The corner of Yonge and Gould has to be the worst place in the city to set up shop. This afternoon, the brick wall above the relatively new Tatami Sushi restaurant collapsed, and now the entire area is closed off. Photos of the debris are already flooding the Internet, thanks to the fact that Ryerson University is right there. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt.
Tatami Sushi is just the latest in a revolving door of businesses that hoped to break the curse that hangs over 335 Yonge Street. Before Tatami opened in March, the space was occupied by Strata Shoes, which lasted about one year. Before that, it was the forgettable Frank’s Gourmet Hot Dog Restaurant that failed. Another generic shoe store was there for a short time before Frank’s arrived, but nothing ever got the same buzz as the adjacent Salad King, which has been downtown’s go-to place for cheap Thai food for years.
Our solution: Ghostbusters.
• Part of Ryerson closed after wall collapses [Toronto Star]
• Downtown Wall Collapses Steps From Ryerson Campus [City News]
• The Curse of 335 [The Eyeopener]
Interesting to say the least.
April 17, 2010 at 1:56 pm | by City ScrutinizerI wonder, myself having a background in the Ontario Building Code, was there a building permit taken out when they moved in? If the previous tenant was a shoe store, one would assume that to change it into a food establishment it would have undergone an extensive renovation.
Wouldn’t the building inspector have noticed obvious flaws on the exterior wall? Interseting.
If no permit was applied for, and being only blocks away from Nathan Philips Square (home-base for the City’s building department), I’m sure at least “1″ building official would have noticed the tenancy change and made an inquiry.
Oh….that’s right! The “Holier than thou” & “legislative-crazy teflon-Don” city employees would have turned a blind-eye.
How silly of me to think that they’d excersice their due-diligence to ensure the on-going health & safety of City residents. Oooops.
It’s possible that minor ‘leasehold
April 17, 2010 at 4:47 pm | by Rocket Galimprovements’ did not require a building
permit … although you’d think a plumbing
permit would be required … but that would
not necessarily motivate a municipal official
to look at the facade.
I put this incident in the category of cases
where other downtown buildings have recently
shedded mortor, glass, or concrete. Even look at
the Gardiner Expressway !!
It used to be Frank’s Gourmet Hot Dogs, so I am willing to bet most of the basic plumbing, electrical and such was still present, if not covered by drywall or something while it was Strata. There is a lot of construction around there, and that entire block of building has been completely re-hauled except for that lonely little corner. Maybe it was weakened after continuous renovations on the rest of the structure (10 Dundas East) and perpetuated by the construction just a block east. I hope they will look into the cause of it.
April 18, 2010 at 5:20 pm | by Curious