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On Gerrard Street just west of Bay the former College Residence Hotel is being slowly and methodically dismantled to make way for what is reported to be a two storey lecture hall for Toronto General Hospital. The formerly 19-storey brutalist tower was built in the 1970s and was originally constructed to provide a home for nurses working at the Hospital. Over the years the building has seen its fair share of different uses including serving a student dorm and a hostel. The photo below shows the building at the beginning of demolition in March, 2012.
Photos taken last week by Forum member drum118 show how long a process the dismantling of a building can be.
While implosions in other cities have made for popular news reports and subsequent YouTube viewing, Toronto's vibrant downtown core is considered too dense to risk using that more dramatic demolition method. A spectator of a 1997 implosion in Canberra, Australia was killed by flying debris.
Details on the building that will replace the tower are still pretty scarce although we do know Diamond Schmitt Architects has designed a lecture hall for the space… but it is realistically expected that Toronto General Hospital has more planned for the site than just that.
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