They didn’t use a wrecking ball; they used a giant set of jaws.
That’s as far as they got before the engineer or architect (John Cooke? Derek Crain?), ordered everybody to stop the demolition of the Somerset House/Ritz Hotel at the intersection of Somerset and Bank Streets.
Apparently they were doing it wrong. From what I could gather, it was supposed to be only a partial demolition. A plan had been agreed to, and the east wall (with the mural) was supposed to be partially demolished. Instead, they started chewing through the middle of the north wall. And apparently they were doing it in such a way that would make reconstructive efforts more difficult down the road, if it is determined that the building is salvagable.
The engineer (or architect) whipped out some blueprints and everybody gathered around and there was much pointing and talking and excitement.
Unfortunately I had to leave because I was frozen stiff and very late for work. I’ll pop back at lunchtime to see what’s happening. When I left the mural was still untouched.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
By lunchtime the mural had been nibbled.
Tags:
Who is driving the Bus?
Could the Somerset House fiasco get any worse?…
Just maybe ….
Clusterf*ck.
Just to say hello and saw the news in the blog!
December, one more year go away….
Cheers
This whole thing is a fucking tragedy… with all the fires in Chinatown and now this, Somerset is quickly being turned into rubble. Can’t wait to see what bland fake brick condo gets dropped on this corner…
I used to live in that building, but now live in Winnipeg. One of my old roommates from there sent me the link – thank you for sharing, so I can see what’s happening.
It really makes me miss Ottawa, and, oddly enough, even that building, with all its problems and interesting tennants…
Sure looks like the end.
“Ah, there’s the problem: we thought it said ‘measure once, cut twice’, when it was actually the other way around!”
…idiots.
Probably trying to force him to tear it down through sabotage.
I’ll take some more night shots after work.
Katie (and everybody else too): There are more photos over at the Elgin Street Irregulars blog.
Thanks for documenting it so far. I bet those trees will die in the process too. Nothing lasts forever. Not even Mesopotamia.
Wow, what a sight. Great reporting, zoom. And I love that last picture, beautiful and haunting. It’s sad, the mismanagement of this building, there’s no question. Thanks for documenting.