Bay and Nepean Demo, Part 2: 255 Bay Street

Last time, I introduced the series on the demolition of the houses on Bay and Nepean, with a background on the reasons for demolition and a profile of the former building at 249-251 Bay Street.

Today we'll be looking at 255 Bay Street, the cream coloured one in the middle of the row between Gloucester and Nepean streets. I just noticed that in this photo, taken late May 2009, they still hadn't installed permanent signage for the speed humps that had been installed the previous November (the first photo of Part 1).

And a week ago, there wasn't much left--though there is a permanent speed hump sign now. The removal of these houses opens up a clear view of the hirises behind. You can see how the downtown hirises come down to twelve storeys South of Gloucester Street.

Here's a view of the front of the house, in late May 2009. It has a bit of a shoreside feel to it, ignoring the graffiti. There's a fire hydrant in the front yard.

Similar angle a week ago. It was nice of them to leave the bush there. The fencing skirts around the fire hydrant, giving lots of clearance on both sides.

Another view from the front, showing the dark plexiglas elements under the porch roof. A pigeon on the top of the roof adds to the seaside feel. Behind the steps, you can see the porch is supported by a poured concrete block.

There's that concrete block, in front of the pile of rubble.

Enough with the front, here's a shot of the rear of the building, with a tree stump in the foreground, in late May 2009 (The tree was not removed recently). If you look on the second storey, to the left of the door (presumably to a former addition), there is some exposed wall.

Here's a closeup of that exposed wall section. I can make out four or five layers: from bottom to top, wood slats, fake brick patterned tarpaper [Edit: Insulbrick, according to the Ottawa Velo blog. Also, I see some of my photos were out of order--Fixed!], more wood slats, covered by a wood frame with the outer layer of siding. A curious pigeon looks on from the top left.

Back in late November 2007, there was some graffiti on the back of the building, and whatever rear bits of the structure had already been removed.

By late May 2009, the graffiti had been unceremoniously painted over in ochre paint. You can see the large boulders placed in the driveway, presumably to prevent people from parking on the site. Behind the buildings are the two towers of the Bronson Place apartments, foreshadowing the tall structure to eventually rise on this site.

The building on the left is the next one in the series. Tune in four more days from now, on Monday, for Part 3: 259 Bay Street.