So I have no idea why this demolition went down on a Sunday morning of a long weekend, but it seems awfully stinky to me.
The demolition contractor closed the curb lane of southbound Walker, and methinks that they didn’t have a permit to close the street. But hey, that’s what Sunday mornings are for… No pesky City workers around to point out small problems like that… Hey look in the bucket, there goes one of the columns…
Oh look, there’s the second column… So much for Councilor Dave Brister’s toothless motion at City Council to “ask the developer to preserve the limestone trim around the doorway”. As usual it was just lip service, as that trim is being preserved right to the dump.
Don’t worry ugly ass strip mall, soon that pesky historic bank building won’t be in the way, blocking the view to your mostly vacant plaza…
Maybe this was another reason for the Sunday Demolition? No one to worry about air quality, no Ministry of the Environment staff to deal with… **This photo isn’t doctored. Compare with the shot above, the demolition crew kicked up so much dust, it made the whole area dim under a cloud of who knows what…
Drop that pile of crap… I’m sure that the building was tested for asbestos and lead paint and other environmental toxins before the bulldozer went in…
A small crowd was gathered to watch the demolition. Cell Phone Cameras were clicking away… 🙂
No one that walked by had anything good to say about the demolition. In fact every person that I talked to who walked by couldn’t believe that “the city was tearing down another old building”.
See ya’ Bank Building… And another hole in our urban fabric appears, and sadly other than Halberstadt, Valentinis and Hatfield, it seems the others don’t get it… Every demolition kills the character of our city a little more…
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Had to stop at the liquor store to pick up something for a barbecue and was at Ottawa and Walker around 1:45pm. Yup, people were clicking away on their c-phones and it seemed that people were surprised this building was being torn down. More comments later on.
If the M.O.E. were not involved one would think that there would be some serious repercussions. You are correct. There is a good probability that there will be asbsetos and lead dust floating around the community for quite some time. I noticed this morning that the shovels were silent. Will they pick up on Wednesday? This should be interesting. Maybe someone from the community might want the stone capitals which are just lying in the rubble. Looks like we're on our way to year zero.
So much for density in our city! I guess it is better that Windsor looks like every other city in N. America so we can attract tourists.
Of course I am tongue-in-cheek with my comment but what purpose does this serve the entire community? How many intersections need to have parking on all four corners?
You are right Andrew. This city pays nothing but lip service to our heritage and history. I bet NOTHING was salvaged from the building either. Typical Windsor. Whine and complain about the condition of the city and services (IE; 3 bag limit) yet do nothing about it.
Personally even the councillors you mentioned don't warrant high praises for this type of destruction.
Does the city not require a stamped engineers report stating that a buildingt is "safe" to be torn down. If not maybe its time this is done to ensure protection of its citizens.
I doubt a stamped engineer's report is going to make a difference. The engineer will just stamp it. It's not like it's going to prevent demolition, just delay it a couple days. I don't even know what "safe" to be torn down means. What if a building is fire damaged and now has structural problems from it? Are you suggesting the building remains a fire damaged boarded up blight for several years because it has asbestos and lead paint in it? It's not like fire proof asbestos dissipates into the air after a fire. In Detroit, they just turn on a hose from a fire hydrant and spray an old building with water while it's being demolished to reduce dust particles, so big deal on stopping anything. The problem's with the Heritage Act.
Why the hell are our municipal politicians allowing the "greadheads" to strip our community of important physical assets? This reminds me of something I read about the end of Communism. With the demise of Communism all but certain and nothing to take the place of the centrally-directed economy, unscrupulous businessmen bought up valuable physical assets for a pittance from the bankrupt central government, dismantled them and had them exported to other countries where they were sold for a big profit. What was left behind was vacant land where once a laboratory, factory or hospital had stood.
well that's sad. so very sad. and what's worse is it's for parking. " we'll " never learn.
Was by there again last night and man it sad to see it torn down. It was cool, taking a closer look at how thick the walls were for the Vault, and the huge hinges still left on the door.
MOM - I tried to lift one of those corinthian column-tops, and the damned thing must have weighed in at over 400 pounds! Yesterday, I saw that the demo contractor was piling the limestone details off to the side (N/W corner of the building, to be specific) so there might be something in there of interest to anyone interested in preserving some of our architectural heritage.
Everyone knows the city isn't!
Is this demolition surprising ? Surprising is that nobody (except ScaleDown and you) did mention this story. Nobody even knew what this building is for or what was it there, unless you are BMO customer/client. I like cities with old buildings, but in Windsor they destroying old building, and replacing it with CLONED buildings. So I guess this will became one of those boring plaza's. I'm not Native resident of Canada or Windsor, but I enjoy to see some of history sites and nice buildings in this city. Unfortunately we loosing both of these, fast, very fast, and nobody seems to care, but there are still fighters around here who will not give up their fight, I hope.