Toronto West Block Est. 1928, The LakeShore, and The LakeFront | 130.75m | 41s | Choice Properties | a—A

Sorry I had to skip the debate after it reached its 3rd of 6 pages, any actual updates on this project?
 
Kraylin said:
Sorry I had to skip the debate after it reached its 3rd of 6 pages, any actual updates on this project?
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Was by it today and took a few shots, but it dead as a door nail for action. No change to the hoarding and it will have to be up graded once real work starts on it.
 
Maurice said:
I'm not sure I understand your point here - the current policy in most of the major cities in China is to build, only some very touristy historical places are being preserved. In terms of the Middle East - their thinking in all matters is less evolved and all their "heritage" relates to silly religious sites. One can hope we're at a higher-level plane of discourse in all matters than using the tired "what if we were in a hut in Africa/cave in the Middle East" metaphoric trick.
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You need sensitivity training, jerk. Cultural, and otherwise.
 
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So public meeting was held tonight and I heard that according to Loblaws and "experts" - not sure who they were - that the building cannot be salvaged. So of course they are proposing that reproduction on the building via portion of the facades and within three years the community will have their store(s).
Hooray more facadism!! Spin, spin spin....

Except that HPS may just decide to say "No way. buddy". The City refused a previous application and in that time Loblaws has let the building rot, which is why it is supposedly not salvageable.

I think Adam Vaughan is looking for a compromise, but why is it continually acceptable for a building to rot because a developer doesn't get their way? Accountability people?!

As far as I'm concerned it's another case of demolition by neglect - the community could have had their store and a beautiful building if there was incentives and enforcement here.
 
It's not that the building can't be salvaged, it simply cannot be converted into a supermarket space due to the nature of the internal structure. If you have a building that can't be repurposed, what is supposed to become of it? Unfortunately, wishful thinking doesn't do much in that regard.

In actual fact, the facade is in very poor condition, but the brick and Deco elements will be catalogued, dismantled, cleaned, stored and rebuilt as the site is redeveloped. In essence, a portion of the building is going to be salvaged and the character maintained. There will be additions behind and on top of the structure in order to allow for internal loading space, more stores beyond Loblaws, some office space and parking for 414 vehicles.

From what I saw, the presentation suggested a very reasonable effort in maintaining some of the key historic features of the structure, while at the same time providing for some much needed supermarket space for the area. Studies presented suggested that some 65% of the weekday shoppers would arrive on foot - no doubt from the numerous condo residents who continue to populate the area.
 
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From reading your post gristle.. i believe that Loblaws has all intentions of keeping the facade as original as possible, if they didnt they would of just partnered up with a developer and built another Malibu or Panorama with a ground floor supermarket dressed up with a couple of art deco thingys.
 
I was at the meeting -- which was very well attended by the way -- and I think gristle has represented what was explained quite accurately.
 
You understand that in heritage planning when a developer says a building cannot be repurposed is not reason enough to allow a demolition to happen. If so, anything can be built in its place.

Again, why were the features allowed to be in such poor condition then?

And there is very little point to keep the features of a structure when the building no longer exists. Facadism is not encouraged by any means, it has no respect for the original scale, space and design of the original buidling.
 
gristle said:
It's not that the building can't be salvaged, it simply cannot be converted into a supermarket space due to the nature of the internal structure. If you have a building that can't be repurposed, what is supposed to become of it? Unfortunately, wishful thinking doesn't do much in that regard.
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Though "cannot be repurposed for a supermarket space" doesn't = "cannot be repurposed--period". Just being technical, here.
 
Mods, the name of this thread should be changed to Loblaws/Joe Fresh/Retail and not a Real Canadian Superstore. They are also adding an additional storey to the building on the roof for office space,so 4s?
 
I was there at the meeting as well, which was very well attended. I'm glad the best possible outcome was achieved - some token "facadism" for the pinkos, but the goal remains to be a big, modern and brash grocery store/retail emporium. I particularly liked the renditions of the interior showcasing giant fonts and signage that are completely in contrast to the exterior 19th century bordello look.

The timeline is around 2-3 years, which is unfortunate as I would have hoped they could have actually demolished the whole thing and built a Loblaws in its place within a shorter amount of time - but it's okay nevertheless.
 
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