Nail Houses

[W. K. Lis]

I would guess that the Abovegroound Art Supplies being almost under the Ontario College of Art and Design is another example.

 

[Urban Shocker]

When I went to OCA there were several more houses on that block owned by the College.

A dilapidated two storey building at 164 York Street was still standing in the mid-'70s ( a barbershop and a place for Xerox copies sharing space ), propped up on either side by sturdy steel braces after the buildings on both sides had given way to parking lots.

I have access to a photo of 600 Parliament from 1965 ( when it was owned by a Mr. Casaccio ) and it looked quite different than it does now - a tailors' shop, I think, with a bay window on the set-back second floor and half a house attached to the south of it.

 

[threnody]

600 Parliament is as shabby as ever but 224 Wellesley is looking a lot better these days. A paint store has moved in and they've painted murals on both sides.

 

[Spoonman]

This building also reminds me of a similar example in Montreal, on Ste-Catherine E near Rue St-Dominique (painted on the sides with striking murals).

 

[Towered]

What about the building that housed the Canary on Cherry street?

 

[adma]

I guess "nail office buildings" might be considered, such as the 50s-modern-turned-Gravesian-Pomo North American Life building on Adelaide (now enveloped by the FCP podium)

 

[Archivist]

If we're looking at houses that are not simply isolated from other houses, but are also surrounded by buildings, there's a good example (I believe) on Hayden Street (sorry I don't have a photo), where there's a house surrounded by unhouselike structures in very close quarters. I've always been intrigued by it.

There's this one as well, on Grenville, recently added to the Inventory.

 

[Spoonman]

If we're looking at houses that are not simply isolated from other houses, but are also surrounded by buildings, there's a good example (I believe) on Hayden Street (sorry I don't have a photo), where there's a house surrounded by unhouselike structures in very close quarters. I've always been intrigued by it.

It's actually a pair of houses abutting one another. The eastern most one is always guarded by a rather surly miniature schnauzer in the window. The contrast between the houses and the environs is particularly striking when looking north from Charles St, since you also see the tall buildings on Bloor looming over them.

That stretch of Hayden is quite peculiar. It ostensibly functions as a back service alley for the buildings along Bloor, yet it's dotted with small commercial properties and, of course, our two nail houses. It's too bad that the base of Bloor Street Neighbourhood couldn't continue the stretch of shops anchored on the Yonge-end of Hayden (unlike that above-ground parkade, which accomodates ground-level retail rather competently).

 

[Archivist]

I've always thought it would be interesting to do photo-essays of Toronto's streets that have a back alley quality to them, Hayden being a prime example as you mention. Though all of these are mixed, in the sense of having buildings that front on them as well, other "partial backalley streets" would include Victoria, Simcoe (north of Queen), Orde, Station Street, and Wood (between Yonge & Church - backalleyed on two sides by a City Park indifferent to it's Wood frontage and by buildings along Carlton, including MLG).

Mostly, they are ugly, which is probably why I never got around to doing photos of them.

 

[androiduk]

^ Asquith between Yonge & Park is another. I think the Bell building is the only structure that actually fronts onto the street.

 

[UD2]

there's no point to resisting in China! the sad fact there is that the compensation offered in such cases is nowhere near market value. So your choice is to take little and move or end up with nothing. At least in Canada property owners are offered market value as a minimum... and we dont see the aggressive tactics by developers shown in the picture above.

Doesn't seem like your claims are creditble. Excert form Wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_house


A number of high-profile nail houses have received widespread attention in the Chinese press. In one famous case, one family among 280 others at the location of a six-story shopping mall under construction at the location of a former "snack street" in Chongqing refused for two years to vacate a home their family had inhabited for three generations.[6] Developers cut their power and water, and excavated a 10-meter deep pit around their home. [1][8] The owners broke into the construction site, reoccupied it, and flew a Chinese flag on top. Yang Wu, a local martial arts champion, used nunchakus to make a staircase to their house, and threatened to beat any authorities who attempted to evict him.[1] His wife, a restaurateur named Wu Ping who had planned to open a restaurant in the home's ground floor, granted interviews and frequent press releases to generate publicity.[2] The owners turned down an offer of 3.5 million yuan (US$453,000), but eventually settled with the developers in 2007.[6]

In another example, a "nail house" remained in Changsha, even after a shopping mall was built around it, and now sits in a courtyard of the mall. [9] One owner in Shenzhen was paid between 10 and 20 million yuan (US $1.3 million to $2.7 million) for selling a seven-story building at the site of the future 439-meter (1,440 foot) Kingkey Finance Tower, that had cost him only 1 million yuan ($130,000) to build ten years before. The resident held out for months following an eviction order, and was subject to harassment and extortion attempts even after he reached a settlement.[10] Two other nail house owners held out against the Kingkey development.[11

 

[W. K. Lis]

I have seen semi-detached houses being cut in half, leaving the exposed side having to be insulated and covered up.

 

[AnnetteMeetsJane]

There is a single inhabited house, surrounded by abandoned and boarded up houses on Bloor W. facing High Park. That has a "nail house" feel to it although its neighbours still exist, just about...

AmJ

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

can this count?..

 

[adma]

As a matter of fact, I was thinking of that one, too.