Comment 66919

By -Hammer- (registered) | Posted July 26, 2011 at 16:26:46

Dear lord, no. There are many things I agree with Mr. Jelly on, but this is not one of them. The only worthwhile elements of this building are the mural at the front of the building and the statue on the west side, which could easily be removed or reincorporated into this structure or a different structure. Apart from them, the building looks like a stack of deformed harmonica's and it's circular rooms make the whole structure look odd.

Knock it down, McMaster's initial concept drawings show a lot of architectural similarities with city hall across the street and some welcome mesh of international and post-modern architecture into our city. I would like to see us breathe some life into the core with a mixture of both re-purposed worthwhile historic architecture and some modern buildings showing that we are progressing towards a denser, modern urban environment and not just constantly stuck in the past and simply rebuilding instead of building upwards. A modern facility does serve the public interest, bringing a state of the art facility and bringing students into the heart of the downtown core are direct benefits for Hamilton.

There are many more important pieces of architecture that should be fought for, such as the Royal Connaught Hotel, Dundurn Castle, the Pigot Building, Landmark Place, Auchmar, the Cannon Knitting Mills next to Beasley Park are all much more deserving of our attention then this eyesore from the 70s. As far as clearing out lots, yes I agree surface parking is a problem with the core, that needs to be gradually dealt with. In this case the cost of expropriating privately owned land is going to greatly exceed the demolition and sale costs of this building. Also noting the Federal building lots, that is currently in the hands of a private individual and where future private development has been promised (although we'll see how that goes) is asinine. That's not to say the current owner is a saint, far from it, but attempting to take land that he has for once operated in good faith and showed a plan for it's future is the wrong message to send.

Comment edited by -Hammer- on 2011-07-26 16:30:15

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