Canadian Demolitions

[logan5]

Originally Posted by Echoes

It's been a tough week in Saskatoon for demolitions.

The 103 year old Farnam Block, a Broadway Avenue landmark, has a date with the wrecking ball today. Joni Mitchell played here early in her career. The building most recently hosted Lydia's Pub, which occupied all 3 floors, and was a staple of Broadway and the city's live music scene.

They couldn't even save the facade? The building that replaces this one will not even come close to matching that level of architecture. More giant sheets of glass.

[crooked rain]

That's a landmark of Saskatoon. What a shame!

[Echoes]

RIP Farnam Block



Concert posters in the bar's green room still plaster the walls:



http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/saskatoon/Lydia+demolition+begins/10894909/story.html

My heart is heavy today.

[flar]

"Perserving some elements", lol. Classic.

There are always "structural" problems with buildings that someone wants to tear down.

Anybody can find a two-bit inspector to tell them it's about to collapse.

Where there's a will there's a way. ANY building can be fixed up, but it will always be more difficult and usually cost more than knocking it down and starting fresh.

[The_Architect]

Originally Posted by flar

There are always "structural" problems with buildings that someone wants to tear down.

Anybody can find a two-bit inspector to tell them it's about to collapse.

...or neglect it until a wall collapses and then as soon as the city is going to make them fix it up they hire someone to burn it down so they can develop it as a condo.

/still bitter

[lio45]

Good for Saskatoon that it has so many nicer and older buildings than this that it can easily give up one of its lesser ones. Well, that's my guess.

[SignalHillHiker]

This morning:



This afternoon:



Legal loophole tied the City's hands and a developer was allowed to purchase the property, which he demolished ASAP because the uproar about the sale has been fierce here. He didn't even allow heritage organizations to map the floor plan, photograph the interior, or salvage the ornate interior/exterior woodwork.

130 years old. RIP, Quinnipiac. Ironically, former home to one of the founders of the heritage preservation movement here.

Its two-acre lot at the edge of the Old Town core will be subdivided, cul-de-sac and the works, I'm sure.

[kwoldtimer]

I thought at first that you were joking. That's just terrible.

[osirisboy]

What was the developers rationale??! It's 2 acres they can still sub divide and build on the land with the house still in tact. Why demolish this?

[SignalHillHiker]

No idea, and the sad thing is people online are blaming the City. Obviously, they failed at their role, but they were doing what they could on little notice. The home is located outside of the strictly-protected core. It's in an area where heritage designation is a voluntary, costly, and restrictive declaration homeowners have to apply for. Almost none do because it offers no support while requiring all sorts of expensive standards. The City couldn't get the former owner to declare it, and thus had no legal right to withhold approval for the demolition. They're re-assessing the heritage protection laws now to see what they can do to prevent this in the future.

The City was definitely more than willing to work with the developer to find some way to preserve the home, and people were getting pissed off. So he tore it down as fast as he could.

This is being shared widely on FB:



There was talk this morning of protesters forming a human chain around it, but that never materialized.

Advocates, Councillors Watch as Winter Avenue Historic Home Destroyed

It's gone.

Quinnipiac, an elegant and historic home in the city's east end that had stood since the 1880s, has been torn down.

Dozens gathered at 25 Winter Avenue this morning after word started to circulate that an excavator had been brought to the site.

City council approved a demolition permit for the building earlier this month, which wasn't widely known until VOCM broke the news late last week.

Today, with no effort to preserve or even recycle the hand-carved decoration adorning the building, it was destroyed in minutes.

No 'Rant and Roar' Without This House

Quinnipiac was the late home of Fredrick Emerson. In the early 20th century, Emerson was one of the first heritage advocates in the city, recognizing the need to protect Newfoundland culture, but fearing much of it already lost.

From this house, collections of Newfoundland folk songs were compiled and published. Emerson was the driving force preserving songs like the Banks of Newfoundland and the Ryans and the Pittmans. The work performed in this building is the only reason anyone knows the phrase 'rant and roar.'

A lifelong defender of heritage, within minutes the historic home, once a shield that protected Newfoundland music and culture was gone.

http://www.vocm.com/newsarticle.asp?mn=2&ID=53539

*****

And a few pictures of the interior from FB:







(Kitchens in all the preserved old homes in St. John's are generally 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 as they were meant only for servants)

[lio45]

...

... you're nine days early, right?

[kwoldtimer]

That has to be the Canadian heritage loss of the year, or at least on a very short list.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

That has to be the Canadian heritage loss of the year, or at least on a very short list.

That 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵. If people are outraged about that, I hope they spare some outrage for this:



This is a registered heritage building in Halifax's only heritage conservation district, and its owner--who seems to change his mind about what to do with it every six months--has recently evicted every single tenant and announced that he plans to tear it down, no matter how long it takes to win approval.

The city's heritage bylaws are extraordinarily weak, and despite being a registered building in a conservation district, it has an owner who is actively attempting to destroy it, and is clearly not maintaining it in any significant way. So I think it's well within the realm of possibility that he'll eventually succeed, if city council doesn't get serious. Making matters worse, Halifax's only heritage-conservation lobbying group is a widely derided group of mostly elderly folks who have very little public support.

It's a massive failure of heritage preservation in an ostensibly historic city, and its loss will render the conservation district pretty meaningless.

I guess I'm going off topic since this is a restoration thread, but I was inspired by SignalHill's post...

[SignalHillHiker]

Oh, Drybrain, that's awful. That's a beautiful building. Reminds me of a grander version of the Commercial Chambers here.

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/rhs/rs_listing/108.html

And post away. We don't have very many big losses, thank God - and they don't really need a thread of their own. A post or two here or the Canadian Skylines of the Past thread should meet the need.

[kwoldtimer]

You wonder what goes on in peoples minds. Here in Kitchener, the demolition of our old City Hall for a (failed) shopping mall in 1973 is still a sensitive local subject.

[Daveography]

Seems to me these should be in the Canadian Demolitions thread, and that this thread is for buildings being actively or recently restored.

That aside, that's just shameful. Unreal how little respect some people have for built heritage.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

... and its owner--who seems to change his mind about what to do with it every six months--

How much would that building sell for, out of curiosity?

(If you have no idea, but at least can give me a quick tutorial on how to look online at past sales records in NS -- which, in Canada, I know very well how to do in Quebec only -- then I may do so myself.)




From a 2009 article. That's all I cound find online about that building...

"The historic Green Lantern building on Barrington Street will not be coming down after all.

Halifax councillor Sue Uteck raised eyebrows at a recent council meeting when she said she had received an email from Green Lantern owner Jeff Webber expressing frustration with the city's historic preservation efforts. "He's given up on it, and is going to tear it down," said Uteck. The building was damaged by Hurricane Juan.

But Webber has not returned a call for comment, and city staffer Bill Plaskett says Webber's frustrations have been "smoothed over." Next month, Plaskett will be bringing a recommendation to council that outlines city financial assistance in shoring up the Green Lantern facade, and for deferred tax payments for interior renovations. Plaskett declines to give details of the proposal until council sees it, but says there's enough money available to accomplish the job."

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

This morning:



This afternoon:



Legal loophole tied the City's hands and a developer was allowed to purchase the property, which he demolished ASAP because the uproar about the sale has been fierce here. He didn't even allow heritage organizations to map the floor plan, photograph the interior, or salvage the ornate interior/exterior woodwork.

130 years old. RIP, Quinnipiac. Ironically, former home to one of the founders of the heritage preservation movement here.

Its two-acre lot at the edge of the Old Town core will be subdivided, cul-de-sac and the works, I'm sure.

Sickening!

[Innsertnamehere]

^indeed. The interiors were what made that building too, its horrible to see something that well preserved go so quickly.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

This morning:

http://i57.tinypic.com/11h8cjr.jpg

This afternoon:

http://i57.tinypic.com/2qatxz5.jpg

Legal loophole tied the City's hands and a developer was allowed to purchase the property, which he demolished ASAP because the uproar about the sale has been fierce here. He didn't even allow heritage organizations to map the floor plan, photograph the interior, or salvage the ornate interior/exterior woodwork.

130 years old. RIP, Quinnipiac. Ironically, former home to one of the founders of the heritage preservation movement here.

Its two-acre lot at the edge of the Old Town core will be subdivided, cul-de-sac and the works, I'm sure.

This kind of thing leaves me at a loss. Thousands of houses were relocated intact during the resettlement period in Newfoundland. The fact that this unique and significant heritage home was not just relocated to another site, as it probably would be almost anywhere else, is just reckless and wasteful. It's time to close the loopholes.