Toronto Lower Don Lands Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

Either the demolition guys are poor at 'aiming' their 'destructors' or they will be demolishing the 'control tower". As the tower is going, I assume they will be removing its concrete base and thus widening the Keating Channel a bit. (It would help in flood seasons.)
 
I’m not an engineer, so I don’t know what’s possible with the condition of the tower- but they’ve been running a temporary observation deck beside Polsons for a little while now right? I don’t know why they couldn’t have repurposed this for that.

Personally, I’m not a fan of these things. I’d have preferred they repurposed the Keating tower over these.

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jsmith77 said:
I’m not an engineer, so I don’t know what’s possible with the condition of the tower- but they’ve been running a temporary observation deck beside Polsons for a little while now right? I don’t know why they couldn’t have repurposed this for that.

Personally, I’m not a fan of these things. I’d have preferred they repurposed the Keating tower over these.

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Though I too would have liked the Control Tower to remain, its concrete base does partly block the Keating Channel and the whole aim of all this work is to ensure that if we have lots of rain the Don can get to the Lake easily. In addition, the crane is clearly a much more historic artifact and reminiscent of the historic activities in the area. As far as the temporary observation scaffolding at the new Don mouth area; I think the 'mountain' they are building north of the crane is supposed to be better.
 
DSC said:
Though I too would have liked the Control Tower to remain, its concrete base does partly block the Keating Channel and the whole aim of all this work is to ensure that if we have lots of rain the Don can get to the Lake easily. In addition, the crane is clearly a much more historic artifact and reminiscent of the historic activities in the area. As far as the temporary observation scaffolding at the new Don mouth area; I think the 'mountain' they are building north of the crane is supposed to be better.
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With a whole new river and planned flood zones, would the concrete base have made that much of a difference?

Tangentially, will the debris/sediment management area have a permanent setup for dredging?
 
Probably not being helpful here, but there's an itinerary of what they plan to do with this thing posted a deep number of pages back...

...I think it does include a paint job, welding up moving parts and climb proofing it incase children think it's playground equipment, along with a number of other items.
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
Probably not being helpful here, but there's an itinerary of what they plan to do with this thing posted a deep number of pages back...

...I think it does include a paint job, welding up moving parts and climb proofing it incase children think it's playground equipment, along with a number of other items.
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The welding part and climb-proofing happened in 2022 I think. The paint job may also have been done but, clearly, not done well!
 
jxmith_ said:
With a whole new river and planned flood zones, would the concrete base have made that much of a difference?
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Waterfront Toronto explicitly said on Twitter that the tower must go in order for flood relief measures to be completed. There may be room for dispute over that, but that is their line. That said, given the picture above, the dismantling option doesn’t appear to have survived “exploration”

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I see the control tower becoming a nice home for a few crackheads or for a new 'control house' for a tent city? Lol. I don't believe the control house to be a substantial enough piece of architecture to represent a period piece such as the TD Centre. Maybe a plaque.
 
Where there be the need for drugs, there always be "crack houses". Where there is lack of adequate shelter, there will always be tent cities...

...so what they will do with this control tower in the end will have little of no bearing on these plights, outside the grievances of Nimby's and busybodies.
 
dowlingm said:
Waterfront Toronto explicitly said on Twitter that the tower must go in order for flood relief measures to be completed. There may be room for dispute over that, but that is their line. That said, given the picture above, the dismantling option doesn’t appear to have survived “exploration”

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Very surprised WT is not preserving the control tower (one of the pictures showes a demolition hole in it) Sure it may be in the way at the existing location but it could have been relocated and repurposed. I saw it in person and it's a very nicely designed and detailed little structure, with a unique form. In most cases something like this would be designed to the bare minimum / utilitarian requirements but whoever commissioned it and designed it clearly put a lot of thought into its design. It's hard to come by above-average design, so when we come across something thoughfully designed from the past it should be kept!
 
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Its concrete pedestal clearly partly blocked Keating Channel so it could not have stayed where is was. WT have spent billions trying to avoid flooding so leaving it in situ was clearly not going to happen.

I'm sorry it has gone as it was familiar and a bit quirky but it was really not historic or unique. Time to move on!
 
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