist equations in ignorance of any other value.

 

[DSCToronto]

Location: 333 KING ST E
TORONTO ON M5A 3X5

Ward 28: Toronto Centre-Rosedale

Application#: 11 216279 BLD 00 BA Accepted Date: Jun 10, 2011

Project: Multiple Use/Non Residential Interior Alterations

Description: Proposal for interior alterations to existing ground floor vacant unit for new bank - National Bank.