Yea, I wish the building had been saved in its entirety... It was a stunning building and with a renovation or two, it could've been saved, but 30 years of neglect to a building, that took a tole and the city not knowing any better probably took that into consideration. Structurally it was safe, clearly we saw that. Look at the trouble they had taking it down. Good for the building. It gave everyone involved a good "F.U". The first part built, was the last to stand. The front 1906 steel entrance. We can't blame CF too much. Comack and Viking owned it for years, and never made use of it. Robinson's never made full use because they were too cheap to renovate it, and even Ogilvy's in the end could've made a little more effort and renovated, but again, NO MONEY, so the place rotted.
It hurt the city seeing this building be torn down for not apparent reason but to expand a shopping mall. They had an addition that led to this building and the whole west side was full of holes... again, it could've been merged together once again, but it wasn't. I'm thru looking at "what could've been", and I have to see it as the future and make the most positive I can from it. There's no point in me being angry and saying "this and that". I can't because it won't change anything. So instead, I've decided to write this book about the place and honour it that way. I've also got a box full of bricks and that's pretty cool. I've got my own piece of Ottawa's history right next to me. That's neat, and it is a 1916 brick among a few. You'll appreciate this book when its done, and the stuff in it will amaze everyone who cares about this place.
REMEMBER, when they originally planned an addition, they wanted to keep a lot more of the building, but because of the renovations in the 1940s stripping the entire 1906 brick off and replacing it with that more plain look, to make it look "original" again it was always decided to just take the stuff off the back and use it on the front to recreate the original vision of the store. It was expanded and approved by CO only because the space had outgrown. Now were going to get the original vision again. Something that no one in the cities eyes have EVER seen before. To me, that's the best honour you could've done. The place as it stood was nice and all, but going into the past and reading on CO, seeing his vision come to life again, and being reused in the 21st century will be cool. Also, all we've seen are computer generated images of what it "might look like". Its all 2D and flat. Obviously the rebuild will be spectacular when completed, and that's all I can look forward to. My book should be done in 2016 after the renovations and rebulid have occured. They'll be some special things going on for me between the rebuild.
Lastly, I don't work for the city (they have no jobs for anyone), nor CF (hmm), and unfortunately I'm not Barry, but I've met him a few times and we've talked about this place among a few others. He's a great person full of "heritage love" in him. I'm glad he took this one given the conditions applied. He didn't have a final say in this. He's doing what can be done best with what was given. I work in a music store, that's all. My passions are music, and heritage.
No one in all these years since its been gone has cared much about this place, but something inside of me is pushing me to do this project. Not sure what it is, but something inside me is telling me that this has to be done to preserve its legacy. People have to know, and I've been given ALL the tools needed to do it. I'm already almost 40 pages into this. It has to be done right. Wait and see
Quote:
Originally Posted by J.OT13
The heritage comment was just a smart ass remark; I never thought that building was worth anything to anyone.
Warning: the following is a rant that is way off topic, but needs to be said.
I'm starting to think you either work for the City, Cadillac Fairview or that you might be Barry Padolsky.
The Ogilvy building was not beyond saving. If anything, it would have been a simple heritage renovation compared to many others. Sure it was missing a few bricks and some of the spandrels were badly damaged, but the Besserer façade (since the expansion would have covered it anyway) would have provided plenty of spare parts.
The interior just needed a good cleanup. It just looked bad because a. it was gutted and b. broken windows exposed the interior to weather, pigeons and other wildlife.
Structurally, the place was as solid as ever, possibly even more solid than a lot of modern buildings. No one has ever indicated otherwise. If it was unsound, CF, Padolsky and the City would have used that as a reason for demolition. The steel frame also made it earthquake resistant, so no need for a retro fit.
As for the "time to see the building as it originally was", I would like to point out that Charles Ogilvy made sure it was built for expansion; he approved every single one up to its 5 floor rendition. That was Ogilvy's building, our building; we can't just tear down a building and partially rebuild to an earlier rendition because we are tired of the same old thing. That is the point of a heritage structure, to give people a snap shot of the good old times when things were built with great designs and built to last . Now, we will never be able to bring it back to 1934. And with the wall "hanging" on the Rideau Centre, I bet it will be completely lost within 50 years and the Rideau Centre won't last anywhere close to 100 years.
The only reason the City rubber stamp the demolition was because they didn't want to piss off CF. Yet, they don't seem to care about pissing off Melnyk, who owns the most important private business in the city. That I don't understand.
All across Canada, buildings in much worse condition are given new life. I recommend reading the "Great Canadian Heritage Restoration" thread. Here is a link;
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=203463
I know that it is gone and I know it won't come back and I know I am one to say "get over it" on other issues, but this will forever piss me off. I'm sick and tired of people justifying the demolition. I'm not targeting you in particular mac_junkie1, I'm talking about the City; I wrote a letter to save it in November and used it as an example of an epic fail heritage issue while trying to convince the City to put a heritage designation on St-Charles. Both times they justified that "oh yes, you will be happy to know that we are saving the original façade which will have a prominent place on the Rideau expansion". I know that you a** h****, but that is shit compared to saving the whole building, one of our last privately owned landmarks.
Heritage is more than a quarter of a façade hanging on a mall, it is the structure, the foundation, the space created, the space built and enjoyed by one of the city's greatest business men. In the meantime, we will keep spending millions moving ho-hum old buildings like the ones on Sussex and the Horticulture. We will also fight to save a brick shell that used to be a school on Cumberland.
That's another thing, anyone notice that the City never really cared about heritage neglect until after the Ogilvy was demolished? What's up with that? |
Prev
Linear Mode
