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https://www.flickr...dateposted-public/
Not much to this one except the demolition of a pretty cool space age '60s school in midtown which just seems to getting filled up with drab condos.The schools been cleared out and shouldn't last that long. To be replaced with a soulless box.
https://www.theglo...n/article33988584/
[last edit 1/2/2019 11:53 PM by Air - edited 5 times]
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist | |
I was wondering when the time would be right to make a thread on it. A private thread is a start, I guess.
Davisville Public School / Metro Toronto School for the Deaf (MTSD) was opened in 1962. The school featured space-age architecture popular in Toronto schools built at the time (See also: City Adult Learning Centre, Regent Park Public School). Inside, the school had small and specialized rooms optimized for MTSD's educational needs.
Over the past 15 years, numerous high-density condos have been built around Yonge and Eglinton, now spreading south to Davisville and other smaller streets near it. The schools became overburdened with the influx of students. MTSD was relocated, and the third floor of the school hosted Spectrum Alternative Senior School. In 2016, it was decided Davisville Public school shall be demolished and a larger building constructed to meet the growing demand for elementary students. With the completion of this building, Davisville will host students from kindergarten to grade 5, and the nearby Hodgson Senior School will take students grade 6-8.
Given that this school was built in the 60s, there was little thought given that its dated architecture could be considered heritage in any way. There was very little, if any debate over preservation. Only small groups of people involved in the debate considered the building worth some degree of preservation.
Here's a sampling of my photos. I'll post more as I upload, but you can always see the full collection here: https://www.flickr...fleetsurbex/NB8h3o
The asbestos tarps are gone, and the walls have begun to be crushed...
To the nursery...
Bonus portrait shots:
One day I got a good camera.
https://www.flickr...hotos/fleetsurbex/ | |
Posted by Fleeting
I was wondering when the time would be right to make a thread on it. A private thread is a start, I guess.
Davisville Public School / Metro Toronto School for the Deaf (MTSD) was opened in 1962. The school featured space-age architecture popular in Toronto schools built at the time (See also: City Adult Learning Centre, Regent Park Public School). Inside, the school had small and specialized rooms optimized for MTSD's educational needs.
Over the past 15 years, numerous high-density condos have been built around Yonge and Eglinton, now spreading south to Davisville and other smaller streets near it. The schools became overburdened with the influx of students. MTSD was relocated, and the third floor of the school hosted Spectrum Alternative Senior School. In 2016, it was decided Davisville Public school shall be demolished and a larger building constructed to meet the growing demand for elementary students. With the completion of this building, Davisville will host students from kindergarten to grade 5, and the nearby Hodgson Senior School will take students grade 6-8.
Given that this school was built in the 60s, there was little thought given that its dated architecture could be considered heritage in any way. There was very little, if any debate over preservation. Only small groups of people involved in the debate considered the building worth some degree of preservation.
Here's a sampling of my photos. I'll post more as I upload, but you can always see the full collection here: https://www.flickr...fleetsurbex/NB8h3o
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7900/32704062008_99f682b1eb_c.jpg
The asbestos tarps are gone, and the walls have begun to be crushed...
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4915/46525661692_20c8b02bf6_c.jpg
To the nursery...
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1962/31523649508_703e67978c_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1952/31632698558_f753d96251_c.jpg
https://farm2.stat...2_661ef0ac12_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1932/45505306501_e172a292e1_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1930/44591595995_7d1399feda_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1970/44484771945_f0f6af85b4_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1947/31523574588_35668d16d7_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1969/45348095812_25b80a197c_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1942/30459052587_6b622f3839_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1903/30459041667_1ef556aa5d_c.jpg
Bonus portrait shots:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1939/45348082312_8d951fef37_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1963/45505365161_00aed83666_c.jpg
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Nice photos! This one really didn't sit for long like other schools. Like the rooftop shot.
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist | |
Those three toilets..........
Here's a lockpick. It might be handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you. | |
Posted by Boffo
Those three toilets..........
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Looks like modern day Romans.
Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
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gah, cant believe I missed this one! It's been too long since my last school 
www.tohellandback.net | |
I can't even express how jelly I am - nice job Fleet!
Into the Fray. https://www.ninjalobster.com/ | |
J->
[last edit 1/4/2019 2:43 PM by Jono - edited 1 times]
www.sacramentalperception.com : www.jonathancastellino.com | |
They shouldn't have demolished this one. The architecture was fascinating and worthy of heritage status.
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Sure, but it was shit as a school, with deep structural problems. I get it -- it was interesting looking. But a school is a school first.
If folks actually cared about mid-century modernism and protecting, let's say, specific elements therein, they would support the work of the few folks out there trying to make the case for legal and cultural protection of it. Everything else is building-hugger vague faux-activism territory.
J->
www.sacramentalperception.com : www.jonathancastellino.com | |
Posted by Jono
Sure, but it was shit as a school, with deep structural problems. I get it -- it was interesting looking. But a school is a school first. |
Qualified professionals said that it would have cost less to renovate it than to build a new school. People work long hours in this city. We need the people in charge of heritage to be able to preserve significant buildings and the government to support them, and not have everything be a battle that requires people already working 60+ hours a week in unrelated fields to fight out of the goodness of their hearts.
I made my contribution to preserving heritage buildings like the Symes Road Incinerator and will make more in the future because it matters, but we need to have a bureaucracy that pull its weight with heritage. Instead, the government seems to expect the private sector to preserve the buildings it declares to be heritage. But when it comes to its own buildings, the government is content to pretend a building is not heritage if preserving it would be inconvenient.
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Ya, I don't buy any of that. The 'qualified professionals' who made that claim for that newspaper article maybe aren't the folks to be asking.
"not have everything be a battle that requires people already working 60+ hours a week in unrelated fields to fight out of the goodness of their hearts" <-- they should probably be in-field, if they are going to 'fight' and actually succeed. I guess they didn't in this case. Would love to meet these folks.
J->
www.sacramentalperception.com : www.jonathancastellino.com | |
I really don't understand how anyone could argue for the cultural or architectural significance of that building. It looks wildly unremarkable and decidedly forgettable, to this untrained eye anyway.
Let's fight to preserve things of legitimate significance, not just anything that's kind-of old or nostalgic.
$0.02
www.tohellandback.net | |
tera: when people have nothing to hold-on-to in their own life, they tend to externalize the process -- it meets a deep need, after all.
Architecture is the laziest / easiest target of misplaced affection, since it's the physical manifestation of the collective unconscious -- and can be claimed, vaguely, as part of memory and identity.
A bonus is that with modern building-hugging / 'architectural activism', you don't actually have to 'do' anything -- by merely being (generically) opposed to the changing / demolition of, x, you get the cultural activist cred.
J->
[last edit 1/7/2019 9:39 PM by Jono - edited 1 times]
www.sacramentalperception.com : www.jonathancastellino.com | |
Couldn't have been said better - thank you.
Into the Fray. https://www.ninjalobster.com/ | |
Posted by Jono
Ya, I don't buy any of that. The 'qualified professionals' who made that claim for that newspaper article maybe aren't the folks to be asking.
"not have everything be a battle that requires people already working 60+ hours a week in unrelated fields to fight out of the goodness of their hearts" <-- they should probably be in-field, if they are going to 'fight' and actually succeed. I guess they didn't in this case. Would love to meet these folks.
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If you don't ask qualified professionals, you're not going to get rational answers and good evidence. You're just going to stand on a soapbox and go off on something you don't know much about.
I spent my time researching and gathering evidence for why buildings should have a heritage designation. My efforts resulted in preserved and restored heritage. It's not my line of work, but I did it for free to make the city a better place.
I feel that you're just creating a strawman of lazy cultural activism. Alex Bozikovic did a lot for this building's cause through his articles and analysis. Who are you thinking of?
Why are you even photographing the building if it doesn't matter to you?
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Posted by terapr0
I really don't understand how anyone could argue for the cultural or architectural significance of that building. It looks wildly unremarkable and decidedly forgettable, to this untrained eye anyway.
Let's fight to preserve things of legitimate significance, not just anything that's kind-of old or nostalgic.
$0.02
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It was actually one of the most unique and effective elementary school designs of its time in the city. It mixed hard and rational rectangular forms with whimsical details like the elegantly pitched roofs, playful patterns of windows, the mix of colours, and the unique "V" cornice on the chimney. It was all finished in a combination of brick, painted concrete, steel, and glass that was very elegant.
The only comparable school of its time that comes to mind is Lord Lansdowne Public School on Spadina Crescent.
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re. your comment to me, "Why are you even photographing the building if it doesn't matter to you?": Because it looks cool, and I like to articulate my emotional landscape through interpretations of the physical one.
And re. that other stuff you said, you could be right!
J->
[last edit 1/8/2019 3:30 AM by Jono - edited 4 times]
www.sacramentalperception.com : www.jonathancastellino.com | |
Posted by Hi/Po
If you don't ask qualified professionals, you're not going to get rational answers and good evidence. You're just going to stand on a soapbox and go off on something you don't know much about.
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Couldn't agree more.
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
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