Bellefair Kew Beach Residences (Queen St E, Reserve Properties, 5s, RAW/II BY IV)

[condovo]

Developer: Reserve Properties
Architect: RAW Design
Interior Design: II BY IV Design Associates
Location: Queen Street East/Bellefair Avenue
Price range: $359,000 to $1.1 million

Conversion/addition to Bellefair United Church










Source: http://www.buzzbuzzhome.com/Bellefai...ach-Residences


Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...ted_Church.JPG

[HHC]

Very effective way of ruining a perfectly functional church..

[SimonP]

The church moved out a couple years ago. There were three large United Churches in the Beaches, and Bellfair United merged with Kew as none of them were getting a lot of people. While it would be nice to preserve the church as an event space, there's not a lot of demand for such things in the neighbourhood.

[junctionist]

It looks like they're simply tacking on the old facade onto a new residential building. In recent years, I've seen much better projects, where the church structure is actually converted.

[urbandreamer]

27 March 2012: rear of property (new addition) is nearing grade)

[someMidTowner]

Today:

[urbandreamer]

Damn it, they ruined another historic church. Not impressed.

[junctionist]

With churches, the interiors are typically as important as the exteriors. This attempt at preservation looks pathetic.

[AlbertC]

The unfortunate reality is that that with the increasingly secular society, we'll be seeing more church conversions. ie. westend projects: 40 Westmoreland, Santuary Lofts, Union Lofts, etc etc. and east end projects like St. Clements, etc.

The future...those pretty Ukrainian and Portuguese churches all around...looks bleak..

[urbandreamer]

Yet the odd thing is most new immigrants are not secular at all. I would say it's mostly old-school Canadians who aren't so religious.

[junctionist]

The unfortunate reality is that that with the increasingly secular society, we'll be seeing more church conversions. ie. westend projects: 40 Westmoreland, Santuary Lofts, Union Lofts, etc etc. and east end projects like St. Clements, etc.

The future...those pretty Ukrainian and Portuguese churches all around...looks bleak..

That's why we need more creative and respectful reuses of these buildings, like for instance, keeping the interior as an amenity space for the condo or community uses. The city could allow increased density for full interior preservation. When the interiors are destroyed or gutted, the artwork, craftsmanship, and architectural design that was historically part of public life is removed from our neighbourhoods and city. Trinity alumni magazine had a good article on this topic (page 13 of this PDF).

[ganjavih]

Will there be any of the old church elements in the interior? If not, what a waste. Look at Abbey Lofts to see how it should be done.

http://www.torontolofts.ca/toronto_lofts_press_4.html

[anonymous0024]

Getting closer to ground level, from today: