Demolition to begin on Gore Park buildings

updated

By Adam Carter and Sunnie Huang, CBC News

Posted: Jul 19, 2013 10:14 AM ET

Last Updated: Jul 19, 2013 11:36 AM ET

 

Demolition is set to begin on historic King Street buildings facing Gore Park — despite a compromise deal intended to keep them standing while preservation options were discussed.

Site manager for Budget Demolition Will Bartels says demolition will begin Friday afternoon or Saturday and will finish in September.

The work is beginning despite a touted deal to work out a way of preserving the buildings' heritage elements. Just what is planned for the facades as part of the demolition is not totally clear.

Demolition signs have been placed on the fences surrounding the buildings on King Street. (Sunnie Huang/CBC)

The developer says the facades are not being touched for now as the discussions to save the heritage components of the buildings continue.

"Nothing has changed," Robert Miles, senior property manager with Wilson-Blanchard told CBC Hamilton. "The city and the owner are discussing the heritage frontage only and have never talked about keeping the buildings behind these frontages."

But Bartels says the front of the buildings will be being removed by hand to preserve the bricks, which will be used to rebuild the facades. He says that's because the old foundation is "crumbling and deteriorating," so the facades will be built on a new foundation.

However, this runs contrary to a statement made by Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr, who said on July 9 that the city and Wilson Blanchard had come to a compromise that "demolition would be stopped on the 24, 28 King St. Gore Park buildings as a solution is sought to maintain the architectural and heritage character of the Gore properties."

Miles says the company will be maintaining about 40 feet of the existing buildings until the city has reviewed an engineering study and they have finalized the "final method to go forward to save the heritage components of these buildings."

Looking West towards James Street South, circa 1865. (Courtesy Local History & Archives, Hamilton Public Library)

Patrick Richardson works next door to the demolition site, and told CBC Hamilton that he saw workers take out yellow bags with a hazardous materials sign on them. Bartels confirmed that portions of the building that contained asbestos were stripped out "a couple of weeks back."

Julie, a jewelry vendor who runs a stand in the park every Thursday told CBC Hamilton that she saw people walking around with walkie-talkies Thursday night and spoke to a photographer who said he was hired by the Wilson Blanchard team to take some photos before the buildings came down.

"How can they tear them down with all the people around it?" she asked.

More to come.

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