Demolition of Toronto heritage buildings by Ontario government continues despite protest

[canada-man]

TORONTO -- The demolition of several heritage buildings in the West Don Lands is continuing today despite widespread community opposition.

Crews began tearing down the old Dominion Wheel and Foundries Company buildings located at 153-185 Eastern Ave on Monday evening, months after the Ford Government issued a ministerial zoning order that allowed it to sidestep the local planning process and go ahead with the development of high-rise residential towers on three provincially owned sites, including 153-185 Eastern Avenue.

City officials have pled with the province to reconsider the demolition of the Dominion Wheel and Foundries Company buildings, which are listed on Toronto’s heritage inventory.


More than 8,000 people have also signed a petition calling on the province to halt the demolition to allow for community input.

“What you see here is an act of vandalism,” Toronto Centre Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam told CP24 on Monday night. “These are assets that belong to the people of Ontario. Doug Ford doesn’t own these buildings, they (the province) hold them in trust and this isn’t what we want them to do.”

Dozens of protesters showed up to the West Don Lands site on Monday when news that demolition had begun first began circulating.

The protesters were then back at the site early Tuesday morning.

“We are for development but the thing is you have to have development with transparency,” one of the protesters, Asif, told CP24. “The Ford government has never consulted a single person here. We have been writing to them since October. (Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing) Steve Clark, Doug Ford, their offices have received letters from us since the fall and not a single person has received a response. They have completely frozen us out from the discussion and have brought bulldozers into our community without talking to anyone. That is not how you build a community.”

The city’s Chief Planner Greg Lintern wrote a letter to the Ford government over the weekend noting that conservation of the heritage value of the site should be “fully considered” before demolition takes place.

But in a statement provided to CP24 a spokesperson for Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark said that a heritage impact assessment was conducted on the site and that it determined that it is “not of provincial significance.”

The spokesperson said that alternatives to demolition were considered but it was ultimately determined that those would not be feasible “due in part to the contamination of the property, requiring full remediation.”

“The Foundry site has been in a state of bad repair and largely abandoned for over 40 years,” the statement reads. “The government has determined that the site would be best used to provide affordable housing and new community space.”

The Dominion Wheel and Foundries Company buildings were all constructed between 1917 and 1929 and were added to the city’s heritage inventory in 2004.

They were owned by Canadian Northern Railway and were used to produce rail equipment.

Demolition of Toronto heritage buildings by Ontario government continues despite protest | CTV News

 

[mandrill]

Those are older buildings, but basically run-of-the-mill industrial sheds. I don't see a great loss there.

OTOH, I am totally 100% that both the Tories and the Grits are so flush and corrupt with developers' $$$$ that doing favours for them is probably pretty high on the priority list.

 

[danmand]

As somebody born in Europe,

Those are older buildings, but basically run-of-the-mill industrial sheds. I don't see a great loss there.

I honestly do not see the benefit in preserving these buildings. They are not exactly the Parthenon or St Peter's Basilica. How old can they be? My grandmothers house in Denmark was older. I went to school in a building from the 1400's.

 

[Goodoer]

People have little appreciation of or for Architecture. As such, they scream when pieces of shit are torn down.

The screaming should be for quality buildings to be built with a quality design. Designers hack it for profit. Builders hack it for quality.

 

[contact]

The problem I have with these groups trying to preserve someone else property is this

if the building is worth $5 million to tear down and redevelop BUT now only $1million to persevere then the owner should be paid by the groups wanting to save it

now if you bought it already declared historical then your sol as you knew

 

[Jenesis]

Toronto needs housing. Not old building laying around doing nothing.

 

[Anbarandy]

While "tour cycling" through Toronto during the early nineties I came across basically an old, ramshackle and desolate industrial parcel of land that fascinated me. It transported my mind to a time and place that I had only maybe experienced through flashes of textbook pages, images on film and TV screens. A time, a place and the people of that time and place that no longer exist. Somehow though, some of those industrial buildings that the people of that time and place who no longer exist would go to work at, were preserved.

That old, ramshackle and desolate industrial parcel of land that fascinated me so back then was the Gooderham and Worts Distillery lands and buildings. Well we can all agree now, that the decisions back then to "save, restore and repurpose" the old, delapidated Gooderham and Worts land and buildings was a monumental success for many, many reasons, the most important being maintaining "our past" and our connections to "our past".


1) This was an old Consumers Gas Plant which is now TPS 51 Division:




2) This was another old Consumers Gas Plant which is now the home of The Canadian Opera Company:




3) This was the home of The Toronto Carpet Factory which has been repurposed as office suites:






4) And finally this was/is one of the Dominion Wheel and Foundries Buildings that surely can be save and repurposed as a community hub/center. The industrial style and architecture of this building is not dissimilar to the others above and is of historic heritage value to be preserved.




I do "cycle tours" throughout old Toronto and I came upon the Dominion Wheel and Foundries site a couple of summers ago. It's buildings, especially the building above brought back the same feelings that I had about the Gooderham and Worts lands and buildings 30 years ago. This building is definitely worth preserving as a community hub/centre.

 

[ogibowt]

while we can debate whether it is appropriate or not to tear down Heritage buildings, we can question why the Govt acted with so much haste, no public hearings or debate within the community, just the Govt coming in one day unannounced with bulldozers, wrecking balls and front end loaders.....Ford bowing down to the Donor Class?

 

[roadhog]

While "tour cycling" through Toronto during the early nineties I came across basically an old, ramshackle and desolate industrial parcel of land that fascinated me. It transported my mind to a time and place that I had only maybe experienced through flashes of textbook pages, images on film and TV screens. A time, a place and the people of that time and place that no longer exist. Somehow though, some of those industrial buildings that the people of that time and place who no longer exist would go to work at, were preserved.

That old, ramshackle and desolate industrial parcel of land that fascinated me so back then was the Gooderham and Worts Distillery lands and buildings. Well we can all agree now, that the decisions back then to "save, restore and repurpose" the old, delapidated Gooderham and Worts land and buildings was a monumental success for many, many reasons, the most important being maintaining "our past" and our connections to "our past".


1) This was an old Consumers Gas Plant which is now TPS 51 Division:

View attachment 31612 View attachment 31613 View attachment 31614


2) This was another old Consumers Gas Plant which is now the home of The Canadian Opera Company:

View attachment 31615


3) This was the home of The Toronto Carpet Factory which has been repurposed as office suites:

View attachment 31618
View attachment 31619 View attachment 31620
View attachment 31621


4) And finally this was/is one of the Dominion Wheel and Foundries Buildings that surely can be save and repurposed as a community hub/center. The industrial style and architecture of this building is not dissimilar to the others above and is of historic heritage value to be preserved.

View attachment 31622


I do "cycle tours" throughout old Toronto and I came upon the Dominion Wheel and Foundries site a couple of summers ago. It's buildings, especially the building above brought back the same feelings that I had about the Gooderham and Worts lands and buildings 30 years ago. This building is definitely worth preserving as a community hub/centre.

And lets not forget the Gooderham & Worts property.

 

[bazokajoe]

while we can debate whether it is appropriate or not to tear down Heritage buildings, we can question why the Govt acted with so much haste, no public hearings or debate within the community, just the Govt coming in one day unannounced with bulldozers, wrecking balls and front end loaders.....Ford bowing down to the Donor Class?

All politicians regardless of party will bow down to big donors. Don't be so naive.

 

[Anbarandy]

while we can debate whether it is appropriate or not to tear down Heritage buildings, we can question why the Govt acted with so much haste, no public hearings or debate within the community, just the Govt coming in one day unannounced with bulldozers, wrecking balls and front end loaders.....Ford bowing down to the Donor Class?

Throughout his tenure Ford has proven to be both the bulldozer and wrecking ball operator for the development industry.

He has eviscerated the LPAT to make it subservient to developers. He has enfeebled the Conservation Authority so that developers interests will rein supreme. He has gutted local planning enforcement and local development fees that municipalities can require. He has made this MZOs a common practice. He has green lighted development of the Green Belt and in this case he is operating the bulldozers and wrecking ball for a future developers so that future developer will not have to face scrutiny and challenges to do whatever they want to do with the land.

 

[ogibowt]

All politicians regardless of party will bow down to big donors. Don't be so naive.

believe me Bazokajoe im not being naive...and my post doesnt reveal that...it reveals realism

 

[Anbarandy]

Here's another industrial building that was not bulldozed down to the ground:




It was the old Christie Brown and Co. building on Adelaide St E. Yes, the "Mr. Christie, you make good cookies" Company.

The innards were gutted but the facade was saved and it is now George Brown College, downtown campus.

There are more commercial and industrial buildings that were preserved and repurposed for other purposes in old Toronto, however there were many, many more that were just bulldozed down to the ground.

Let's not keep making the same mistake. These buildings are worth preserving.

The beauty of these heritage industrial and commercial buildings are undeniable.

Just think about it. There were plans to raze the old city hall to the ground when developing the new city hall property. Thankfully sanity prevailed.

 

[Leslielake]

There are a lot of ghetto areas in the GTA, probably better to clean them up first and put nice housing.

 

[mandrill]

while we can debate whether it is appropriate or not to tear down Heritage buildings, we can question why the Govt acted with so much haste, no public hearings or debate within the community, just the Govt coming in one day unannounced with bulldozers, wrecking balls and front end loaders.....Ford bowing down to the Donor Class?

Rumours - and I don't pretend to be anywhere close to anyone important - is that the developers will graft heavily for their opportunities and a buddy hinted to me once that a couple of people have been disappeared for being too inconvenient. I always thought that Wynne's bizarre attempt to tear down the Gardiner was due to graft or maybe blackmail from developers.

Given the humungous megabucks at stake, I wouldn't dismiss any of that.

 

[ogibowt]

while i dont have stake in some building being torn down.....i do have a problem with Ford and his heavy handed ways...boasting about transparency and accountability and his stupid For The People slogan during the last campaign..its the hypocrisy of pretending you are for the regular person walking the street, when in fact you are in the pockets of powerful special interests, like developers who then are allowed to build wherever they want and whenever they want and try to destroy wetlands, all behind closed doors , with no public involvement

 

[Renus]

Ugly buildings.

Tear them down.

Keep building for immigrants that don't speak English.

 

[james t kirk]

This is a topic that I have felt very strongly about for years. It really pains me to see architectural gems being torn down under the guise of progress. This is almost always a lie.

Toronto is particularly bad for it.

As others have mentioned, they almost succeeded in tearing down old City Hall. But did you know that "they" almost succeeded in tearing down Union Station in the late 60's. The thinking at the time was that trains had seen their day and would go the way of the dodo bird. Can you imagine the chaos if they had of torn down Union Station and replaced it with a box like Madison Square Gardens and Penn Station in NYC.

As to Union Station, the Union Station that we all know and love is actually the third "Union Station" in Toronto. Union Station 2 was located across York Street on the south west corner of York and Front and was torn down after Union Station 3 was opened.

Today, this is what is on that site:

Just a box.

Then there was Trinity College which was located at one time in the current Trinity Bellwoods park. Long gone and replaced with a park. The park is great and all, but the building was magnificent. It's a shame that it's not still here preserved.

And last but not least, something that I only recently became aware of which was Chorley Park which was a Government of Ontario building. The history of this edifice is truly tragic.

It blows my mind that the government of the day was so fucking short sighted that they demolished this incredible work of art. Such small thinking. (Which sadly to this day still permeates the City of Toronto's local government. Such a sad lack of dreamers and builders in this town.)

 

[mandrill]

Chorley Park was the Lt-Gov's residence and yes, it's a tragedy that it's gone. I remember vaguely the controversies about both Union Stn and OCH. I was a kid at the time and living in Don Mills and had no idea what the fuss was about.

There are several "Vintage Toronto" groups on FB and also IG that recirculate 100's of photos. There were some early "skyscrapers" downtown in the 1890's and 1900's which looked cool as fuck and it would have been great to see them preserved or incorporated into PoMo buildings.

 

[JackBurton]

Toronto will always eat it’s young abd culture. The developers are in charge, not anyone at city hall.

What’s going up will be the same glass boxes that are everywhere. Toronto is a city without color, except for charming pockets around the city, and even that’s rare. My god have your bern on the Gardiner lately? You won’t even recognize it or see the CN tower. It’s all about greed in the city.

Not far from there are the Wonderbread lofts that has kept the old facade but I’m sure the rest will all be glass and steel.