Compare this article by the Star's CHRISTOPHER HUME with this one I posted a few days ago about a similar situation in Paris.
In any part of the city, the loss of a building like 48 Abell would be sad. But when it's in a neighbourhood that has declared itself open to development, it's doubly so.
The three-storey warehouse across from the Gladstone Hotel may not be an architectural landmark, but it is a local icon, a cultural institution and a centre of art, design, photography and all-round creativity. Its vitality demonstrates the validity of Jane Jacobs's famous observation that new ideas need old buildings — that is, innovation and cheap space are directly linked.
That didn't bother city council last September when it voted to allow the demolition of 48 Abell to make way for — what else? — a condo. It was an all-too-familiar act of self-destruction in a city that seems bent on its own demise.
No comments:
Post a Comment