"Is that crane still there?"
That's what a colleague of mine remarked one day as we headed to Red Brick Cafe for some refreshment. Yes, the crane is still there. And yes, it hasn't moved in about a year and a half. When global markets melted and recession seas rose, all work on the bricks and mortar formally known as The Gummer Building ceased.
It's been about a week since the third anniversary of the fire that burned out all but the mere of the historic Gummer Building. The promised replacement, a modern office building that incorporated the surviving structure, has yet to see fruition. In fact, a deal to secure an "anchor tenant" in the form of the Co-operators has yet to be even reached.
But I didn't come here today to recite the politics and economics of the Gummer re-building - Scott Tracey did a pretty good job of that in last Thursday's Mercury - I came here to give a visual retrospective.
April 6th, 2007 was Good Friday that year. And this was the Easter Present received by both business owners and people living in the apartments above.
In the aftermath the next Monday, I got these shots of the building along Douglas Street. What struck me was juxtaposition of burnt out building covered with ice from all the water doused on the fire to put it out. It was a weird and eerie but kind of beautiful sight as I recall.
Flash-forward three years later. I took these shots on Friday evening and what I saw was a building that was well on its way to completion. I hadn't been back behind the Gummer Building in a while, and I was expecting to something that was still a mostly burnt out shell. Not this though. I'm a fan of architeture, and what I see here is a building desperately crying out to be completed.
Despite all the reasons why not, I'd love to see construction on the Gummer begin again. If nothing else, let's get to a point in construction where that ungodly crane can be taken down and taken away.
That's what a colleague of mine remarked one day as we headed to Red Brick Cafe for some refreshment. Yes, the crane is still there. And yes, it hasn't moved in about a year and a half. When global markets melted and recession seas rose, all work on the bricks and mortar formally known as The Gummer Building ceased.
It's been about a week since the third anniversary of the fire that burned out all but the mere of the historic Gummer Building. The promised replacement, a modern office building that incorporated the surviving structure, has yet to see fruition. In fact, a deal to secure an "anchor tenant" in the form of the Co-operators has yet to be even reached.
But I didn't come here today to recite the politics and economics of the Gummer re-building - Scott Tracey did a pretty good job of that in last Thursday's Mercury - I came here to give a visual retrospective.
April 6th, 2007 was Good Friday that year. And this was the Easter Present received by both business owners and people living in the apartments above.
In the aftermath the next Monday, I got these shots of the building along Douglas Street. What struck me was juxtaposition of burnt out building covered with ice from all the water doused on the fire to put it out. It was a weird and eerie but kind of beautiful sight as I recall.
Flash-forward three years later. I took these shots on Friday evening and what I saw was a building that was well on its way to completion. I hadn't been back behind the Gummer Building in a while, and I was expecting to something that was still a mostly burnt out shell. Not this though. I'm a fan of architeture, and what I see here is a building desperately crying out to be completed.
Despite all the reasons why not, I'd love to see construction on the Gummer begin again. If nothing else, let's get to a point in construction where that ungodly crane can be taken down and taken away.
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2 comments:
I scanned the Mercury article. There was no mention of the cause of the fire. Do we know?
Hey Will. Here are the answers you seek. http://news.guelphmercury.com/article/412752
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