Toronto Ryerson's Mattamy Athletics Centre + Loblaws at the Gardens | ?m | ?s | Ryerson University | Turner Fleischer

When did the awning get nixed? It's in all of the renders, and I figured it would be gone by now if they really wanted to remove it.
 
When did the awning get nixed? It's in all of the renders, and I figured it would be gone by now if they really wanted to remove it.

While it is still up, it is in pretty rough shape right now. Looks like they are in the process of doing something, maybe slowly stripping it down?
 
This is true. eyeopener has an article about it. They're looking for a sponsored name.

Lets go over the things they told us and changed
A) The original lobby would exist - GONE
B) the original scoreclock would be re-tooled - GONe. maybe 1 face of it was saved for the HHOF
c) the seating would be sold or reused - no answer yet
d) the awning on the front would remain - it appears not.
e) it would still be called "Maple Leaf Gardens".. It WONT be just Maple Leaf Gardens anymore.
f) They were going to sell pucks of the ice pad..... Never happened.

I don't remember reading anything about keeping the lobby (what's to keep?), the name of the building or concrete ice pucks. Several thousand seats were auctioned or sold for a period of time several years ago. Losing the scoreboard sucks, but the average person would never see it anyway, same with losing the awning as it does hold special significance although it's been renovated several times over the decades.
 
I don't remember reading anything about keeping the lobby (what's to keep?), the name of the building or concrete ice pucks. Several thousand seats were auctioned or sold for a period of time several years ago. Losing the scoreboard sucks, but the average person would never see it anyway, same with losing the awning as it does hold special significance although it's been renovated several times over the decades.

Originally they were going to keep the lobby and have a MLG heritage area on the front east side of the building.

Those seats were auctioned by the leafs, but there were approximately 5000 left in the buiding, basically half the golds and 60% of the reds.. They removed them, put them in storage and thats that...

the awning should ALWAYS say "Maple Leaf Gardens". The name was never to change. Infact, I thought it was supposed to be protected. Bah, screw it. They've butchered the building in my opinion. The exterior has been significantly modified on the back and will be when they open the parking entrance on the south west side..
 
Ryerson isn't managing public expectations very well at all: the PR people should have issued gag orders on promises relating to anything of historical value. Now the perception (rightly so) will be that Ryerson and Loblaws can't be trusted with important heritage sites.
 
Anyways..It was an oversized piece of junk

Mapleleafgardensscoreboard.jpg


Unlike something like this from the Chicago Stadium that was worth keeping.

Chicagostadiumscoreboard.jpg

Not sure what all the fuss is about here. As others noted, the iconic "original" (if it even was the original) clock shown above was replaced/revamped long before the Leafs moved out of the Gardens.

I believe this is what it looked like at the end:
MapleLeafGardens01.jpg


If they really want to display that clock for all its glory they should try and install it at either the Hershey Centre or the Powerade (two spectator rinks who currently have clocks without video boards).
 
Ryerson isn't managing public expectations very well at all: the PR people should have issued gag orders on promises relating to anything of historical value. Now the perception (rightly so) will be that Ryerson and Loblaws can't be trusted with important heritage sites.

So if they fix up MLG and do not keep the centre display (which apparently had no historical significance) they can't be trusted with "important heritigage sites"?
 
So if they fix up MLG and do not keep the centre display (which apparently had no historical significance) they can't be trusted with "important heritigage sites"?

It had significance to me. And most leaf fans that remember going there! So its BS. I'm not sure the old scoreclock wasent modified into the new one.. who knows. Either way. I hate Loblaws and Ryerson for butchering this place to death. Its character is dead.
 
Would there have been any way to retain the character you want and still turn it into a grocery store with a university icepad on top?
 
It had significance to me. And most leaf fans that remember going there! So its BS. I'm not sure the old scoreclock wasent modified into the new one.. who knows. Either way. I hate Loblaws and Ryerson for butchering this place to death. Its character is dead.

... or you could look at it that Lob-Ryerson saved the place. Compromises were made to be sure but MLG still stands on Carlton Street and still serves the community. In the absense of their efforts it probably would have decayed further, knocked down for some glassy square condo... not to say I don't feel your pain, it's tough to see a much-loved heritage building transform, in any way.
 
Not sure what all the fuss is about here. As others noted, the iconic "original" (if it even was the original) clock shown above was replaced/revamped long before the Leafs moved out of the Gardens.

It wasn't.

The original "score clock" was this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Maple_Leaf_Gardens_Postcard_1931.jpg

There was also a fairly large clock on the Wood Street side (IIRC) for a long time and a score clock similar to the one shown above from the Chicago Stadium. Both were gone by the mid-1960s I think.


Would there have been any way to retain the character you want and still turn it into a grocery store with a university icepad on top?

Personally, I still believe the building could have been saved in two forms: 1) Restored to it's original 1931 format -- 13,000 seats, mid-size venue for the city. 2) Employ some creative engineering to keep the Leafs playing in the building.

Of course, this is complete hindsight and given the circumstances in 2010, I think it is the best we could hope for, unfortunately.
 

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