The demolition of the old Eaton’s department store building continues on schedule. In the past week there were significant advances made in preparation for the start of demolition work on the exterior walls.
The walkway bridge that used to link the parkade (now the Cityplace parkade) with the Eaton’s store was detached from the building and brought down to the ground by a crane. A second excavator was hoisted to the top floor of the building to assist with the top-down demolition. The C.I.B.C. branch relocated in the Eaton’s annex and opened for business in new quarters in Cityplace and the final section of demolition hoarding along the Graham Avenue Transit Mall from Hargrave to Donald Street was erected.
As reported last week, much of the roof structure has been pulled down onto the eighth floor of the building, including the penthouse structures that sat on the roof of Eaton’s. The mechanical equipment and the housing above the elevator shafts have been removed. The salvage of a variety of materials for recycling and reuse continues in both the main building and the annex.
There will be no activity at the site over the Labour Day weekend but the pace of activity will quicken on Tuesday, September 3rd. The demolition contractor, McColman and Sons, plans to continue removing the cornice around the exterior walls of the building and to begin pulling down the walls above the eighth floor beginning Tuesday, September 3rd.
The demolition of the top sections of the walls will be visible on both the Hargrave and Donald sides of the building. Large demolition curtains will be held in place against the exterior walls by crane to prevent any stray materials from flying outside the fenced demolition site.
At the same time as the walls begin to come down the interior of the annex will be completely gutted in preparation for its demolition early in the week of September 9th.
[MTS Centre Construction Demolition Archive]
