Blixtein
Active Member
Hoarding is going up on Yonge. It's only a matter of days before the City Optical building is toast. Enjoy the sight while you still can.
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yyzer
Senior Member
We need some pics of this....
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
The building next to Xerox is nearly gone
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
July 11th update
casaguy
Senior Member
Once again DT, I probably passed right by you today and didn't even know it was you. (I was the cyclist going the wrong way on a one way street). Did you get pics of the Star of Downtown too?
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
No, the pup & I ran out of steam after walking to & from Christie Pitts.
Note the BSN & Casa cranes peeking above the S/E corner of B&Y in the background
confusion
Active Member
In that 2nd last picture, did anyone else ever notice that old brick building with the giant window there? All these years of walking past that spot and not once did I ever notice it. It's a pretty big and neat looking window! Is it being preserved or will it be forever lost soon to history? Anybody know?
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From the Star:
Yonge & Bloor window worth saving
Jul 11, 2008 04:30 AM
Joe Fiorito
When is any window not worth looking through and what view, in the city, is not better framed?
Allow me a digression.
There are the early signs of construction at the corner of Yonge and Bloor Sts. We will soon have a new tall tower, part of Toronto's ongoing facelift.
Facelift might not be the right word.
We have been pierced – the metal shards that squat on the old stones of the Royal Ontario Museum are like your granny with a tongue stud and an eyebrow ring.
We have been botoxed – that bland block of banality on the southeast corner of Bay and Dundas Sts. is the face of the city frozen in a grim commercial grin.
We will, I suppose, get used to it. This is how it has always been around here. No one has the guts or the power to stop a lousy project.
I have nothing bad to say about the tower coming to the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor. It will be elegant enough, and only the merest handful of ordinary old buildings will be torn down to make way, and we won't miss them a bit. But one of those ordinaries contains an extraordinary two-storey window, arched, stone-framed, metal-clad, and as striking as Clark Gable in a crowd of lesser men.
Cathy Nasmith, president of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, stood on Yonge St. and looked up at the old window the other day.
She said, "I never really noticed it before, not until the emails started flying across my desk. It's pretty fine. It's hard to believe the city missed this; no, it isn't."
Meaning it might have been saved or protected in some way, had we been on our toes.
She said, "I wish we knew who designed it. Very nice work; a tidy job. This is not a building you'd stand in front of a bulldozer for, but it would be nice to save the window."
A bit of history: one source says the building with the window was once the home of the Volkoff Ballet School, which was a predecessor of the National Ballet.
A rare double: Boris Volkoff, a Russian-trained dancer and choreographer, trained both the ballerina Melissa Hayden and the figure skater Barbara Ann Scott.
That is not why the window is worth saving.
Nasmith said, "We'd be preserving a little piece of Yonge St. The window is a cut above; someone cared about it. You look down the street, there's nothing similar."
It might have been incorporated into the design of the new tower; it is too late for that now. Could it serve some other purpose?
Nasmith said, "To save it, you'd have to take the window out in pieces and remove the arch; the masonry retrieval would be the hardest part of the job. The developer and the contractor are in favour, but they haven't offered any assistance. If we were able to find a place for it ..." She let that thought trail off. And then she said, brightly, "The National Ballet School, the Brick Works – they might be able to absorb the window. It would make a spectacular screen. It would be fun to save."
She said, less brightly, "It's a long shot. A lot of things would have to fall into place."
What has to fall into place is money, and fast. One fellow has stepped forward with an offer of $1,000 towards the rescue. And Nasmith knows a superb stonemason, and another man who is equally expert in heritage glass.
If the eye is the window of the soul, surely that window is an eye on this city's soul.
There are two weeks left.
http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Columnist/article/458353
AoD
Yonge & Bloor window worth saving
Jul 11, 2008 04:30 AM
Joe Fiorito
When is any window not worth looking through and what view, in the city, is not better framed?
Allow me a digression.
There are the early signs of construction at the corner of Yonge and Bloor Sts. We will soon have a new tall tower, part of Toronto's ongoing facelift.
Facelift might not be the right word.
We have been pierced – the metal shards that squat on the old stones of the Royal Ontario Museum are like your granny with a tongue stud and an eyebrow ring.
We have been botoxed – that bland block of banality on the southeast corner of Bay and Dundas Sts. is the face of the city frozen in a grim commercial grin.
We will, I suppose, get used to it. This is how it has always been around here. No one has the guts or the power to stop a lousy project.
I have nothing bad to say about the tower coming to the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor. It will be elegant enough, and only the merest handful of ordinary old buildings will be torn down to make way, and we won't miss them a bit. But one of those ordinaries contains an extraordinary two-storey window, arched, stone-framed, metal-clad, and as striking as Clark Gable in a crowd of lesser men.
Cathy Nasmith, president of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, stood on Yonge St. and looked up at the old window the other day.
She said, "I never really noticed it before, not until the emails started flying across my desk. It's pretty fine. It's hard to believe the city missed this; no, it isn't."
Meaning it might have been saved or protected in some way, had we been on our toes.
She said, "I wish we knew who designed it. Very nice work; a tidy job. This is not a building you'd stand in front of a bulldozer for, but it would be nice to save the window."
A bit of history: one source says the building with the window was once the home of the Volkoff Ballet School, which was a predecessor of the National Ballet.
A rare double: Boris Volkoff, a Russian-trained dancer and choreographer, trained both the ballerina Melissa Hayden and the figure skater Barbara Ann Scott.
That is not why the window is worth saving.
Nasmith said, "We'd be preserving a little piece of Yonge St. The window is a cut above; someone cared about it. You look down the street, there's nothing similar."
It might have been incorporated into the design of the new tower; it is too late for that now. Could it serve some other purpose?
Nasmith said, "To save it, you'd have to take the window out in pieces and remove the arch; the masonry retrieval would be the hardest part of the job. The developer and the contractor are in favour, but they haven't offered any assistance. If we were able to find a place for it ..." She let that thought trail off. And then she said, brightly, "The National Ballet School, the Brick Works – they might be able to absorb the window. It would make a spectacular screen. It would be fun to save."
She said, less brightly, "It's a long shot. A lot of things would have to fall into place."
What has to fall into place is money, and fast. One fellow has stepped forward with an offer of $1,000 towards the rescue. And Nasmith knows a superb stonemason, and another man who is equally expert in heritage glass.
If the eye is the window of the soul, surely that window is an eye on this city's soul.
There are two weeks left.
http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Columnist/article/458353
AoD
Mongo
Senior Member
Looking through this thread, I found a number of images showing this window a bit more clearly. Here are two of the better images:
CGM
Active Member
Interesting to see what's behind the aluminum facade in the buildings to the right (like the Union Jack in the middle). I didn't think the Shoe Company building was that old... We should preserve these building as they do in the financial district, where the old structure is restored and incorprated into the new building. Although it is more expensive than to demolish and rebuild, it does add to and maintain a certain character of the city.
A perfect time to ask that question Musters - quite the coincidence to see Joe Fiorito's article right away. I had wondered about that same window back earlier in the thread. Let's hope that a salvage plan does come together in time to move it.
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Tewder
Senior Member
What a great addition it would make to our facade graveyard concept for 3D's Cathedral Square design.
Exactly why we could benefit from a facade graveyard (still as a last resort for built history).
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dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Future 1BE site
Here is a photographic document of the buildings on Yonge Street which are close to demolition from Bloor Street, south to Hayden Street. I don't recall anyone doing this so here it is, while it lasts.
July 12, 2008
Here is a photographic document of the buildings on Yonge Street which are close to demolition from Bloor Street, south to Hayden Street. I don't recall anyone doing this so here it is, while it lasts.
July 12, 2008
Dan416
Senior Member
If there was a petition to save that window I'd sign it.
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