Le Séville - 7, 11, 11, 20 étages (2013)

[francely57]

13 juillet 2010

 

sur Chomedey

 

 

pluie

 

 

[FRED]

Seville demolition becomes street theatre

 

Seville block Neighbours watch crews chew through landmarks

 

By LINDA GYULAI, The Gazette July 16, 2010 2:53 PM Be the first to post a comment

 

 

MONTREAL - The Seville Theatre is attracting an audience like its legendary playbill did in its heyday, albeit this time the spectators are lining the sidewalk to watch its final performance as a Montreal landmark.

 

This week, a demolition crew began tearing down whole sections of the forlorn Ste. Catherine St. W. block that includes the long-boarded-up theatre.

 

Jim Knight sat in a fold-up camp chair in the shade across the street yesterday, watching an excavator chomp at the row of attached vacant buildings like a Pac-Man character.

 

"I live nearby so it gives me something to watch," Knight said from under a pink baseball cap as the machinery whirred and scraped.

 

"Look at that old brickwork. You don't see that any more."

 

Another man sat crossed-legged on the sidewalk in front of Knight. Other people leaned against a wall nearby.

 

A minivan pulled over and a woman climbed out briefly to snap pictures.

 

The crew started demolition at the corner of Lambert Closse St. and Ste. Catherine, where the old Texan restaurant once stood, and is working its way eastward to the opposite corner at Chomedey St.

 

That's the spot where the Seville opened as a live vaudeville theatre venue in 1929 and later served as a concert hall hosting the likes of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong. It closed as a repertory theatre in 1985 and has been derelict since then.

 

Last month, Mayor Gerald Tremblay joined Stephen Bronfman to announce Bronfman's Claridge Properties Ltd. and partner Developpements Prevel Inc. were set to launch work on a 450-unit condo and commercial project, dubbed Le Seville, on the block.

 

"It's sad to see the old Texan go," Steve Manitt, who has worked on the street for 30 years, said as he stood in front of a mesh wire fence around the demolition site. "I used to go there. You could bump into former or current Canadiens hockey players. It was nothing to see Jean Beliveau sitting across from you."

 

Taxi drivers parked at a cab stand on Lambert Closse said the demolition means it's good riddance to vermin.

 

The block was lately home to rats the size of small dogs, Jamshid Mohtajolfazl said.

 

"And about 2,000 pigeons have now lost their home," fellow cabbie Mahmoud Derayeh said, laughing.

 

Pietro Turchetta, president of A&A Demolition Inc., said his crew will take a break for Quebec's two-week construction holiday after today. They expect to make their way to the old theatre around the third week of August, he said.

 

The demolition crew gnawed at the back of the property for two weeks.

 

"It's nice to see how they work," said Paul Emile Larocque, who lives in a seniors' residence on Tupper St. He complimented the crew for its orderly approach.

 

He and his neighbour, Andre Portelance, parked their electric scooters on Lambert Closse, where they watched a small front-loader separate debris into piles of wood, steel and brick.

 

"A lot of people are just saying 'It's about time'," said Norbert Trutschnigg, who manages the parking lot behind the buildings.

 

lgyulai@thegazette.canwest.com

© Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

 

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Demolition+becomes+street+theatre/3285466/story.html#ixzz0tt9IGB4R

Modifié 16 juillet 2010 par monctezuma

[SKYMTL]

This project really excites me simply because the area needs a serious facelift. I always found it was a shame that Le Faubourg regressed so much in the last decade or so. Hopefully this will will bring some life back to the area.

[jesseps]

This project really excites me simply because the area needs a serious facelift. I always found it was a shame that Le Faubourg regressed so much in the last decade or so. Hopefully this will will bring some life back to the area.

 

+1

 

I can't wait to see life come back to that area. I feel bad for the future residents though. On the weekends going to have to deal with drunk kids coming out of Tonic which is 2 streets away on Atwater. Also the homeless will have to disperse.

 

Interesting thing is. Back in the 90s the Seville building was pretty much alive with Giorgio's (?sp) and I think there was a grocery store or something.

Modifié 16 juillet 2010 par jesseps

[WestAust]

It won’t be that bad, not like tonic could hold thousands of persons, also, this won’t be worse than living downtown, or a few streets off st-laurent.

 

If quality of construction is good, they won’t hear much.

 

As for the homeless, yes they will have to be pushed away from that sector, hopefully, the rejuvenation of the area that will come with the seville should be enough.

 

That building, and all of the area for that matter was going strong until 96 when the habs moved out, from then it was all downwards.

[benzaza]

Ce projet est tres tres interessant mais au dessus de 800-850 pied carre..ca fait tres trse cher...cest mon impression? ai-je tort?

[MTLskyline]

I'm afraid that this sort of condo development will primarily attract rich people looking for a pie-à-terre in Montréal, which won't do much to liven up the area. Not to mention that fact that currently many people who qualify for public housing have to wait years before a unit opens up.

 

The new building is too tall. Why even bother having a general plan? Anything goes, apparently, when you wave a bit of cash around. The OCPM burps and then rubber stamps it. Democracy.

 

I guess people don't incorporate front gardens into their real estate development plans anymore...

http://spacingmontreal.ca/2010/07/20/final-farewell-to-the-seville-theatre/comment-page-1/#comment-16550

Modifié 22 juillet 2010 par MTLskyline

[Cyrus]

The new building is too tall. Why even bother having a general plan? Anything goes, apparently, when you wave a bit of cash around. The OCPM burps and then rubber stamps it. Democracy.

 

What bastards... democracy = no taxation without representation, or rather, taxation in exchange for representation. Seville project is being done by the owner, thus no taxation, it's his to do with...

 

Front gardens? You are in the friggin downtown core! You want a garden move to the suburbs... note that only very old buildings have such gardens... why? They were in the suburbs when they were built!

[ToxiK]

What bastards... democracy = no taxation without representation, or rather, taxation in exchange for representation.

 

For those NIMBY and other chronic complainers, democracy means: "Do what I want! (But pay for it yourself)"

[rosey12387]

Thank goodness for you guys. I was just on spacing reading the comments and almost fell off my chair.

 

I am very pleased that we live in a society where differences of opinions can be freely expressed. But some people (on all sides of the spectrum) simply refuse to see anything beyond their narrow view of how they envision things should be.

 

The OCPM comment was definitely the worst for me. Lest we forget the Mackay .... or on an indirect note the Buddha Bar hotel project that was in mid-construction but was canceled because a provincial ministry decided it was ok to build on top of one historic building but not the other. Now in its place we have too beautiful gutted historic buildings (one of which has floors atop it looking something a la ilot voyageur) sitting there to rot just as the Seville theatre did. A huge case of cutting your nose to spite your face.

 

Excuse the rant...but grr...this place has the ability to be the best city in the world and the amount of stupidity that stops it from being as such is quite frustrating.