Towered said:
What's the incentive for them to take their jobs more seriously and show a proactive mindset?
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Good question. Clearly, any such mechanisms are insufficient, at least as utilized.

Towered said:
Are there any mechanisms for removal for mediocre job performance?
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Yes, even senior civil servants can be asked to exit, albeit, generally with severance. But its done relatively rarely.
 
Northern Light said:
On the one hand, I want the City to seize this for arrears so we can do something useful with it........... on the other............. @HousingNowTO will be only too happy to discuss the awful
neglect of 265-277 Wellesley which the City already owns..........and is heritage...........and vacant.
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It was already suffering structural problems more than a decade ago when the church was forced to move. Those certainly haven't gotten any better with zero maintenance, squatting and just the passage of time.

I love this building (especially pictures with it's original windows), but I fear it's probably not worth saving at this point.
 
Northern Light said:
I know some here, as seen above, have an appreciation of the clean-lines, modernism on display............I'm not one who appreciates any aesthetic virtue here, looks like a box to me.
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It is a box! But it takes a great amount of care, discipline and restraint to get a box that good. There are so many wonderful, subtle choices in the design. It provides a stark contrast to the current trend of junking up every building with unnecessary angles, curves and do-dads so that they stand out in sales renders. It really should be restored and preserved because it is a gem.
 
flonicky said:
It is a box! But it takes a great amount of care, discipline and restraint to get a box that good. There are so many wonderful, subtle choices in the design. It provides a stark contrast to the current trend of junking up every building with unnecessary angles, curves and do-dads so that they stand out in sales renders. It really should be restored and preserved because it is a gem.
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I guess it is not bad from an era of design that I am no a fan of.

Still, one has to question what can this building fit into. This is a office building design, and I am not seeing a office building being built here (or at all for a long time with all of the new office complexes in the pipeline).

So we have to ask, "can this be a podium"? I am not seeing it tbh.

Maybe something innovative can be done between this and 10 Mary? Now I am thinking way too far into the future because SoC is still holding onto it for god knows what reason.
 
It likely would be integrated into a podium structure with any redevelopment. This is what's being planned for its neighbour to the north.
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These things can only happen when it's current in-bad-faith tenants relinquish this place back to humanity and saneness... >.<
 
flonicky said:
It is a box! But it takes a great amount of care, discipline and restraint to get a box that good. There are so many wonderful, subtle choices in the design. It provides a stark contrast to the current trend of junking up every building with unnecessary angles, curves and do-dads so that they stand out in sales renders. It really should be restored and preserved because it is a gem.
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Agreed! Its clean, simple lines evoke Erich Mendelsohn's post-war German modernism(ie: Berlin's Columbus House or even the Schocken Dept. Store in Chemnitz). As for the modifications proposed to it by the 'Church' of Scientology, IMO they were hideous. Here's hoping ownership transfers to a sympathetic developer before another gem is lost to demolition by neglect.
 
zang said:
It was already suffering structural problems more than a decade ago when the church was forced to move. Those certainly haven't gotten any better with zero maintenance, squatting and just the passage of time.

I love this building (especially pictures with it's original windows), but I fear it's probably not worth saving at this point.
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Is there evidence of "zero maintenance" and "squatting"?

Genuinely asking, because from what I've heard, the building is pretty much locked tight. There are jokes going around that the building is still being operated in secret for some nefarious cult purposes, but the fact is that I haven't been able to find any non-Scientologists who've seen the inside after it was abandoned.
 
If the City got serious and chased it to get ownership in lieu of taxes, a brick cleanup, stripping the interior and rebuilding could serve to open much needed affordable housing, combined with market rentals. Street level provides for one or two retail opportunities. Every space like this throughout the city can be really valuable when it comes to building affordable housing.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
If the City got serious and chased it to get ownership in lieu of taxes, a brick cleanup, stripping the interior and rebuilding could serve to open much needed affordable housing, combined with market rentals. Street level provides for one or two retail opportunities. Every space like this throughout the city can be really valuable when it comes to building affordable housing.
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Or at the very least other civic uses.

AoD
 
Can not The City just expropriate this building then?
 
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