Your City's Greatest Loss (Architecturally)

DC83 · #1 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:00 PM**

Hamilton

Canada Life / Birk's (Jewellers) Bldg

Then

rgalston · #2 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:15 PM**

Winnipeg City Hall, built in 1886

Replaced by what was refered to as "Lenin's Tomb" at the time of its construction. It was just as hated by citizens and architects then as it is now

Taller Better · #3 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:20 PM**

God, there has been so many of them in most cities in Canada that it sickens me to think...

@ Rgalston- at least there was a physical reason they demolished the old weddingcake Wpg City Hall- it was completely structurally unsound. The builders saved money by mixing chopped straw into the concrete and the old
building was ready to collapse.
The Lenin's Tomb replacement sucks the big one.

Taller Better · #4 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:20 PM**

edit. double post by gremlins

CorporateWhore · #5 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:21 PM**

winnipeg, that is just unitarded.
hang your head in shame.

WHISTLERINMUSKOKA · #6 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:42 PM**

Old Toronto Star building, to what we had and now what we have. Shame!

Greco Roman · #7 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CorporateWhore

winnipeg, that is just unitarded.
hang your head in shame.

?????????????

If it was for legitimate reasons, then so be it. We still have the old St. Boniface city hall digs. IMO, they are pretty impressive, too.

CorporateWhore · #8 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albertaboy

If it was for legitimate reasons, then so be it.

I can't think of one legitimate reason to destroy a building of that quality.

Greco Roman · #9 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 8:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CorporateWhore

I can't think of one legitimate reason to destroy a building of that quality.

Well, maybe, but at least all is not lost. There are plenty of unique structues in Winnipeg, more than any other city in Western Canada; hence the nickname "Chicago of the North".

Boris2k7 · #10 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 9:16 PM**

I'll just copy and paste this from my post in the other thread.

Calgary: Southam Building (1913-1972)

What is terrible is that they demolished it for a little piece of shit 70's lowrise building. Alas, it was just the most vivid example of the raping that downtown Calgary's heritage underwent in the 70's and 80's.

drew · #11 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 9:20 PM**

^ was that building ever considered the tallest in Calgary?

skrish · #12 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 9:24 PM**

Was that the building with the weird gargoyle type guys? The ones that a currently between Mac Hall and Science A at the U.

SteelTown · #13 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 9:29 PM**

Here's more pictures of the Birks Building

Oscar Wilde called it "the most beautiful building in all of North America,"

Here's the Birks clock that the city managed to save

jeffwhit · #14 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 9:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boris550

I'll just copy and paste this from my post in the other thread.

Calgary: Southam Building (1913-1972)

What is terrible is that they demolished it for a little piece of shit 70's lowrise building. Alas, it was just the most vivid example of the raping that downtown Calgary's heritage underwent in the 70's and 80's.

What intersection was that on Boris?

Boris2k7 · #15 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 9:54 PM**

Drew: I think it would have been the tallest building in Calgary from 1913 when it was built to 1914 when the Fairmont Palliser was completed (which then held the title until the Calgary Tower in 1969).

skrish: Most of the gargoyles were saved and were incorporated into the facade of the Alberta Hotel. I believe the ones here at the UofC are just replicas. A few of them probably were scrapped unfortunately.

Jeff: It was on the corner of 7th Avenue and 1st Street S.W., right across from The Bay. (can't quite tell which corner, either the N.E. or the N.W.)

Taller Better · #16 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 9:56 PM**

I love the old Birks building in Montreal- thank god it still stands. And the one in Winnipeg too, which was originally a YWCA. I despise the 80's monstrosity here on Bloor Street.

keninhalifax · #17 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 10:06 PM**

Time for this again, eh?

Ottawa's Central Post Office (seen in background) was built in the 1870s and demolished in the 1930s to make way for Jacques Gréber's immensely silly Confederation Square plan:

Next door was the Russell House, Ottawa's premier hotel until the Chateau was built in 1912. It was the sight of many a backroom political deal until it was destroyed by fire in 1928:

alps · #18 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 10:30 PM**

There were a bunch of old low-rise buildings across from the TD Centre in Halifax that were demolished a little over a decade ago. They're not the biggest loss we've had architecturally, but the awful thing is that since then, the empty lot has been used as parking.

someone123 · #19 Posted: **Dec 6, 2006, 11:31 PM**

Hundreds of Victorian and older buildings have been torn down in Halifax. Some examples:

Houses:

These buildings along Hollis are mostly gone:

The Custom House was torn down in 1955 for a parking lot:

Here's something interesting.. this is the city's extravagant 1860s poor house, built at Robie and South Street. It burned down in the 1880s and was replaced by something much more modest:

alps · #20 Posted: **Dec 7, 2006, 12:17 AM**

^^ Interesting!

What's on the site of the old poor house today? (I assume either the IWK/Grace Maternity hospital or Gorsebrook school). Also, where was the Custom House?