May 24, 2008
Tall Saint
Destruction of the line of gorgeous 19th-century houses on the corner of Charles and St. Thomas is now fully underway, their demolition the final step to make way for the construction of The St. Thomas, a twenty-three storey condo tower. It will be the third tower at the intersection, just north of 77 Charles Street West, a sixteen-storey condo (that will necessitate demolishing Lycée Français de Toronto, a french school); and just west of the almost-finished twenty-nine storey One St. Thomas.
In March, just before a fence went up around the site, Christopher Hume labelled the houses' destruction—and their replacement with a condo—"an urban tragedy." "What's unfolding here," he wrote, "is the disturbing spectacle of a city tearing itself apart, destroying itself, killing the very things that give it its character and constitute its identity." At least one person at the building site agrees: a small sticker plastered on one of the walls that encloses the demolition site (and encourages passers-by to book an appointment to buy a condo) concisely begs "DON'T DO IT."
It's hard to not be ambivalent. All three of the new condo buildings are cash cows for the University of Toronto (specifically Victoria University, whose corner of campus the buildings are built on, and where I am a student), allowing the institution to pump more money into projects of its own, and the only building that's anything near finished now, One St. Thomas, is (as Hume pointed out in the same article slamming The St. Thomas's pending construction) beautiful and hard not to love: elegant, unique, and distinguished (with great views to boot), it treats the street below it with reverence, even if its most expensive unit sells for eight figures. When all of the buildings are completed, though, the tall trio, taken together, will all but dwarf the nearby student residences and overwhelm the narrow street they are built on—to say nothing of the noisy and disruptive construction that will continue well into the next decade, and what must be destroyed to make space for them.
All that's left at the future site of The St. Thomas now are piles of old but intact orange bricks, splinters of wood, and the shell of the remaining house, and all of that will be gone soon, too. For now, the final tenants—a family of raccoons in the basement and pigeons on the roof—are standing their ground, the last residents to be displaced before a new flock moves in.
More photos after the fold.
All photos by David Topping.
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At least with this building, they're not replacing historical Victorians with false-historical architecture like the One St. Thomas. Imagine destroying heritage buildings like these, and then putting up a tower with historical cues that have nothing to do with the actual history of the site. That is ludicrous, but it actually happens.
Urban tragedy, indeed. It's not like we couldn't see this coming though..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inventor_77/417926007/in/photostream/
Oh come on, those houses werent great, or architecturally/historically sigificant in any way other than just being old. Are we never going to demolish anything anywhere in Toronto? by all means, lets just keep going with urban sprawl instead.
...and whats so bad about Condominiums in this area with many such buildings? Just think, in a generation or 3, people will be trying to preserve them just like you're lamenting the fate of the houses that once stood there.
If you loved them so much, why haven't you got any photos of them before demolition?
Sorry guys, we can't keep everything forever just because its old.
Great article; I didn't know the background when I took my shots; just that it was a crying shame that something hideous would soon take the place of these wonderful old homes. Glad I got the images that I did.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sniderscion/2384232612/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sniderscion/2385595801
I reposted to the pool.
Demolition is ridiculously, ridiculously wasteful.
I find this article's categorization under "vandals!" to be rather contentious. When the owners of a piece of private property decide to alter it or rearrange it in some fashion Torontoist calls it vandalism. Why is that?
The tag refers more to the "DON'T DO IT" sticker than anything else.
I am torn between preservation and increasing density in urban areas. The risk is that most new developments do not treat "the street below it with reverence", and the city needs to insure this and enforce sound by-laws.
Does anyone agree or disagree with me that infill development like 217. St. George Street is well done? The developer bought 2 Victorians side by side, kept them, built a 4 storey condo across the back of the property, and integrated the Victorians with many units actually in the old dames.
http://tinyurl.com/5afdjq
Near the above site on St. Thomas, did the Windsor Hotel not also preserve the original building?
Cheers,
Tuds
David: Sorry, I didn't notice the sticker.
Nothing irks me more than arm chair heritage quarterbacks! If you really want to save Toronto's buildings, stop complaining about the ones that have been lost and start identifying and saving the ones we still have.
And exactly how is an ordinary citizen supposed to save the ones we have? No amount of community objections, petitions, etc. carry any weight vs. the millions of dollars developers contribute to city coffers. There's really quite little us "arm chair heritage quarterbacks" can do in these situations except lament the loss of yet another piece of Toronto history.
Jayzie1 thats 100% wrong.
If you identify a heritage building and petition the city to give it heritage designation then you can save the building.
These buildings did not get designated as heritage sites because evidently nobody thought much of their value as such, though now that they're gone its a cue to the arm chair heritage quarterbacks to come out to play.
There was plenty of warning that these were getting taken down. They'd been vacant and boarded up for ages.
When new developments are being proposed theres community consultation built in to the process too. another opportunity to speak up.
It ain't pretty but it's Darwinism in action. The condo species is simply mightier and more predatory than the historical house. Only time will tell if a new superpredator megacondo will arrive and clear away The St Thomas like so much chaff. Observers are maintaining their keen watch on the horizon.
Sorry Rajio, but I think you might be wrong...
According to this article in the Globe & Mail, various groups have been trying to save those buildings for almost 20 years. It just happened that the City didn't agree and the developer had millions to give to Vic College.
So, in the grand scheme of things...ordinary citizens have little chance to save buildings of (perceived) merit.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080503.CHARLES03/TPStory/?query=goodbye+victorian+holdouts