Fairview Park Mall - Grand Market District

[panamaniac]

They’ve started to remove the precast panels on the former Sears.

The panels are almost all gone and they have started putting up the new walls along the front face of the building.

So it's a reclad?  I wasn't sure whether they were going to reclad or tear it down an build new.

[ZEBuilder]

The panels are almost all gone and they have started putting up the new walls along the front face of the building.

So it's a reclad?  I wasn't sure whether they were going to reclad or tear it down an build new

I believe so because that is what it looks like

[ac3r]

The panels are almost all gone and they have started putting up the new walls along the front face of the building.

So it's a reclad?  I wasn't sure whether they were going to reclad or tear it down an build new.

Yeah. They wouldn't tear down the old structure as it's still perfectly fine structurally. They just got rid (sadly) of the brutalist concrete facade.

[panamaniac]

So it's a reclad?  I wasn't sure whether they were going to reclad or tear it down an build new.

Yeah. They wouldn't tear down the old structure as it's still perfectly fine structurally. They just got rid (sadly) of the brutalist concrete facade.

Except for a section at the back that they were persuaded to preserve, no?

[urbd]

Yeah. They wouldn't tear down the old structure as it's still perfectly fine structurally. They just got rid (sadly) of the brutalist concrete facade.

Except for a section at the back that they were persuaded to preserve, no?

Yeah near the back entrance. Sadly? I mean, I have no opinions about the brutalist facade (well I do, I never loved it), but I do know that keeping it would have made it really hard or impossible for them to renovate for a multi tenant building with active frontages as it is planned. This project will bring so much life to this forgotten part of the city - it will detonate a lot of much needed investment and activity in and around FVM.

[panamaniac]

Except for a section at the back that they were persuaded to preserve, no?

Yeah near the back entrance. Sadly? I mean, I have no opinions about the brutalist facade (well I do, I never loved it), but I do know that keeping it would have made it really hard or impossible for them to renovate for a multi tenant building with active frontages as it is planned. This project will bring so much life to this forgotten part of the city - it will detonate a lot of much needed investment and activity in and around FVM.

The city's main retail corridor is "forgotten"?  The thousands of people there every day must not have received the memo.

[ijmorlan]

The city's main retail corridor is "forgotten"?  The thousands of people there every day must not have received the memo.

And what exactly is an “active” frontage? If it means outdoor circulation only, without so much as a portico to keep the rain off while I walk from one store to the next, I’ll take a proper climate-controlled mall almost any day. What are the indoor corridor frontages if not “active”? Rarely does a mall have a blank wall on a main corridor unless it’s temporary for construction. The only problem I can see is that interior corridors aren’t designed to tie into other nearby destinations — one always has to walk through a large parking lot, no matter from which direction one approaches. But that can be fixed without making everybody walk outside in all weather.

[robdrimmie]

The preserved facade is still very visible at the mall, as it's on the side of formerly-Sears that faces the Expressway and King St. It's a good compromise between keeping some and being able to do new work, I think.

[white_brian]

I thought the preserved section was facing Jack Astor's (or whichever bar it is now)

[white_brian]

[robdrimmie]

I don't know what the plans say, but when I drove past on Monday or Tuesday night, this (the wall closest to the line, not the part of the parking lot where the line is) was where the facade was still:

   

[robdrimmie]

Showing it on the render from the first post in the thread. I think it might be the same as in the picture you posted, and it will definitely be less visible from the highway and while driving past on fairway than I had realized.

   

[Coke6pk]

Is it up still near Jack Astors / PiCO? Its possible they just haven't ripped down the Expressway side yet.

Coke

[ZEBuilder]

Is it up still near Jack Astors / PiCO?  Its possible they just haven't ripped down the Expressway side yet.

Coke

that side is all gone i have a picture put it refuses to upload so i'll attempt to get another.

[Coke6pk]

I wonder how they will make that fit into the faux-factory plans they have.

coke