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

[Pigeon]

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[durandy]

OMG! That's amazing - complete with superimposed buildings exactly where the Connaught plans are and not far off from Blanchard's - the only thing they missed was to gray out a few of the existing buildings!


Do that and they could have called it 'Places to demolish'...

[thistleclub]

Originally Posted by Pigeon

I was reviewing Ontario's "Places to Grow Plan" and saw an interesting image on the front page that looked like an old familiar place.

https://www.placestogrow.ca/index.php

I guess Gore Park is kind of a median...

P2G is up for review in 2015. Will be interesting to see what comes of that.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

I'm quite sure that didn't happen by accident. Glen Murray is a big fan of this city.

[Beedok]

Is it just me, or is the Connaught extension done as a ghost?

[CaptainKirk]

Crews from Budget Demolition are about to roll into Gore Park. You can expect to see their hoarding go up before this month is done.

Two years ago, the same company knocked down a narrow century-plus building on King East, south side of the street, across from the fountain. They made the place disappear fast.

Of one thing, they were sure. They said five old buildings had to go to make way for this big plan.

When these buildings went up, Canada was but a child. (Paul Wilson CBC)
Many objected to losing all that history, and five months ago Blanchard sat down with councillors Jason Farr and Brian McHattie. A compromise was reached. Three structures would be saved – Numbers 18, 20 and 22. They’re the stone-fronted 1840s Kerr buildings. The front third is to be turned into condos. The rear will be demolished.

But the other two buildings are a treat to gaze up at too. CBC Hamilton asked Blanchard last month if he’d be open to saving at least the facades there. He said yes – but the expense of doing that would have to come from the city, and he would need to hear fast.

Well, time’s up. “No one came forward to say anything about it,” he said yesterday. “There were no monetary offers.”

the gap on the street when those two buildings tumble could be there for some time. Developer Blanchard hopes to have that big project underway in two to three years, “but if interest rates go up, it will have a negative impact on any construction.”

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/stor...emolition.html

[Dr Awesomesauce]

If what he builds is sh*te, so help me God!

[mattgrande]

I just can't understand why he's tearing them down two or three years before he's planning on doing anything.

[CaptainKirk]

Originally Posted by mattgrande

I just can't understand why he's tearing them down two or three years before he's planning on doing anything.

Does that save on taxes? But then again, he had tenants, no?

I dunno.

Maybe it's gamesmanship in attempt to secure some public funding for historical preservation or restoration.

I'd fully support any financial assistance from the city that would at least see the facades saved or even duplicated.

Lister is virtually universally praised and appreciated and is now a point of pride of our city.

What is more historically relevant in this city than that of what remains in Gore Park?

With the coming Connaught project, Treble Hall and the 2 or 3 buildings next door on King, (Gore bldg, Bannister's, Old Palace theatre ( Joe Buttinsky's)) and the Gore Park pedestrianization, it makes sense, now more than ever, to make this preservation of Gore Park facades a priority.

[HillStreetBlues]

We're going to regret this for sure…

At this point, it is not a question of whether what is built will be of a certain quality. It may be a long time before anything is built at all- a lot of average Hamiltonians who are too busy to pay attention to these issues and who think they elect a city council to do it on their behalf are going to be amazed at the hole they have to soon look at every day, in the heart of their city. And the hole is going to be there for a long while.

They know nothing. They don't know the cost of the project, they don't know the timeline of the project, they don't even know what it is except for their "vision." If they claim it will be underway in three years, I shudder to think how long it will actually take.

I bet that the next stage of extortion concerning the three buildings not being demolished (yet) will be even more frustrating.

[Beedok]

If there were actually funds and everything in place I'd be a bit annoyed, but with this situation I'm feeling kind of frustrated.

[Pearlstreet]

Pehaps this is the Hamilton is still growing optic to carry us past 2015, after the Pan Am games? We need to always look good in the eyes of the investor.

[drpgq]

Honestly this is something the city should have found some money for, although dealing with Blanchard's extortion stinks. As I said above this is Hamilton's historic square and you can't get those buildings back. Now we will have the Gore Promenade with an even bigger gaping hole.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Not enough public attention has been raised about this project. That's on us - the concerned. It's quite possible that those who really care about the Gore outside this city (and there are many) have no idea what's about to happen. And it goes without saying that most Hamiltonians have no idea either. This is going to do terrible damage to our civic ego. As others have stated (and as Blanchard himself has suggested) that hoarding will be up for years.

[movingtohamilton]

You're right, pEte. But in their day-to-day lives most people just can't keep everything on their radar. We should be demanding leadership from our councilors, and they should be ringing the alarm bells. To stretch the metaphor, we have a five-alarm fire ringing on this project. It's a travesty...and it's too late. Blanchard has no shame, so it's too bad a big fat cheque wasn't waved in his face to buy the properties. And I don't mean public money necessarily. It's time to get private foundations on board for heritage properties, like they are in the USA.

[flar]

Not sure what to say anymore. Every time it seems like Hamilton is finally getting it together, stuff like this happens.

I've long been a defender and promoter of Hamilton, but it's getting pretty hard. Especially now that I travel around Canada more and see places like Winnipeg, which was probably behind Hamilton a few years ago, but now is leaps and bounds ahead of Hamilton, with visible improvements everywhere.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

I'll never make excuses for Hamilton but let's face it, the new city isn't a city at all - it's a paralytic, cannibalistic clusterf*ck. You remember what it's like. Winnipeg, on the other hand, is just Winnipeg. There's no Mountain. There's no Flamborogh. There's no Stoney Creek. It's just Winnipeg. What a dream it would be to be able to steer one's own ship. Anyway, kudos to Glen Murray for getting the ball rolling in the Peg. It definitely does feel like more of a city than Hamilton but I'll take the Durand, Kirkendall and Strathcona any day over what Winnipeg has on offer. Same goes for the cities farther west. We've got that on them at least.

[mattgrande]

I think it's difficult to compare ourselves to Winnipeg. They're the economic centre of Manitoba. The closest "city" is Brandon, with less than 50,000 people. Meanwhile we're competing with Toronto, KW, Mississaugua, Ottawa, London, and more for the same resources.

[flar]

^^you point out the major difference between the two cities, but there are many more similarities. Similar in size, both are old cities well past their primes, both have been economically depressed for a long time, both have lots of historic architecture, much of it is endangered, both have extensive visible poverty and urban decay, both have large swaths of blighted neighbourhoods. Both are despised by a good chunk of their own citizens and ignored by the rest of the country. Basically, Hamilton and Winnipeg have many of the same problems.

Winnipeg may be the centre of Manitoba, but Manitoba is very small. Many times the population of Manitoba lives within an hour of Hamilton. Which makes Hamilton a similar sized media market, and in some case Hamilton serves a much larger surrounding population (think Hamilton Health Sciences, which serves like double the number of people that live in all of Manitoba).

[Pigeon]

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