Heritage Buildings that have been incorporated into new buildings

[Urban Shocker]

All Souls is a particularly interesting mashup of styles, and Oxford's an ideal city in which to spot such evolutionary forces at work - Hawksmoor's library interior has round-headed windows but on the outside they're pointed Gothic. The twin towers, as with his towers at Westminster Abbey, are notable precisely because they're stylistically chimerical and impossible to pigeonhole. This was a classically-influenced age, and Gothic was incorporated within the Classical design language ( Chinese and Indian too! ) rather than replacing it entirely, as the Victorians later did. Keeping with the mashup theme, the small statues of saints set into the niches of the reredos of the 15th century chapel are mid-19th century replacements; the originals were destroyed in the Reformation.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Nicholas Stone's Baroque south porch, added to the Perpendicular Church of St. Mary the Virgin, just across from All Souls, is another interesting one:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/SMV_Porch.jpg

Wren's Tom Tower, built in the Gothic style to complete a gatehouse left unfinished for 150 years, is another:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Tom_Tower_(Oxford,_England).JPG

 

[Urban Shocker]

Myself, I prefer his Queen's College, designed about the same time in a very different style.

Well, if we're talkin' about Oxford's wholly Classically-inspired buildings, I'm rather fond of Peckwater quad ( 1705-14 ) at Christ Church, a palatial Palladian statement that actually predates Lord Burlington's more famous alternatives to the Baroque by a few years:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Peckwater-Quadrangle.jpg

Another favourite, from 1636, is Canterbury quad at St. John's College:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/St_John's_College_quad_2.jpg

( get there early, wear a tweed jacket, and slip past the NO TOURISTS sign at the entrance )

 

[k10ery]

Well, if we're talkin' about Oxford's wholly Classically-inspired buildings, I'm rather fond of Peckwater quad ( 1705-14 ) at Christ Church, a palatial Palladian statement that actually predates Lord Burlington's more famous alternatives to the Baroque by a few years:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Peckwater-Quadrangle.jpg

I love Peckwater Quad! In this case, as I recall, Summreson tweaks it for being too repetitive, and for the awkward way the balustrades meet the pediments. But I think it's a wonderfully elegant, imposing, muinimalist design. It kind of reminds me of this (or the other way round):

Another favourite, from 1636, is Canterbury quad at St. John's College:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/St_John's_College_quad_2.jpg

( get there early, wear a tweed jacket, and slip past the NO TOURISTS sign at the entrance )

When I try, the porters always see right through me. Maybe you have a more "donnish" face. But borrowing somebody's ID card does work.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Get there early - 8:30-ish.

 

[junctionist]

The important distinction which has to made in this discussion is between facades incorporated into new buildings and actual buildings incorporated into new buildings or complexes. These outcomes are quite different in terms of how heritage buildings are treated: facade preservation means the demolition of a historic building; while incorporating a heritage building into a new building or complex leaves the possibility of preserving that building.

There's also the matter of whether the new building encloses the old or is attached to it. For instance, the present St. Lawrence Market south building encloses Toronto's second city hall, and the old Toronto Stock Exchange building was enclosed by the Ernst & Young Tower. Compare that outcome to the likes of the Royal Conservatory of Music or the nearby University of Toronto Faculty of Law on Queen's Park with a heritage building restored and a modern building attached to it. Public schools throughout the city have heritage schools often from the early twentieth century with interesting Modernist additions from the 1960s. I think they were rather progressive for their time as an organization.

 

[thecharioteer]

Very true, junctionist. Hospitals are usually a fascinating amalgam of additions adjacent, behind and above original structures. St. Mike's Bond Street elevation is a fascinating blend of Edwardian, Deco and Moderne design:

 

[Mustapha]

It depends what you mean by great example. I would say that Merchant's Bank and Mt Sinai are great examples of the WORST in facadectomy. Your other two examples are much better.

Good examples of recent good projects:

- Grange and AGO
- McMaster Hall and RCM
- Bishop's Block and Shangri-La ???
- House of Industry and Elm Centre (at least the facade has 3 sides)
- Don Jail and Bridgepoint ???

Bishops Block appears to be a homage of the original. It's brand spanking new looking brick. The original was taken down, not left in situ while Shangri-La went up.

 

[k10ery]

You think it's ersatz? Since ERA was involved I hope not. Perhaps the brick faces were reversed, a common restoration trick. But I agree that it doesn't look "quite right" at least not yet.

Further, Westbank dismantled the building’s façade brick by brick and will replace it on the new building once construction is complete. To date, explains project manager Renata Li, Westbank has reconstructed the south and west walls at Adelaide and Simcoe Streets to mimic the building’s appearance circa 1885.

All existing window and door openings have also been respected. The reconstruction used original building materials where possible, including salvaged brick, stone, windows and wood trim.

Additional materials match the originals as closely as possible.

When the building was dismantled, she adds, façades were fully documented by photographs and measured drawings. Elements were numbered and split into grid patterns for salvaging of brick and stone. The materials were palletted according to the numbering, and contents recorded and taken to a restoration company’s secure facility where they repaired and restored whatever they could.

http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/11/11/follow-the-cobblestoned-street-to-the-city%E2%80%99s-best-new-but-old-condos/

 

[k10ery]

Very true, junctionist. Hospitals are usually a fascinating amalgam of additions adjacent, behind and above original structures. St. Mike's Bond Street elevation is a fascinating blend of Edwardian, Deco and Moderne design:

Exhibit A: Western Hospital in 1909:

A prize to anyone who can spot the original facade among any of the half dozen styles in this 2012 render.

"Fascinating" indeed. If only one of the expansion architects could have controlled his/her ego and simply unified the whole and made it true to Lennox's original.

Edit: To be fair, here is what was destroyed to build lennox's hospital:

 

[Urban Shocker]

You think it's ersatz? Since ERA was involved I hope not. Perhaps the brick faces were reversed, a common restoration trick. But I agree that it doesn't look "quite right" at least not yet.

The lime mortar ( for so I assume it to be ) sets it apart from yer average tuckpointing job.

 

[Mustapha]

You think it's ersatz? Since ERA was involved I hope not. Perhaps the brick faces were reversed, a common restoration trick. But I agree that it doesn't look "quite right" at least not yet.



http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/11/11/follow-the-cobblestoned-street-to-the-city%E2%80%99s-best-new-but-old-condos/

Yes, to answer your question; I believe it's ersatz.

Also, I am alone in the wilderness in asserting that the University Theatre facade is ersatz. The real facade stood - propped up by a steel framework for a time - then it was demolished. The present homage in its place is just that. I hope you folks don't think 'Then and Now Mustapha' has an eerie side to his personality - facade conspiracy theorist.

 

[thecharioteer]

11 St. Joseph is another examble of a reconstructed facade which was compromised by the wrong mortar colour (as opposed to the preserved facade of 5 St. Joseph to the east, which is being preserved intact):

 

[Mustapha]

9 Temperance Street is an interesting building in that it was torn down for the Bay-Adelaide Centre; then entirely reconstituted. By 'building' I mean not the facade; the entire building.

 

[thecharioteer]

Mention should also be made of the three facades within the Scotia Plaza block: the Fairweather and Cameron Jeffries facades were preserved in situ on Yonge, while the Wood Gundy facade was relocated from King to Adelaide.