{"id":4829,"date":"2011-01-20T09:30:01","date_gmt":"2011-01-20T14:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingottawa.ca\/?p=4829"},"modified":"2011-01-20T09:30:01","modified_gmt":"2011-01-20T14:30:01","slug":"a-facade-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2011\/01\/20\/a-facade-too-far\/","title":{"rendered":"A facade too far"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Was it really worth all the work?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently the builders of the Central — a block of condos going in at the corner of Bank and Gladstone –re-installed the preserved facade of the the old Metropolitan Bible Church that they had torn down to make room for their development.<\/p>\n

Passers-by gave some feedback to the Citizen reporter covering the re-installation,<\/a> and reading what they had to say got me thinking about what I’d have told the journalist if asked.<\/p>\n

I’ve been going by the site at lunch hour for months now, starting about the time the engineers were overseeing Images of\u00a0 the “defacading” and preservation<\/a> of the old church’s front wall. I’ve talked to the sales people, taken home brochures, and tried to visualize what life in a smart new building on Bank Street would feel like<\/a>. It’s a fantastic location, to be sure.<\/p>\n

And almost everything about it just looks far, far better than the gloomy old mud-coloured brick church it is replacing. It was a building so dreary that if you didn’t know it was put up in the 1930s you could have easily guessed; the drab and unwelcoming structure seemed the perfect marriage between the grim financial reality of the times and certain kind of religiosity then in favour — the kind that looked down on pleasing design as a dangerously worldly concept for the faithful to concern themselves with.<\/p>\n

It’s not that I’m opposed to “facadism” as such — there are\u00a0 many attractive examples<\/a> of it, in cities all over the world.\u00a0 At its best it gives character and a pleasing sense of continuity to urban space. But this truly does seem like facadism for its own sake; on this block of Bank Street, in 2011, I think we would have welcomed a fresh start.<\/p>\n

photo courtesy of Images of Centretown<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently the builders of the Central — a block of condos going in at the corner of Bank and Gladstone –re-installed the preserved facade of the the old Metropolitan Bible Church that they had torn down to make room for their development. 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