The insatiable hunger of the building eaters was on full display Saturday afternoon, as the Prince of Wales was devoured by the steel monsters.
Yummy! Nice black cloud of dust for the operator… 🙂
When I arrived the east wing, built in 1927 was gone, and they were working on the central and original portion of the school dating to (I believe) 1918. The west wing was added in 1926.
The inside of the original classrooms are visible in this shot.
Must destroy…
CHOMP!
Of all the demolitions I’ve been to, shooting photos, this one attracted one of the larger crowds. People were coming and going the whole time I was there…
At this point the school was a little over half gone. They finished up the rest later that afternoon.
However, remember “Demolition Is Progress”…
… I don’t know about you, but when I look at our history being demolished, I don’t feel very progressive…
What A Shame! Couldn’t they at least have saved the original door?
They don’t give a shit about historic stuff around here!
WOW! So SAD!
I agree. Demolition isn’t progress! It is one of the reasons N American’s are so wasteful. If the gov’t isn’t going to teach that reuse, re-adaptive and history are important no one else will believe it is either.
I wonder if any of the wood trim in the school was salvaged or any (if any) marble in the lobby was as well?
Lilly, I believe they saved some of the details surrounding the front door but that was all. Maybe Andrew could fill us in?
This building was in such decay (because of the University) over the last decade or so. Too bad the University couldn’t find an alternative use like they did for Dillon Hall on campus. Hopefully the new Engineering building will look decent and fit in with the neighbourhood and University campus.
Progress is B.S.
Randolph, don’t count on it! It will probably blow away the neighbourhood!
Are there architectural plans available to the public of what this new turd…errr…engineering building is supposed to look like? Maybe they could have just used the same plans used by TD bank to get some 2 for 1 discount and saved more money.
The University retained B+H architects to design the new Engineering School, but oddly, the plans and renderings are no longer on B+H’s website:
http://www.bharchitects.com/
Here’s a rendering I snagged from way back when:
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j255/westerntragedy/07-11-06%20Downtown%20Campus/c.jpg
It’s hard to tell by the picture what the building may look like. At least the University uses real bricks and mortar in its construction and not some ugly looking material like stucco.
On another note, hopefully the University can get significant money from the federal budget to complete the entire engineering building and not build it in phases. The quicker we can expand our higher education institute that will research and develop new technologies, the quicker we can attract new businesses to this region to enjoy some economic prosperity again.
I know progress often means out with the old and in with the new, but for some reason I never really expected it to be torn down. My brother and sister and many friends went to school there. I was very surprised when I pulled into the parking lot and realized the building was gone. So many buildings of historical value have been eliminated from the face of Windsor in the past 3-4 decades. It’s a real shame.