( Read more... )

Edward Keenan's column in the Toronto Star about the impulse behind the preservation of the Honest Ed's sign reminds me of what others have called "façadism". On the whole, I think I prefer this impulse: If we can salvage something, why not?

There are good and bad examples, just as there are beautiful and hideous buildings of every vintage, but, ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

CBC News' Mary Wiens reports on how the old Bank of Toronto building at 205 Yonge Street, south of Dundas, may yet be made into a boutique hotel combined with a museum. See also Peter Edwards' recent article for the Toronto Star.

The sign on the door of the grand old bank at 205 Yonge St. reads, "Don't sleep on the steps ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

In Friday's issue of The Globe and Mail, Jeremiah Shamess and John Lorinc report on the unexpected problems encountered with retrofitting an old convenience store in Toronto's Seaton Village, in my neighbourhood, into residential space.

In 2012, when Jeremiah Shamess and Travis Goodhand bought an old convenience store at 134 Pendrith Ave., deep in ( Read more... )

Literally around the corner from Schwartz's in Montréal, walking east on rue Napoléon in the Plateau, I saw on the northwest corner where Napoléon meets avenue Coloniale this building striking in its disrepair.


( Read more... )

Edward Keenan's recent column in the Toronto Star, drawing from the recent and most unexpected demolition of a historic building in Yonge and Eglinton, wonders why Toronto's protocols for protecting old buildings are weaker than those used to protect old trees.

If you want to remove a tree from your property in Toronto, you need to submit an ( Read more... )

The Toronto Star's Sammy Hudes describes how the status of 15 Glen Morris Street, a home 140 years old, is currently being contested by the tenants who live there and are seeking heritage designation for the house and the owners whose repairs--if they can be called them--seem more a prelude to demolition for the apartment tower they say they want ( Read more... )