I was out for a drive the other day and noticed this giant crane parked in the lot. What’s up? Lilly, have you seen any action on any impending demolition over there?
The big hole in the wall that is sealed up with plywood, would seem to indicate to me that abatement is pretty much done.
It also seems that there are way more open/broken windows in there than there used to be.
It won’t be long I suppose…
I have driven by the building quite a few times and haven’t even seen that crane moved. Maybe it’s a display,by the looks of that crane and how old it appears maybe it was used to build the hospital. (Joking) .
NOTHING YET ANDREW! WAS THAT YOU THE OTHER DAY? YOU WERE WITH 2 OTHER GUYS?
ANYWAYS NO FENCE HAS BEEN UP…..YOU WOULD THINK THEY WOULD DO THAT BEFORE THEY START?
I WILL KEEP YA INFORMED OK! SEE YA BYE
That wasn’t me Lilly, I was alone when I was by the other day.
I think you’re right there would at least be fences along University Ave. Keep me posted.
Grace is being demolished. The majority of the parking area will be developed for residential (10 double duplex dwellings with parking and a common private driveway in the rear) and the remainder is to be developed as a commercial plaza (a Rexall drug store is one possibility).
Vincent, are you aware if this development will take on the the appeal of a comfortable neighbourhood at a pedestrian and people scale? When I see ‘commercial plaza’ all I think of is cars and lets make sure theres enough room for lotsa cars… Would the plaza have the same setbacks from University?
There are no concrete development plans for the commercial component. It is my understanding that they are looking to secure tenants before agreeing on a site plan. One plan I did see, showed some parking between the proposed residential and commercial development – in affect acting as a buffer between the residential and commercial developments. This would suggest that the building will be closer to the street. Again, this is a conjecture at this point.
What camera do you use for HDR shots? I’m about ready to invest in the dSLR world soon. 🙂
Western – Camera info can be found here: http://internationalmetropolis.com/?page_id=198
The shot above is actually just tone mapped, and not a true HDR. I also use the Photomatix software found here: http://www.hdrsoft.com/
I thought that the plan was for a strip mall plaza on the University Frontage?
What will buffer the commercial and residential areas from the parking lot though?
This is the first time i’ve heard a parking lot described as a “buffer.”
Things that pollute, create heat islands and run off and look ugly aren’t buffers.
c’mon now lets give the city a break…. after all i hear almost 10 employees quit from the planning dept out of frustration it recent months. It takes time to learn how to plan cities….. although its been going on for 2,600 years …. perhaps the city has a learning handicap we don’t know about. If you ever noticed the front page of the planning dept site, it shows concrete pad with concrete benches and brown coloured greenspace. Somebody’s giving the ok for all of this….
That’s gotta be an expensive building to demolish for a Rexall or duplexes. What does a standard building lot without anything on it go for in an area like that? $30K a lot? Demolition and garbage removal will cost what, half a million (from cleary Guest House estimates)? I sure hope the city isn’t in any way subsidizing it. Who owns that building? I sure hope it’s not the city. Has anyone checked at land records?
Just had a thought. Did Grace have x-ray machines? If so, would parts of the building be contaminated with radiation? They can’t throw away radioactive building materials into a regular landfill site, can they? I think this is gonna be a very expensive demolition, if it gets demolished.
I drove past Grace half an hour ago and noticed that the For Sale sign, with Robert Fazekas as the agent, is still up there and there’s no sold sticker on it. Wouldn’t the building need to be sold first before developers could demolish it?
David, the building is currently owned by a private deveolper. I think they are his plans for the demolition. They have been working on removing the hazadous materials in it over the last year. At least our tax dollars aren’t paying for the clean up/demolition.
Maybe those windows were opened and broken to let in more oxygen(hint). I wouldn’t doubt the place has a fire before it’s demolished. Then it can be deemed unsafe and they can bypass the expensive hazardous material removal.
I’ve never been inside Grace hospital before, but all the hospitals I’ve been to have had concrete floors, and walls. The gas lines are shut off in an abandoned building. How could the fire spread?
I HOPE THEY SAVE THEM TREES AT LEAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT WOULD BE ASHAMED IF THEY PULLED THEM OUT! I WOULDN’T MIND HAVING A TREE PUT IN MY YARD FROM THERE!
ALL THE CRAP IN THERE LIKE BEDS.. AND OTHER STUFF IS GONE OVER SEAS….I TALKED TO A MAN THE OTHER DAY THAT WORKS THERE AND TOLD ME THAT… SO AT LEAST IT IS IN GOOD USE STILL! THEY TOLD ME IT WILL BE CLEARED BY JULY.
I think whatever happens to the grace site is upto the devolopers to decide not upto the noisy people. I’m pretty sure whatever happens to the land you guys will be notified by the papers. I’m pretty sure whatever they decide will be a good idea.
It’s still there! It’s turned into quite the fiasco.
Lilly, why are you always yelling at us?