Lister Block | ? | 6 fl | Renovation

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

How was Walmart today?

I couldn't make it. The SUV had a flat tire and the wife had to take the H2 to get a single cup of coffee from the Tim Hortons drive-thru.

[raisethehammer]

Lol.

[fastcarsfreedom]

Just for that I feel like driving to Tim Hortons instead of walking (I have an H3)--again a serious debate turns to petty snickering.

Like the supposed "implosion" of 7 WTC, the "sabotage" of this building on King William makes no sense and does nothing to advance the ownership consortium's so-called "agenda" for developing Lister. Buildings--given years of neglect have a tendancy to deteriorate and collapse--it's not rocket science--particularly buildings of primarily wood and masonary construction--there are countless examples, some in Hamilton and some elsewhere. It's an increasing problem everywhere for a variety of reasons--and please please please--I am not passing judgement either way on neglect or why the damage occured--I'm merely saying it occured because of damage brought on by neglect and a lack of maintenance. As for 7 WTC, it always amazed me (1 & 2 WTC also for that matter) that none of the thousands of people working there noticed the explosives being drilled into the superstructure of the building over the course of the weeks and months before it was "imploded". Heck, it's not like an uncontrolled fire in the lower floors of a building could possibly do much damage.

Oh no, I'm off track again, I'll go the mirror right now and tell myself I'm a bad boy.

[raisethehammer]

haha...good stuff fastcars.
no need to get your knickers in a knot. BC Ted and I were having a good laugh for once.

As I already stated, I shouldn't have used the WTC7 comparison. Not very applicable to an empty and intentionally decayed Lister.

[matt602]

The leaning chimney of Lister is coming down as well, according to the worker I overheard today. They'll probably be taking it down tomorrow, along with the rest of the wall beside Lister. They finished taking down the last of the East wall today.

[SteelTown]

Safety blitz urged

April 22, 2008
Mark McNeil
The Hamilton Spectator

The owner of the building on King William Street that collapsed over the weekend says the city should order a safety blitz of the neighbourhood to make sure other buildings aren't suffering from similar structural problems.

LIUNA vice-president Joe Mancinelli says downtown buildings along King William Street, Rebecca and the section of James Street in between date from the 1850s and have gone through numerous renovations over the years that may be hiding structural integrity problems.

He says he has ordered engineering reports on three other vacant LIUNA-owned buildings and he is asking city inspectors to take a look at the buildings, as well.

The dilapidated Lister Block is not part of the inspections, he says, because it already has been studied thoroughly and found to be structurally safe.

As well as the vacant building on King William that collapsed, LIUNA owns the Thomas building on James Street next to the Lister Block and a structure behind the Thomas Building off Rebecca.

Mancinelli says LIUNA buildings that are found to be structurally unsafe will be recommended for demolition. But he contends engineering inspections should not be limited to vacant buildings.

"If there are structural problems that have been creeping in over the ages, that doesn't mean a building that is occupied won't be suffering from them, as well."

And he says the consequences are far more serious when an occupied building gives way.

But Tim McCabe, the city's general manager of planning and economic development, says the city does not have the authority to do inspections unless there are visible signs of problems from the outside of the building.

The building that ended up collapsing during demolition work after a partial collapse did not show outward signs of being structurally unsound, he noted.

Downtown Councillor Bob Bratina says he will ask for an "investigation and report on matters related to the collapse. The public has a right to know why this building collapsed."

Bratina also believes city inspectors should have overseen the demolition on the weekend to make sure the Lister Block -- which could be used for city offices after a major renovation -- was not damaged.

But McCabe says the city doesn't normally do this.

Mancinelli says air-monitoring equipment was used during the demolition work that found that air quality standards were not exceeded. The Ministry of Environment was not involved in air monitoring.

Meanwhile, some area residents are smarting after finding their legally parked cars towed away during demolition operations.

Kevin Purvis, who lives on King William, said it cost $210 to get his girlfriend's car back from a towing yard.

McCabe says he saw several cars being towed away, although he is not sure why. He said he would look into it to see if there is some way for the city to pick up the towing charges.

[SteelTown]

[Hammer Native]

^^^Another big gap in the streetscape. To use an analogy, our downtown is becoming like a person with a lot of missing teeth.

[Millstone]

What was that chimney used for?

[flar]

RIP

[matt602]

Originally Posted by Millstone

What was that chimney used for?

It is directly over the boiler room for the Lister Block. There are doors under it that go into the boiler room.

[raisethehammer]

wow...sad, sad, sad.
such a beautiful building.
with Hi-Rise involved you can be sure that IF another building replaces it, it will —.

[DC83]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Wow... I never realized how wide that bldg was until seeing that void! I'm so sad -- partly b/c of the loss of an 'historical' bldg, mostly b/c I have zero confidence anything will fill that void. sigh.

So how bout them Habs? hahaha

[Millstone]

you can smell a nice wood smell if you walk by today.

[Mack297]

I see a park ... perhaps opening on King William as well as James Street, perhaps some benches and a few trees. An oasis away from the hustle and the bustle of commerce and the noise of traffic ....

Wait ... I must have been dreaming ... ahh .. yes .. now I see a nice parking lot .... ahh ... that's better?

Mack

[BrianE]

Originally Posted by flar

RIP

I'm sorry, but I'm having a hard time seeing the physical beauty of this building. Maybe it has a more historical beauty, or nostalgic presence.

The only interesting thing I see about this building is the details around the windows, which I might add is not consistant between floors or next the the Lister.

It looks like a fourth story was slapped on top in typical Hamilton style with no regard for matching the existing features.

For some reason the column of windows next to the lister are plain and unadorned and are not even level with the other windows.

It looks like 3 or 4 different types of bricks were used during construction and renovation.

The picture doesn't show the top of the building but I'm pretty sure that there was nothing special going on up there.

While I can understand the concern that this central property may become yet another parking lot, which I do think is criminal. I'm really at a loss as to the emotional outcry and hand-wringing going on about this "beautiful" and "historic" building when it was half assed and sub par when it was built and it was half assed an subpar when it collapsed.

Sorry if I seem a little harsh but I think stong language and actions for saving historic and architecturaly significant should be reserved for buildings that trully deserve that designation, otherwise you dilute the important message that you're trying to get across.

[Jon Dalton]

Remember there's a moratorium on new parking lots. The HMP lot might have escaped this due to its location on an existing lot that was already parking, and / or being outside of whatever 'core' area the bylaw defines. I'm certain there won't be any parking at the Lister block, and if there is I will personally complain to the city. I'm currently trying to dig up the specifics on this bylaw.

[SteelTown]

There won't be any parking. It'll have a big fence, probably painted with some design. Just look at Tivoli.

[coalminecanary]

it's not about this building having been anywhere near "the best", it's more about the problem of its replacement, namely that it's almost guaranteed to be EVEN WORSE than what went before.

Is it just me, or does all this noise about building safety appear to be a thinly guised attempt on LIUNA's part to look like the good guys while basically searching for excuses to bring every building they own surrounding the lister down as soon as possible?

[flar]

It's not the individual building, it's the fact it was part of a nice uninterrupted streetscape. The streetscape is gone forever because it is very unlikely that any new building will touch the existing buildings, if anything gets built there at all. Any new building also won't match the streetscape like this one did, because they just don't build 'em like they used to.