Posts Tagged ‘Guild Inn’
Christmas Reflections
To those who will join today with family and friends and celebrate Christmas, may I wish you a Merry Christmas.
My family Christmas tradition sees three generations of Laforet’s celebrating Christmas in Guildwood – where our Christmas dinner has been celebrated since 1968 and with the addition of spouses, children and family friends spans three generations and includes nearly two dozen people.
For me Christmas is a time to share with family and friends, catch up and reflect on the year that is quickly coming to an end. It’s also a time to make decisions about how you will spend the year to come.
This past year has been a unique and totally unexpected one for me that has seen many challenges and opportunities present themselves. My community involvement and activism have taken an angle I could not have predicted they would even when I decided last fall to actively work with Guildwood residents to oppose Toronto Hydro’s project.
While where it has led has been unexpected, the camaraderie and friendship that exists within Wind Concerns Ontario is second to none that I’ve witnessed elsewhere and I feel blessed to consider so many fine Ontarians standing up for their communities to be my friends.
Christmas 2009 will also mark the one year anniversary of the burning of the Studio Building at the Guild Inn – something that tragically destroyed a heritage building on a site with so much meaning to my community. It is my hope, by Christmas 2010 the old Bickford Inn will begin to look like it’s old maintained self again and we can move past the ‘lost decade’ the City of Toronto brought my community at the Guild Inn.
Next year I am sure will be interesting for it’s own reasons, but I look forward to the challenge and know I am in good company as we soldier on.
No Comments »Some Progress At The Guild Inn – Pictures of Guild Inn Hotel Demolition
For the record, the demolition of the cement hotel addition is the only form of demolition on the grounds of the Guild Inn I have ever supported. It pleases me to share with you photos I’ve received from Gloria Valeriote, a Scarborough resident who shares the passion I and many others from Guildwood and Scarborough have for this magical place.
Gloria had seen the photos Jeanette Mahon had allowed me to share of the Guild Inn Studio and kindly offered to share with me photos she had taken over the course of a number of visits to the site during it’s demolition.
The Guild Inn holds a very special place for me. When I ran for City Council in 2006, I did so because I opposed the demolition of the original Guild Inn building, the privatization of 7.5 acres of parkland, which included most of the gardens, the parking lot and access to the path to the water. Raising my concerns about these issues to the Councillor at the time and of the lack of information I believed residents had been given was met with a simple response:
‘If you think I am doing a bad job, you should throw down you’re hundred bucks and run against me.’
So I did.
My position was very unpopular because in my defense of heritage preservation and parkland conservation, I found myself opposing the only plan on the table, and largely on the outside of the debate. Then Councillor Soknacki and current Councillor Ainslie each supported demolishing the heritage buildings. Councillor Soknacki even had the Bickford Inn delisted as a heritage building and sought Council permission for it’s demolition, while Councillor Ainslie was still his Executive Assistant.
I argued from early 2005 that the proposal brought forth by Windmill development (this is somewhat ironic I know) was not economically viable, would harm our park space and would destroy a beautiful heritage site in the process. The response was a thorough mocking. The Toronto Star called me ‘one voice of dissent’ while the Globe and Mail referred to me as the ‘long detractor’ citing my belief that Windmill development’s proposal was not economically viable and would surely not meet the economic objectives they sought.
After a campaign that saw Councillor Soknacki and candidate Ainslie strongly support demolishing the heritage buildings, privatizing 7.5 acres of parkland and building a condoized hotel project twice the size of the current building, in January 2007, Windmill development announced a lack of economic viability to their plan, and it fell through. Thank god it did.
The failure of Windmill Development’s plan has allowed for Centennial College to come up with a more palatable proposal.
My view of supportable parameters for a project was simple, public retainment of parkland, preservation of heritage architecture, a purpose that serves our community. It seems many aspects of Centennial College’s proposal meet those requirements, which pleases me.
As a citizen, I am pleased to see Centennial College acting smartly, and demonstrating that in 2009 as in 2005 the heritage buildings did not need to be demolished for structural reasons as both Councillor Soknacki and Ainslie falsely stated to Guildwood residents repeatedly while selling Windmill Development’s plan on the developer’s behalf. I am glad to see the hotel tower coming down, and hopeful Centennial College will protect the remaining heritage component in their plan.
Below are Gloria Valeriote ’s pictures.
More Guild Inn Studio Pictures
I wanted to share these excellent pictures I received in my inbox from Guildwood area resident Carl Chalupa. Carl is a long time resident of Scarborough and like many of us has an affinity for the Scarborough Bluffs, and the Guild Inn. As someone who has taken many pictures on the site both before and after the fire, Carl was kind enough to allow me to share these pictures here. I thank him for it, and encourage anyone else with pictures or stories they would like to share to contact me at john.laforet@laforet.ca
Like many Guildwood residents, as the gate blocking access to the site came down, I began to wonder and speak to others about what should the future of the Guild Inn Studio be. Like many, I am considerably more worried about heritage as it relates to the Guild Inn than I am to monetary considerations. I believe that a very serious, thorough, unbiased review needs to be done to determine if the building can be restored using the original plans to bring it back to it’s former glory.
It is a disgrace that the City has allowed the whole site to fall into such a state of disrepair and this fire needs to serve as a warning that Guildwood could risk more of it’s history of the City of Toronto does not get on with the job of protecting the Guild Inn now.
Guild Inn Studio Before and after the Christmas Day 2008 fire.
Bench beside Guild Inn Studio
Guild Inn Studio window before and after the fire.
Chimneys after the fire.
A view inside
Burned exterior
No Comments »
