Photo c. John Stefani
Demolition got serious on the TD Bank site last week while I was away on vacation. In my absence I asked my field correspondent John Stefani, to grab his camera and keep an eye on things until I got back.
Photo c. John Stefani
John did just that, and he managed to snap a few shots of the work taking place at Ouellette and Pitt.
Photo c. John Stefani
Here is one last look back at the remains of the Manning House Hotel.
When I got back into town, I swung by the site, but in the week I was gone, they were all reduced to rubble.
The workers in the Federal Building now have a nice view of Pitt St. 😉
All gone now. While it’s always sad to lose more of our heritage, this one was beyond fighting for.
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So I take it it's a no go for the old bank facade to be added to the new TD building?
I wonder, with the present economic cliamate, how long it will take for a shovel to go in the ground to start construction?
David - Nope! The TD bank refused to entertain the though.
Don - At this stage, with the cost of property acquitions being over $1 million alone, trust me this is going forward. About the only thing to stop it at this point would be the TD Bank folding tomorrow...
I agree, people have to pick their battles. But why do we continue to allow the banks to play the shell game of moving every 10-12 years? This new bank will nw leave 2 buildings vacant. Just another Windsor dance called teh 3-step; One foot forward, two steps back.
ME, if you move to China, maybe you can govern the use of private property. How exactly do you plan to disallow a bank (or business or person for that matter) from moving their location?? Think about what you are saying here. As much as you might disagree with this, you have absolutely nothing to say about it. I'm glad that I live in Canada where a business can choose to invest in their community, or move, or close. Just be thankful that this investment is taking place downtown. I see the glass as being half full. To you, it's half empty.
i took photos with john that day too so have a bunch, but we were sort of redundant i'm looking forward to showing you that ford doc. at the next blog meetup. hope john can come out too. i was sad that patrick o'ryans was already gone when we went though. i only had that shot i took with my cell phone on flickr from when it was starting to be torn down.
TD sucks for not reusing the facade. They lost my business when no fee chequing came out with PC Financial. Now, I wouldn't even come back if they offered free chequing. They can keep their stupid come back to us and get free binoculars or camera or whatever the fu-ck offers they're mailing me now. I'm never dealing with that bank again. NEVER!
Edward, I have no problem with businesses moving to where they need to go but you have ot admit the banks haven't helped the downtown with all of their shuffling.
What needs to be done is first have some guidelines downtown, something the DWBIA agree's with. Second, we need to make sure all businesses are going to be good community partners and neighbours.
I am not the type of person who says any investment is good investment because that is not the case and it shouldn't be. Many other cities have guidelines and determine what they want in their downtown and how it should move forward. Windsor is always on the defensive and hopes for anything.
As for me having a half empty outlook, that may be the case but I have many decades of proof to back up why I think this way (just look around). Windsor has so much potential but it isn't utilized for fear of stepping one someone's toes or because only certain people can do what they do. Again the old boys club reigns here along with talk. What is needed are people with a true concern for our downtown and not one on how much money can someone make (take the streetscaping for example: Why was that over budget and why didn't the city go along with the DWBIA's recommendations?).
Am I glad the bank is building new? Sure but what was/is the contigency plan for the other buildings now? I'll stick with my analogy of Windsor's three-step dance until the city proves me wrong or otherwise.
Guidelines?
What type of guidelines would stop any business from shutting down; expanding, or relocating?
Make "guidelines" too restrictive and business will simply leave for other locales.
I'm all for design guidelines; but guidelines dictating how business will conduct itself will only drive it away to less restrictive zones. And good luck enforcing said "guidelines" because one cannot "force" anyone to do anything with private property.
Well you can, but then the city would have to expropriate it for a municipal purpose.
However, the corner of Ouellette and Wyandotte now have huge development potential. Two large parcels of land on either side of Ouellette - what a great opportunity to attempt to attract developers to develop this gateway to the core.