Toronto The Dawes | 143.91m | 43s | Marlin Spring | Arcadis

financepk said:
Thank you. But there doesn't seem to be much change between Sep 29 and Nov 30 photos. Has the work on the site stopped?
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It did slow down for most of October. But they've been consistently working through November. If you look closely at the photos, you'll notice in the September photos that only the north side of the site had been excavated. Since then they've been excavating the south side. For some reason, they temporarily moved a lot of the dirt from the south excavation to the area already excavated on the north side, which is also why it doesn't look like as much progress. However, just this weekend after those recent photos were taken they had dozens of trucks taking dirt away, I'll try to get a picture soon to update.
 
Update, one month later, December 31st, 2023:

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UtakataNoAnnex said:
...they're really planning on keeping that industrial shack.
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City Heritage Planners would like you to know that they believe that "Industrial Shack" -- is actually : "a rare surviving example of the grist and flour mill building type in the historic village of Little York and the Town of East Toronto"

PDF - https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-222523.pdf

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This site is kind of perfect example of how our City Heritage Planners are sometimes "out of control" -- and therefore need to be restrained by higher levels of Government -
www.thestar.com

Thousands of Toronto’s buildings are at risk of losing their heritage status. Here’s why

A new bill threatens to eliminate a designation that covers almost a third of the properties on Toronto’s Heritage Register.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
 
HousingNowTO said:
City Heritage Planners would like you to know that they believe that "Industrial Shack" -- is actually : "a rare surviving example of the grist and flour mill building type in the historic village of Little York and the Town of East Toronto"

PDF - https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-222523.pdf

This site is kind of perfect example of how our City Heritage Planners are sometimes "out of control" -- and therefore need to be restrained by higher levels of Government -
www.thestar.com

Thousands of Toronto’s buildings are at risk of losing their heritage status. Here’s why

A new bill threatens to eliminate a designation that covers almost a third of the properties on Toronto’s Heritage Register.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
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Its funny to me, we can both agree this building did not merit saving.

But we come to rather different conclusions about why it got saved and what's to be done about it.

I would argue this was saved, in part, because the Empringham Hotel at Dawes/Danforth, a genuine heritage hotel that had languished as peeler bar in its later years was allowed to be demolished for a one-storey strip plaza; and the latter years dive bar, once tavern/rooms 'Noah's Ark' while still standing, also at Dawes/Danforth was allowed to be molested with an EIFS coating over its heritage brick.

Saving this nothing building feels like a bad consolation prize for the heritage that was lost in the immediate vicinity, and this City as a whole, which has given up far too many beautiful buildings for a city in which those are not common.

I would argue that getting heritage not to save crap is something you pair with getting them to actually save the good stuff properly, (not just facadism); and its also something you pair with a recreation program for select lost buildings. (This is something that is being done in select other cities in the world).

In this immediate case, Imagine recreating the Empringham Hotel, restoring Noah's Ark and then letting this mill disappear into history. I would take that trade every day of the week.

But we don't empower or fund heritage to go out and buy a one-storey generic strip plaza and replace it with a recreated heritage building (which could have affordable housing in it, instead of a hotel)...... so we get a flour mill of no particular appeal instead.

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For refrence, the hotel in question:

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Source: https://streeter.ca/featured/from-stately-hotel-to-strip-club-the-empringham-story/

It later looked like this:

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It was allowed to deteriorate to this, before it was torn down:

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It was replaced with this:

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All photos taken from the Streeter story linked above.
 
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I would think if they're at least going to keep it that they'll turn it into some DIY outfit like it was done with The Distillery. Because to me, something retained like that should be still useful...as in serving the purpose to house folks who want to build, create and/or restore. And no, I don't include nail salons in that definition...

...so I don't object to that being saved per say, as longs as it still serves the purpose of being industrial, IMO.
 
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Northern Light said:
It was allowed to deteriorate to this, before it was torn down:

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All photos taken from the Streeter story linked above.
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From that STREETER story - "...For a long time the Empringham or Danforth Hotel benefited from strict rules against serving alcohol in East York. East York residents would come to Danforth Avenue, which lay inside Toronto with its laxer rules, to do their drinking. It also drew patrons from the Beaches to the south, which had few watering holes of its own at the time."

Parochial-Busy-Bodying being the original-sin, and continuing mine-field of "Toronto the Good".
 
Close up view of how Marlin Spring plan on incorporating that Industrial shack!

thedawes.com

Architecture - The Dawes

The Dawes represents a unique opportunity to create a transit-oriented condominium where people can live, work, and play within a short walk or bike from shopping, similar to a European lifestyle where residents are less dependent on a car. – Gianni RiaIBI Group The Dawes is bringing a new era...
thedawes.com thedawes.com


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by far the most ridiculous heritage retention I've seen in this city. I remember taking the GO train by the shack and being amazed the clearly ramshackle thing hadn't been demolished.. and here we have a developer spending millions to retain the damn thing.
 
innsertnamehere said:
by far the most ridiculous heritage retention I've seen in this city. I remember taking the GO train by the shack and being amazed the clearly ramshackle thing hadn't been demolished.. and here we have a developer spending millions to retain the damn thing.
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Well i mean to be honest, it's not like Marlin Spring would've used that extra money to make this project any better if they werent required to retain the "heritage". They're still set on their bottom dwelling drab ways regardless.

But make no mistake about it, this "heritage" retention is a laughable joke and the whole structure should've been knocked down.
 
innsertnamehere said:
by far the most ridiculous heritage retention I've seen in this city. I remember taking the GO train by the shack and being amazed the clearly ramshackle thing hadn't been demolished.. and here we have a developer spending millions to retain the damn thing.
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I essentially agree. This was a poor choice for preservation, one that can't be justified.

But I have seen similarly poor choices. Just have a look at some of the stuff that got designated on Danforth...... in that mass designation a couple of years back.

Some of it might not be quite as ugly, but it doesn't have even a fig leaf of historicity and is profoundly unremarkable at best.
 
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