Many readers will no doubt recognize this building at the north west corner of Ottawa & Kildare in Walkerville. This was as far as I can remember one of the first buildings to get “the treatment”.
On this post from June, an “expert” chimed in his opinion that said:
RANDALL
June 23, 2009 at 2:05 pm (Edit)
well your all jealous EIFS stucco systems add +R18 to the Established R value ( Usually R-12) I T Holds up in all weather, has a life expectancey of 80yrs comes in imasco or Acrylic (740ish colors) only old rock dash is ugly but even the ugliest stucco is safer than any other exterior system with exception to Brick work check with your Local F.D. .. odds are you clowns are siding guts lol siding is being fazed out due to poor fire suppression. a well done concentional stucco application will still keep the walls tanding after a fire, siding?, No.
Well, I’m not sure how long ago “the treatment” happened, maybe 15 years or so? Certainly not 80.
Here’s how the building looked in 1926 in an ad for the Canadian Bank of Commerce who occupied the ground floor.
It’s sad, it was once a handsome building.
Talk about a perfect stucco case study!
I had no mental image of what that building looked like before it became the play-doh palace. Thanks for sharing the period photo, Andrew. What a hard pill to swallow though! I had no idea it was such an attractive commercial building back in the day.
I remember when this building was stuccoed. It was no more than 5 years ago.
This building used to have these somewhat a interesting honeycombed brick wall in the front — those angular, 1960s-style cinder blocks. Reminds me of many walls in Windsor. Removed when they put this coating on it.
I guess I can see why these contractors are sticking up for their product. Easy to apply and has lots of advantages over everything but brick. I’m sure the margins are nice as well. However, what these guys (or gals) never address is that stucco is ugly! it looks fake! it just looks bad! This isn’t the first thing that had everything going for it except style, it wont be the last. Also, I doubt that 80 year claim, it might last that long, but I guarantee it’ll look like crap long before then.
The worst part is that I’m in love with tutor exteriors and they often get “the treatment”…
As a kid I remember this building had the provincial coats of arms all around the exterior at one time. It sadly did look very dated and ratty before the stucco but obviously this is a archetectural debacle!
I agree with Scooter, this “treatment” was done within the last 7 years. It wasn’t like that when I attended & graduated from Walkerville Collegiate in the early part of this decade.
And as the “expert” said before that there are 740ish different colours, why does it seem every stucco job is an ugly beige/pink/brown/red colour anyways?
Not that I’d want to see a bright green or blue or purple “treatment”, I just thought I’d point that out.
Complete Shat.
I remember my parents taking me to that building to see the chiropractor. If I remember correctly his name was Dr. Dunn, and he practiced with his wife Dr. Morrison (who treated the women). We would go upstairs through that white door with the window.
Classic tudor exterior to deteriorating crap stucco. A tragedy. How expensive would it be to restore it’s former exterior after removing the fake cover-up?
When the hell is somebody with half a brain going to run for Mayor of this city? Eddie Francis has had six years to turn things around and all he has done is put Windsor into the ditch. Mike Hurst was given twelve years and all he did was spend the city into oblivion and destroy the beautiful Norwich block in the process.
Wasn’t that the “Ding-Ho” restaurant in the ’50’s?? A hang-out for W.C.I. students?
It isn’t the EIFS system that is the flaw in the buildings appearance it is the complete lack of any level of detailing in the application. Had someone taken the time to design and establish proper details applicable to the original style, character and scale of the building something much more appealing could have been achieved. Unfortunately, everybody with a pick up truck and a trowel is a ‘stucco’ contractor. Not to mention the fact the owner has butchered any consistency on the building facade by adding a mish-mosh of windows, doors and misfit awnings, shame shame!!
The west end of that block had a drugstore back in the early 50’s