Category Archives: Heritage & Historic buildings

Hasta la vista, Queen’s Park?

Leave a reply

Ontario Legislature viewed from College Street on January 14 2011


Four Seasons views all year long? Redevelopment of the 31-storey Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville into two condo towers — 48 and 44 floors tall — is one step closer in the wake of a ruling yesterday by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

In 2007, Menkes Developments proposed building the two condo highrises on the Avenue Road site of Toronto’s “old” Four Seasons (a brand-new Four Seasons hotel + condo complex is presently under construction just two blocks away; after it opens, Menkes wants to demolish the old tower and build condos in its place). After city planners rejected Menkes’ proposal, the developer appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).

In the meantime, heritage groups voiced opposition to the Menkes project, claiming the condo towers would be so tall, they would spoil precious views of the Ontario Legislature building at Queen’s Park (the groups fear that the condo towers will poke above the building’s gables and spoil skyline views to the north.)

The Ontario Government did not seek standing to participate in the OMB hearings, but the Speaker of the Legislature, Steve Peters, did so on behalf of the Legislative Assembly. His argument that the towers would ruin views of the Legislature didn’t hold sway at the OMB, which ruled that the Menkes proposal was consistent with city and provincial planning policies. The Legislative Assembly in turn went to court seeking permission to appeal the OMB decision.

In her decision yesterday, however, Madam Justice Alison Harvison Young rejected the Legislature’s request. She said that even though the Legislature is an important building, that “does not, in itself, render the legal issues of significant importance to justify granting leave to appeal.”

Meanwhile, CTV Toronto reports that Mr. Peters will ask the government to take action to protect the vista. A story in today’s Globe and Mail provides further details about the controversy.

Below are photos of the current Four Seasons Hotel and the redevelopment proposal sign that has been displayed on the property for the past three years, as well as a pic of the new Four Seasons complex under construction at the northeast corner of Bay Street and Yorkville Avenue.

 

 

 

Yorkville heritage buildings in jeopardy?

1 Reply

 

Days numbered? A developer has submitted a rezoning application for permission to construct a 9-storey office structure on the site of these elegant brick buildings on Yorkville’s Sultan Street, one block south of Bloor Street.

The mansions, with street addresses of 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 Sultan Street, and 11 St. Thomas Street, currently house offices and a specialty book shop. They sit kitty corner to the tony Windsor Arms Hotel; the tall white building behind them, to the right, is the 29-storey luxury condo tower One St Thomas Residences, which opened in 2008. 

I love this peaceful little enclave tucked behind the busy Bloor-Bay intersection, and hope the city doesn’t give demolition approval. (No word yet on whether that’s what the developer plans, or if it will try to incorporate the brick buildings into their office project instead.) The buildings apparently have heritage designation from the city.

 

Heritage buildings at 1, 3 and 5 Sultan Street

 

Heritage buildings at 7 and 9 Sultan Street and 11 St Thomas Street

 

Rear view of heritage buildings at Sultan and St Thomas Streets

 

Was heritage building deliberately torched?

Leave a reply

<>

335 Yonge Street ruins viewed from Gould Street (top) and Yonge Street (below) today after investigators knocked down the top floor and began searching the rubble for evidence of arson. Bottom pic shows 335 Yonge after its top floor was removed.

<>



Police seeking “person of interest”: The search for the cause of Monday’s fire at 335 Yonge Street turned into a criminal arson investigation after Toronto police found evidence suggesting that someone had entered the property and left mere minutes before the blaze broke out. Nearby surveillance cameras captured pictures and video of a “person of interest” who spent nearly two and a half hours in the building in the middle of the night, leaving the scene shortly before someone saw flames and called the fire department.

Meanwhile, work crews used heavy machinery to tear down the top floor of the fire-charred structure today so pieces of rubble could be extricated and examined for evidence of arson (the ruins remain far too unsafe for investigators to enter). Still no word from the building’s owners or city officials as to what will happen with the site once the fire marshall’s office has concluded its investigation.

While speculation about arson and “demolition by neglect” continues to swirl in the local media, noted journalist Christie Blatchford examines the serious fire hazards posed by vacant and abandoned buildings in an insightful column in today’s Globe and Mail. Below: photos showing some of the demolition equipment in use at 335 Yonge today.

<>

<>

<>
<>

President envisions burned heritage building as Yonge Street gateway to Ryerson U campus

Leave a reply

The remains of 335 Yonge Street two days after the big blaze

 

 

Ryerson to the rescue? While firefighters and investigators today kept busy probing the cause of Monday’s destructive fire at 335 Yonge Street, the president of Ryerson University reiterated his keen interest in acquiring the historic property.

As I mentioned in a blog post the other day, I’ve been wondering if the university still wants the site — the William Reynolds Block — for its campus expansion plans. Turns out, it definitely does.

University president Sheldon Levy told The Globe and Mail that he’d still like to obtain the property for a possible Yonge Street “gateway” to the RU campus. According to the Globe & Mail story, “Ryerson has eyed the property as a potential venue for an additional entrance to the Dundas subway station for years, but failed to persuade the owners, the Lalani Group, to sell the land.” Ryerson is just about to start construction of a new student services building just a stone’s throw away — directly across Gould Street, on the site of the former Sam the Record Man store. Obtaining the 335 Yonge building would give the university the opportunity to create an impressive, stand-out entrance that its compact downtown campus has been sorely lacking.

But the big question, now, is whether City Hall and the provincial government have the wherewithal to finally get any kind of redevelopment of the site going — especially since they have allowed the property to sit neglected since part of its brick facade fell down last April.

“You don’t sit back and watch a building fall down and burn and then say, ‘Let’s think about this for another six months or a year,” Levy told the Globe. Sadly, that’s the way all levels of government typically act in Canada. They love to spend years talking about things they’d like to do before actually getting around to  it — if they ever in fact do it at all.

Frankly, I’ll be amazed if any kind of redevelopment activity gets underway at 335 Yonge in the next year — whether it’s by Ryerson, the City, or by someone else. But I’ll be thrilled if the university does acquire the site and is able to restore the burned building as part of a new main entrance to its campus. Below are some pics I shot of 335 Yonge this afternoon.

 

Traffic was still restricted on two blocks of Yonge Street today

What’s left of the building’s Yonge Street facade

Firefighters surveying the ruins from an aerial platform

Firefighters hosing down the remains of the collapsed building

Site of Ryerson’s new student services centre, to start construction soon

Overnight blaze destroys 123-year-old downtown heritage building … what will take its place?

1 Reply

What caused the fire? That’s the question investigators with the Ontario Fire Marshall’s office will try to answer following a massive six-alarm blaze that destroyed a stately heritage building at 335 Yonge Street early this morning.

Built around 1888, and originally home to the Empress Hotel, the three-storey brown brick William Reynolds Block at the corner of Yonge and Gould Streets recently housed several retail stores and eateries. Its busiest and best-known tenant was Salad King, a Thai restaurant that was enormously popular with students from the Ryerson University campus right next door.

All of the businesses were forced to close last April after a section of the building’s façade collapsed without warning onto Gould Street (there’s more information about that incident in a Toronto Star article here). Since then, the two eastern lanes of Yonge Street and the stretch of Gould adjacent to the building have been fenced off as a safety precaution while the City and the property’s owners discussed whether the structure could be restored.  That now appears highly unlikely, since fire investigators say they must demolish what remains of the structure so they can safely inspect the rubble to determine the cause of the blaze.

While they’re busy grappling with that mystery, I’ll be keen to hear answers to some “burning” questions that have been on my mind since April: What’s going to happen with this piece of prime downtown real estate? Will the old Empress Hotel building be reconstructed in some shape or form? Will a new retail or office building or a condo tower take its place? Or will Ryerson University acquire the property to expand its downtown campus?

Just before Christmas, I snapped some photos of the cordoned-off building; they appear below, along with pics I took this afternoon. For more news, and to view additional photos of the fire and its aftermath, see this Toronto Star article and this follow-up story in The Globe and Mail.