18-30 King St East | 106.9m | 32 fl | Proposed

[Chronamut]

Looks like they had a halfhearted attempt to "save" the facade, except they appear to have done it AFTER they tore it down, so they all looked damaged..

this is gonna be written about in the history books for SURE. Words can't even DESCRIBE how I am feeling right now.. as a heritage advocate and historian this makes me feel ill.







Look at the condition they're in! >

My only consolation is maybe they kept the bare minimum shapes to be able to reform new pieces off them, like stencils for new molds.. but I am not feeling very optimistic - something needs to come out right away as to the intent of this going forward.

They've basically said a big eff you to everyone who tried to conserve this.

[ScreamingViking]

Sadly it won't be the last time this happens. Even if the city puts its foot down.

[ScreamingViking]

...and they had to pull down one of the remaining buildings... Blanchard may have a clean slate to develop/sell

https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-re...40c5c80-1aa8-53f7-b23c-7f7e69f2edd9.html

The walls of 22 King St. E. were bowing, making the building “no longer safe,” Steve Robichaud, acting general manager of planning and economic development, told The Spectator.

[Chronamut]

Well now you can all built a giant building here where 3/4s of its interior is reserved for parking lol..

Oh wait.. it already was proposed.. I shudder to think of what generic storefront will be designed here - at least now everything is bland on either side of it..

[drpgq]

I do wonder how long this will stay empty. Blanchard has had the lot where the old Robinson's was beside the Pigott for over 20 years.

[Chronamut]

I'm too worn out to repost all of this so I am jut gonna link my post on ut:

https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/toronto-gore-park-condos-106-9m-32s-hbsc-knymh.32781/page-6

[905er]

What a total shame!.. It's such a loss... but it also infuriates me that buildings classified as "heritage" buildings find themselves this decrepit to begin with. Why does this constantly happen?.... I see it with mysterious fires too.. it's super annoying. I know its not the same thing, but I hope whatever gets built there, they honour the original look as much as possible.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by 905er

What a total shame!.. It's such a loss... but it also infuriates me that buildings classified as "heritage" buildings find themselves this decrepit to begin with. Why does this constantly happen?.... I see it with mysterious fires too.. it's super annoying. I know its not the same thing, but I hope whatever gets built there, they honour the original look as much as possible.

They weren't designated heritage until after the current owner bought the property's and they weren't too happy about it after the fact. It's not a stretch to believe that they had no intention of saving the buildings after the bad faith shenanigans at city hall that got them designated. Those buildings would have cost millions to renovate or even save and all for very limited space.

I remember being in one of those buildings back in the 80's. Friend managed a bar in one of them. He told me at the time that you couldn't go to the upper floors for fear of the floors collapsing due to the rot. The bad condition predated the current owners.

[Chronamut]

I'd rather see them dig down 6 stories and put parking in that way like they did with the liuna building then see most of this space taken up by a giant parking lot inside - seems there were issues on both sides - yes blanchard sat on it and let it collapse intentionally, yes it was already rotting - but he coulda sold it to someone with deeper pockets who was willing to put in the money as well. Everyone is at fault here. Blanchard KNEW this was a historic area of the city, and if he thought he could get away with just plain bulldozing everything he's just plain delusional.. although it seems he got what he wanted in the end anyways by playing the long game. Bastard.

The whole point of gore park was a place of quiet reflection where you could marvel at the architecture around you, and stroll around the shops on either end - noone wants to just look at giant office buildings on either side or kitschy tiny strips filled with useless things like coffee shops where everyone's just sitting around on their phones like some sorta modern opioid den - a niagara on the lake type stretch on both sides would be ideal.

THIS is what it's supposed to feel like:






Of course, hamilton is no stranger to utterly demolishing things of beauty - like their destruction of gore park in the 80s:

[ScreamingViking]

Blanchard (within whatever corporate clothes he's wearing) has proven himself to be a slum-lord. The buildings could have been sold to someone who may have actually done something with them -- and I realize real estate is a business -- but they were not. And now we get to hear all the excuses about why the city's directives could not be followed. His company should have been aware of the risks of buying such old buildings in the first place, and assessing risk is definitely a business process.

I don't blame the city for designating these, but that should have been done a long time ago. I do blame them for not being tough with these owners, because there don't seem to be any repercussions for allowing this kind of thing to happen. So why should they care?

What happens next to the now empty lots will be interesting to see. Will they be sold? Will the Hughson Business Space Corporation put forward yet another proposal? Will it get accepted by the city? If so, it'll get a rougher ride through approvals, I bet. How long will all this take?

As for Gore Park, we're lucky it's largely been returned to what it was before the debacle of the early 1980s. And we're also lucky it was never developed... I recall something about a very old proposal for a tower of some kind, which may have been to serve airships which never materialized as a widely adopted form of transportation. Had it happened, we'd probably still be debating whether it should be taken down or not (if it hadn't fallen down by now already)

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by 905er

I see it with mysterious fires too.

While the squatter problem has probably led to many, I have to wonder how many are set purposely by owners. It wouldn't take much for "a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy" to provide the tinder and a few bucks to someone willing to strike a match.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Blanchard (within whatever corporate clothes he's wearing) has proven himself to be a slum-lord. The buildings could have been sold to someone who may have actually done something with them -- and I realize real estate is a business -- but they were not. And now we get to hear all the excuses about why the city's directives could not be followed. His company should have been aware of the risks of buying such old buildings in the first place, and assessing risk is definitely a business process.

I don't blame the city for designating these, but that should have been done a long time ago. I do blame them for not being tough with these owners, because there don't seem to be any repercussions for allowing this kind of thing to happen. So why should they care?

What happens next to the now empty lots will be interesting to see. Will they be sold? Will the Hughson Business Space Corporation put forward yet another proposal? Will it get accepted by the city? If so, it'll get a rougher ride through approvals, I bet. How long will all this take?

As for Gore Park, we're lucky it's largely been returned to what it was before the debacle of the early 1980s. And we're also lucky it was never developed... I recall something about a very old proposal for a tower of some kind, which may have been to serve airships which never materialized as a widely adopted form of transportation. Had it happened, we'd probably still be debating whether it should be taken down or not (if it hadn't fallen down by now already)

There are some renders I remember seeing of that tower.. they also wanted to demolish the entire downtown and replace it with like 100 story brutalist towers at one point in the past.. we've endured a lot. The cutting down of the trees was a gut punch though. It'll take decades for us to see what it used to look like - and they have opted for the park to just be grass now instead of the lush gardens it once was.. sad. But with the motley crew that wanders around there I guess I understand why..

Totally agree on all your points. All over the world the people are realizing the governing bodies just don't care about them, and the people have to make their voices known, in any way possible. We made our voices known the first time but the govt didn't care to see a proper solution through - now it's up to us to hold them accountable in future so this never happens again.

And yes, I am pretty sure a lot of the arson is intentional. The sad part is the rectangular ikea garbage that takes its place. Imo the only people that should even be ALLOWED to touch the historical areas are liuna or core urban.

[SteelTown]

What’s planned for the Gore Park gap? Hamilton developer says pitch to replace collapsed buildings will fit perfectly
12-storey apartment building pitched for downtown Hamilton space where heritage buildings infamously crumbled two years ago
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-re...bb5ae89-7f90-5be7-8aa9-ef1cdd3cb1f9.html

Developers are pursuing a new plan to fill a gap in the Gore Park streetscape where heritage buildings crumbled to the ground nearly two years ago.

The Hughson Business Space Corporation aims to make its pitch for a 12-storey rental building with ground-floor commercial space to the city’s design review panel later this summer.

The latest vision for the desolate stretch of King Street East at downtown’s signature park involves converting an adjacent 10-storey office building into apartments and adding a two-storey cap.

The plan is to strip the concrete facade off the vacant building at the corner of Hughson Street South and start fresh, says Daniel Bragagnolo, finance director with project partner Ninco Developments Inc.

“So it ends up being a nice product rather than trying to work with what’s there,” Bragagnolo told The Spectator.

He noted the developers aim to land incentives through the city’s new office-to-residential conversion program, which is meant to breathe more life into downtown by addressing rising vacancy rates.

And filling the gap, the future residential building is to step up from six storeys at Gore Park to 12 storeys at the back of the site, where an alley runs between Hughson and James Street South.

“It won’t be imposing on the park because it will be all the way back,” Bragagnolo said.

A rooftop terrace with a pool is among the proposed amenities that also include a gym, games room, party room, dining room, lockers and a pet lounge, as mentioned in the project’s application.



......

[ScreamingViking]

What are the odds we see at least one more version, and possibly more? And that nothing will happen for years.