Members of the Toronto Fire Department investigate the scene of a six-alarm fire Tuesday, January 4, 2011 that destroyed an historic building at Yonge and Gould Streets in Toronto early Monday morning.Darren Calabrese for The Globe and Mail
They call it "demolition by neglect": When an old building is left to rot until it either can't be saved, or it demolishes itself. Some collapse, like the stately, unique Walnut Hall in 2007. Others somehow catch fire, like the old Empress Hotel on Yonge Street this week. Either way, the landowner is no longer bound to protect its costly heritage attributes.
Preservationists have been sounding the alarm for years. "Buildings are moved out of the way so a bigger building can be built," says Lloyd Alter, president of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.
Heritage laws can keep a designated building from being torn down, but only if the Ontario Municipal Board is on side. And while the fragile buildings are still standing, the laws often fail to force owners - who frequently have plans to redevelop the property - to do more than the bare minimum to preserve them.
"The best approach is to use incentives to make it more appealing for owners to maintain heritage buildings than to abandon them," says Mr. Alter.
In the meantime, other heritage buildings in Toronto are sitting, unused and at risk.
For more on the histories and fates of these properties, click on the photo gallery above.