10 James Street North

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by matt602

I thought there would still be some nice original facade in that 2nd story portion of Tip Top and it looks like I was right. A bit damaged but I'm sure it can be cleaned up and repaired with replicated pieces.

...still has that stupid piece attached to it though..

[Pigeon]

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[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by Pigeon

I love this wall, its beautiful. It is a link to the past and a break from the homogeneous.

well sadly like your dreams it is bound to be shattered

[davidcappi]

[BaconPoutine]

Wow, what a difference. Can't wait to this this project completed.

[thistleclub]

Originally Posted by Chronamut

is that… piece of graftons forever going to remain "grafted" to the side of the sirloin cellar? …it's been how long now?

29 years ago, or 12 years longer than the Lister Block’s coma. Technically Zellers, which occupied the building after Graftons folded.

[NortheastWind]

The row of brick at the top doesn't look so secure.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by NortheastWind

The row of brick at the top doesn't look so secure.

indeed. You can see where the cornice was sheared off. It will be nice to see one go back up. You can see the same thing on the building beside it.

Also how are they cleaning it? Sandblasting it? How are they going to repair the wood of the window frames? Will they replace it with new window panes?

Also I hate to say it but the cleaned facade is less impressive than the dirty one -with the dirty one the dirt made certain things pop out, like what looks like the egg and dart bands and the arches, now it's all just one same colour, or close to it.. those egg and dart bands are stressing me out all being the same colour now hahaha.. it's in desperate need for some contrast.. its just a giant wall of.. clay colour.. maybe putting some black framed windows in could help like in other areas of the city - I think the brown wood frames are just making it look like too much of the same atm..

also if they treated the stone accents and lintels like they did the mulberry cafe - brightening them up I think that would really help.

I also find the lack of symmetry in this building a tad.. odd.. something I am only noticing now that it's clean.. before I just sorta pretended this building didn't exist.. I wonder why they built it the way that they did.. it's a roman architects OCD nightmare

..just my 2 cents.

let's look at a building with similar colour, with mulberry-like enhanced stone cleaning and existing cornice:

[Chronamut]

went by here tonight - the entire facade is now cleaned and now they are working on the sirloin cellar part at the top - was watching them powerwash it down.. all the windows appear to have mud residue I am guessing from either the buildup splash or powder from the clay bricks themselves..

..makes me wonder what the building to the right would look like if it was cleaned fully.. it looks like some of their powerwashing inadvertently cleaned part of that building as well.. really someone should just go around downtown and powerwash ALL the buildings, like.. every so many years, just for clean maintenance.

also I learned today that piece they left on the building is indeed structural - if you look beside it on the building there is a giant crack that runs down a great length of the brick.. it seems to attach on to a sliver of the brick on the end of the building. They will probably need to reconstruct that part to shore it up properly. Looks like a lot of brick repair needs to be done on this building overall.

[ScreamingViking]

Will wait for the finished product before providing any kind of opinion.

But yeah, that's a huge difference.
(lots of dust on the windows too... I think that makes it look more "redwashed" than it really is)

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Will wait for the finished product before providing any kind of opinion.

But yeah, that's a huge difference.
(lots of dust on the windows too... I think that makes it look more "redwashed" than it really is)

yeah I would have to agree with you on that - noticed it more when I went downtown.. I wonder if they would be allowed to clean the building beside it, since they accidentally appeared to have partially cleaned it when powerwashing the current building? Might look odd half-dirty..

also the building to the left of it appears to be in rougher shape.. looks like it will need quite a bit of restoration to the exterior..

I am also curious as to what they are going to do with the green oxidized copper cornice at the top of the building on the left.. as that colour doesn't match the render of the eventual look of the new development.. (I love cornices )

it would be really cool if this building got the same sort of colour treatment the one around the corner did, where 2/3s of the building is still covered by those giant signs, where they added silver paint to the details - makes it pop and look so cool



I hope someone eventually replicates the facades and does that for the rest of that building..

also can someone PLEASE clean the sides of these buildings- what's the point of making the front look nice if the sides, which everyone still sees, still look like 🞵🞵🞵🞵..?

[davidcappi]

I thought there would still be some nice original facade in that 2nd story portion of Tip Top and it looks like I was right. A bit damaged but I'm sure it can be cleaned up and repaired with replicated pieces.

Looks like pink sandstone!


Powerwashed brickwork The Alley buildings James St. N. by Joe, on Flickr

[Chronamut]

I will admit the brick looks better how that the powder has all been washed away

also looks like that architectural design above the big window on the left building is slightly damaged.. hopefully they can fix all that up.. also that brick filled area above that window.. it looks like there might be stone behind it? Why is the middle part stone coloured?

[ScreamingViking]

I wasn't expecting the colours of the two buildings to be this different once the bricks were cleaned. Nice.

[Chronamut]

They have started to demolish the back of the building - walked by it yesterday and you could see the buildings behind it through the windows..

[lachlanholmes]

Continuing to remove windows.

[mclancer]

Wow, look what a good cleaning can do with a building. With some repair, and removal of the parasite hanging off the left side, these buildings will look good.
Care is also needed not just to the front of these buildings because the sides can be seen from the street. Look at the example from King St., front looks great, but the side ruins the look.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by mclancer

Wow, look what a good cleaning can do with a building. With some repair, and removal of the parasite hanging off the left side, these buildings will look good.
Care is also needed not just to the front of these buildings because the sides can be seen from the street. Look at the example from King St., front looks great, but the side ruins the look.

couldn't agree more my friend! It's like a celebrity facelift - it's only halfway if you lift the face but not the neck too!

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[king10]

wonder what they're going to do with that top layer of brick that looks ready fall apart