Toronto Eight Forty on St Clair | 28.95m | 8s | Worsley Urban | RAW Design

What? Noooo! Not only was the Hungarian house a building that was the right scale and some much-needed history, but it was a centre of life. I remember when there would be live boxing matches inside on hot summer nights and people would be sitting on the steps listening attentively. It gave the area character. What are we going to get to replace this with? Some precast monster with a Shopper's Drug Mart?
 
A precast monster? Well considering the developer and the architect, I'd be hoping for something more along the lines of:

nimbytect20august2012go.png
 
Well, I wish it would look like that, with the rest of the massing looking like

nimbytect21august2012go.png


nimbytect21august2012go.png


Think conservative yet with modern lines, 3 basic facade templates varying between precast stamped concrete and laminate brick panels. The target: retirees and young professionals who grew up in the 'hood. (And do not piss off the nimbies with crazy heights shadowing the area homes.:))
 
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http://www.openfile.ca/toronto/stor...emolished-councillor-expects-what-else-condos

HUNGARIAN HOUSE BEING DEMOLISHED, COUNCILLOR EXPECTS (WHAT ELSE?) CONDOS

REPORTED BY
JOHN MICHAEL MCGRATH


The meeting is a preliminary one as the developer, Urbancorp, prepares a rezoning application to build a mixed-use residential and commercial space—which is another way of saying that St. Clair West is getting another condo. According to Mihevc, the demolition is expected to start in two weeks, then take three more weeks. A sale centre will go up on the property.

In 2009, the city undertook an avenue study of St. Clair Avenue West (roughly between Bathurst and Old Weston Rd.) that calls for more density along St. Clair West, aiming for 5-9 storey developments in part to take advantage of the St. Clair streetcar's dedicated right-of-way—but the avenue study acknowledges that some sites will potentially see 12, 15, or 22 storeys.
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Mihevc said last week that Urbancorp should expect a fight if they intend to ask for substantially more height than the avenue study anticipates, but it's too early yet to get an impression of what Urbancorp intends for the site.

"We'll see what they come in with," says Mihevc, "They didn't talk about height and density with me yet, but they are looking at commercial at-grade with residential on top." That's roughly the type of use envisioned in the avenue study, though as always the devil is (or will be) in the details.
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junctionist said:
I was shocked to see the demolition hoarding from the streetcar recently. (I didn't know that the building had been sold to a developer like Urbancorp.) It may not be the most spectacular building, but I always loved its monumentality in the massive arched windows, the flattened columns, and the entrance with a large staircase. The warm brick also gave it a great presence in the streetscape. I bet that a lot of people passing by are confused as to why anyone would want to demolish it.

Losing the unremarkable later additions would probably be insignificant, but the monumental central section of Hungarian House is worth preserving. It would make a great podium for a new building. Places like Hungarian House are often significant in social history. Immigrant communities relied on institutions like Hungarian House to settle in Canada: it gave them a place to socialize and meet people, to organize useful organizations in their communities to help the disadvantaged, and to network as they learned the language and became accustomed to their new home. Losing buildings like this one means losing a valuable and interesting reminder and link to a part of our history: how immigrants settled in the city.
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Not mentioned is the fact that it was originally built as Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue in 1947 and is still was held with a lot of affection within the Jewish community. This whole episode once again illustrates the sad state of heritage within Toronto and all the bumbling players involved:

1) Preservation Services within the City of Toronto Planning Department: under intellectually-capitalized (so to speak), no vision on what their role is, still crying the mantra that they don't have the manpower to identify significant buildings (the Inventory of Heritage Properties began in 1973); 840 St. Clair also falls within a kind of nether world of not quite being "mid-century Modern" (which would have attracted support from that crowd), more "mid-century neo-classicism" which doesn't quite have the same fan-base. This is exactly the kind of building that an energetic heritage department should have identified as significant and championed (if only for its cultural and contextual significance);

2) Heritage Toronto: emasculated after amalgamation (booted out of 205 Yonge after the building was declared "surplus"), again no clear vision on their role beyond encouraging heritage and maintaining some showpieces; even has a page on the building describing its significance within the Hungarian community;

3) Ward Councillors: who are either out of the loop (81 Wellesley) or ambivalent (840 St. Clair);

4) City Council: which allows the issuance of demolition permits for non-residential buildings automatically usually without any restrictions (unlike residential buildings) without requiring the approval of replacement buildings;

5) Planning Department: For all the "visioning" about heritage in every Official Plan since the 70's, has never really developed a coherent plan of incentives to make heritage preservation financially advantageous to developers (except in large-scale redevelopments, and even then only if heritage is of particular interest to the ward councillor).

I guess I could also throw in the BIA's, the resident groups and the "public", but this also is not consistent throughout the city as in some neighbourhoods these groups have influenced their councillors and city staff to take a look and take a stand when heritage buildings are threatened.

Very sad.......

Today's Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/art...nadians-remember-the-magic-of-hungarian-house
 
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As a Hungarian-Canadian, I'm sad to see this go, notwithstanding the fact that I've never been in it. People my age don't really have much in common with the average member in these cultural societies. Most of the members were escapees from the 1956 Revolution.
 
Does anyone have any updates here?

They seemed to have demoed the left part of the building (ugly part) that was not part of the better looking main part that you can see standing still below. I'm not familiar with demoes, but I thought they'd just plow through both buildings at the same time? The other thing is is that all of the heavy machinery is gone now, and they seemed to have "cleaned up" (removed all the main scraps, and flattened the rubble).

Pics from today:

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junctionist said:
Could they actually have come to their senses and decided not demolish the historical part of the complex?
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There's a rumour going around that the facade is going to be used as part of the footprint of the new building. I had noticed they were only demo'ing the addition,and now that they've cleared their equipment away it looks like there could be some truth to it.

All the same: this picture shows how badly run down the place is. Look at the water damage; it must have come down through the "seam" between the original building and the new. This could also explain why the demo crew seems to have taken a break; maybe they need to figure out how to secure the facade without bringing it down!
 
There's no way of telling what condition it's in from those photos. The water penetration which caused the rust stains on the side wall appears to be localized and external.
 
I should elaborate: I've been to several events there (as recently as 2010) and on the inside, the extent of the disrepair is quite obvious. I can only imagine it's gotten worse now that the building has stood vacant for several months.

Either way: there's rumours part of the building will be used/saved, though I've read nothing to substantiate it...has anyone else heard anything?
 
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