Demolition of germination and kiln Canada Malting Company began Wednesday.
Piece by piece, excavators pulled apart the aged steel and concrete that was once one of the most innovative buildings around, but a part of the architectural history that is the Canada Malting Company will remain standing.
The demolition of the germination and kiln buildings at the old Canada Malting Company began on Wednesday, Sept. 15, but the iconic silos that have been at water’s edge for more than 60 years will be left in place.
This two-phase and more than $12 million redevelopment project is an effort by the City of Toronto to make the site safe. The plan is to do some initial rehabilitation work to the silos and then attract development to the area, which will help to preserve the historic site at the foot of Bathurst Street on the western waterfront.
“The city had the resources to do a full demolition and they took a hard look at that and understood internally, and council approved, that there was certainly a portion of the site that needed to be retained, not just in a nominal way, but in a really important way,” said Mary MacDonald, the city’s acting manager of Heritage Preservation Services.
