John Laforet » Blog Archive » More Guild Inn Studio Pictures and Commentary

More Guild Inn Studio Pictures and Commentary

by John Laforet
posted on December 30th, 2008 at 00:32:49 am

I received two additional pictures of the Guild Inn Studio I promised to share. They are both of the a fireplace in the Studio. I also want to share a comment that was made to me regarding the fire on Christmas morning. A resident who lives near the site reported hearing an explosion just before 5am when the fire is said to have started. I do hope Toronto Fire Services does a proper investigation into the causes of the fire and that those results are shared publicly.

The Scarborough Mirror also wrote an article about the Guild Inn Fire that included some commentary by Councillor Ainslie. My biases are known in this regard, but one of his comments seemed particularly ridiculous and completely without any factual merit.

“It’s a piece of the Guild Inn I would have liked to have seen preserved…It seems we keep taking two steps forward and one step back.” - Councillor Paul Ainslie

By way of simple facts, Councillor Ainslie supports the demolition of the main building – the Bickford Inn and has since at least 2005. He has supported up to 200 private, individually owned condo units operating as a hotel, and has supported the long term lease (read privatization) of 7.5 acres of parkland that would include some if not all of the garden area to a developer.

I strongly believe that the Guild Inn site should be preserved and serve a public and community use. I do not support any demolition of heritage buildings and find it laughable that a guy would honestly try and say ‘shucks that building burned… it was the only one I wanted to preserve’ while the Bickford Inn building, which is arguably more significant by way of heritage is likely to be demolished, and that is something he has and does fully support.

By way of taking two steps forward and one step back, if we explore this for a moment we will see his stint as Councillor has seen nothing but total failure to move the Guild Inn file forward. Councillor Ainslie was elected at a time when Westinde – an Ottawa based developer with considerable experience building Denny’s and strip malls in Ontario, was basically ready to go but could not find a site operator. Plans were drawn up, the necessary approvals were there, everything but demolition, sales of the condo units, and the construction had happened. In January 2007 – two months into his term, they walked away from the site, putting it back to square one. That same winter the Studio flooded and water was allowed to freeze causing damage and mould within the building the City was prepared to preserve. This September the City announced that Centennial College was interested (they have also been interested before) and agreed to enter into discussions with them. No plan has taken shape, no approvals have been given from Council, no money allocated, no timelines given and now a heritage building has burned down. So plans are farther behind then they were when he took office and the site is down a heritage building, and he supports the demolition of the more significant heritage building.

Does anyone see any steps forward?

Finally, back to the pictures. Below are a before and after of the fireplace in the Studio. Notice the round top of the fireplace in the first picture and then look beyond the stairs in the second picture and see the round top in the bottom right hand corner.