The chapel wing is definitely not salvageable in it's current state. Three walls will need to be dismantled and rebuilt. Once a masonry wall like that becomes out of plumb, cracked, or bowed, there's no 'salvaging'. The only 'repair' is to take it apart and re-stack the stones vertically.
For Ogilvie, I'm sure the back-up wall, steel ties, and bedding mortars were all in very poor condition after sitting for decades with no maintenance. Again, to 'Salvage' something in that state requires carefully removing and rebuilding. At least they removed it all, cleaned what they could, and rebuilt it to actually match.
To me, the history is on the inside anyways. Once the inside is stripped, drywalled, and painted white, the history is gone. Other than people feeling a sense of nostalgic comfort just looking at a building as they walk by, and sighing about the good old days. Neighbourhood character is a construct. We just need to be able to dictate better what we actually want.
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Originally Posted by J.OT13
Ogilvy on Rideau is a bit ironic since the structure was actually in fine shape. They could have saved it easily, but I suspect the "need" for parking was their main reasoning for demolishing, with layout coming in as a secondary motive.
I hope they are able to save the actual building. I won't be as enthused about the development if they need to rebuild. I'm generally against modern replicas of heritage buildings, but a replica using original materials could be worthwhile to a certain extent as a memory of what the site used to be.
I don't think any of it is NIMBYism. The convent is a small part of the entire project.
The previous design was oversized compared to the convent. I didn't mind the buildings farther out being that scale, but the one by the convent should have been smaller in scale. I don't remember if this was approved or not, but I don't think it was rejected by the City. Ashcroft made the choice to abandon the convent and let it rot, and they weren't in a position to build up the rest of the site.
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