Toronto East Lofts Condos | ?m | 12s | Harhay | a—A

I'm surprised by the deafening silence from those who oppose the demolition of just about any old structure ( and this one has windows! ) in the historic old town ...

The same people are silent about the impending destruction of an old buiding for RAC III. Funny that.

They just may not know about RAC yet. This one though... hmm, neighbourhood too run down for anyone to want to put a stop to any redevelopment?

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Well, I think there was some low-to-medium level opposition to the demolition from the usual Old York/Parliament site gang, so it wasn't exactly *silence* silence--you know, solid and reusable old building knocked down for shallow condo stuff, embodied energy wasted, etc. Similar not-unjustifiable low-medium-level (and often post-factoish) arguments have been offered elsewhere re various needlessly nuked Margiezeidlerstan warehouses, too. (Though sometimes, as with 48 Abell, the tone rises above the low/medium.)

NB: principled opposition to the demolition needn't be synonymous with opposition to SAS's modernism across the street and down a way (Stig Harvor take note). And personally, I'm more perplexed by the demeaningly banal add-ons to that Second Empire affair at King + Berkeley; *there's* where a SAS-modern approach (or something like it) would have been preferrable...
 
Downtown Building’s Demolition Goes Dangerously Awry

Source with video

Downtown Building's Demolition Goes Dangerously Awry
Saturday November 24, 2007
CityNews.ca Staff


It was a supposed to be a safe and routine demolition, but an attempt to topple a building at King and Princess Sts. Friday morning instead sent dozens of bricks slamming down into two lanes of traffic and a sidewalk below.

"Somebody could have been underneath there," exclaimed Mitchell Tremblay, who witnessed the nearly-disastrous incident and captured it on his cell phone. "It could have been me under that."

The four-storey storage building came tumbling down just seconds after a car passed by.

"The bricks, unfortunately, fell the wrong way and they went out onto the street instead of away from the street," said Toronto Police Staff Sgt. Stan Belza. "Nobody was injured."

CityNews tried to contact the responsible construction company, but we were unable to get an immediate response, unlike people in the neighbourhood, who had plenty to say about the scary turn of events when our Omar Sachedina showed them Tremblay's shocking video.

They're sentiments he seconds, alleging he was also hit by a piece of falling glass in the same spot a week earlier.

"One of the bricks actually came right up to the curb while I was filming," Tremblay insists. "Whoever was in that black car came so close to having a brick come through."

A 12-story residential unit is going to be built on the site at King and Princess. As for what went wrong at the demolition, the Ontario Ministry of Labour is now investigating.

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I'm not sure which development this is for. And maybe this is the wrong forum for this. But the lot is in development, so it made sense to post here. Just no clue which building it's for.
 
I am just as concerned about those panes of glass that fall out of buildings that are not being torn down, or that dangerous icicle that becomes a gigantic spike coming down onto the streets and walkways for pedestrians and cars to dodge.
 
Yikes! I've walked under there a number of times. I'm always a bit fearful walking near construction sites, this is why. I think it's extremely lucky nobody was killed.

Regarding East, for years I expected that storage warehouse to close and be converted to lofts. I was a bit disappointed when I found out it would be demolished and a new glass tower built. But to be honest, it wasn't the nicest warehouse -- I think it would have taken a lot of work and been an awkward conversion. At least the new development looks pretty cool.
 
Damn, I walk by this daily, I wish I'd known and watched. I think there's a bit of an overreaction, especially from the guy who filmed it, he sounds like a whiny baby. I'm quite sure they'd have an "all clear" right before the wall went, i.e. they waited until the car passed and made sure no one was directly beneath the wall, just in case something like that happens.

The apparent bricks flying across the road, a little much I suppose, however I would've been thinking "awesome!"
 
My condo overlooks this development and the demolition crew has been anything but vigilant IMHO. My BF and I watched this incident go down and judging by the way the crew scrambled after the collapse, I don't think it was "controlled" in any way. There was nearly a repeat of the same episode this weekend as the backhoe started pulling up flooring and the whole load nearly flipped over the hoarding.
 
The collapse of the northeast corner of St. Lawrence Hall forty years ago would've been quite something to have witnessed.
 
is it delayed again?

Anyone know if East Lofts has been delayed again? Last I heard it's now delayed to January 2009...
 
At this point, I'd say spring 2009 is more accurate. I live across the street from the development and they aren't even close to finishing excavation of the site.
 

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