Hintonburg heritage structure ‘house of cards,’ engineer says
There was virtually no mortar holding the stones together on a wall that crumbled off a Hintonburg heritage building last week, according to the engineer hired by the city to assess the structure.
“It’s basically a house of cards, this building right now,” John Cooke said of the Magee House during a built-heritage subcommittee meeting at city hall on Thursday.
The western wall of the 144-yearold building at 1119 Wellington St. W. collapsed on July 24, forcing a temporary road closure and evacuation of a neighbouring building. No one was hurt. Neighbours have returned to their homes and the road has reopened to traffic.
Cooke compared the building to the puzzle game Jenga, where only the weight of the pieces was holding the structure together.
There was loose rubble and sand between the stones and moisture washed the sand to the base of the building.
Last week’s heavy rainfall “was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Cooke said.
His report to the city recommends demolishing the rest of the building before late November.
However, the building owner disputes Cooke’s observation that a lack of mortar and rainfall contributed to the wall’s destruction.
Ovidio Sbrissa, who’s been staying at an east-end hotel since the collapse, believes ground vibrations from nearby development on Carruthers Avenue damaged his building.
He said he repointed some mortar on the building, which was confirmed in Cooke’s report.
Sbrissa, who’s an architect, said he never saw water infiltration.
He had plans to repair the roof in the coming weeks.
“It’s difficult to see the internal things that are happening with the walls. Even though I was monitoring every day, living there 24 hours a day, those things happen,” Sbrissa said. “I firmly believe what caused the collapse was not so much the rain or water. It was harmonic vibrations within the rock itself, and where did they come from? They came from recent excavations that happened there.”
He plans to hire a geotechnical engineer to look into his hunch about ground vibrations.
Nothing in Cooke’s reports to the city mentions vibrations as a potential cause of the collapse.
The city has acted on Cooke’s recommendation to surgically remove more of the building to make it safe in the short term.
Sbrissa must provide the city with a report from his own engineers before making a decision to tear down or restore the building.
He needs to have demolition or stabilization work undertaken by Aug. 20, although the city is flexible with the timelines.
Both sides say they’re working well together during the ordeal.
Going in and onto the building is considered unsafe. Sbrissa is looking into using tarps to cover the gaping hole to protect the interior.
Demolitions and alterations of heritage-protected buildings require council approval. If there needs to be more emergency dismantling of the building, the city can do the work and add the cost to the owner’s property taxes.
Cooke’s report says there are several cracks on the south- and east-facing walls.
There are holes in the roof. The wood framing along the roof is decaying.
“It needed major restoration about 40 years ago,” Cooke said.
The city in 2017 issued remediation orders on the building.
The city received a complaint about the status of the building in March 2018.
In June, the city noted minor mortar issues and flagged the integrity of the wood framing.
According to Sbrissa, the only outstanding issue was the wooden soffits, which he planned to tackle with the roof fixes.
The building is on the city’s watch list of vacant heritage properties (the city wrongly assumed Magee House was vacant).
Court Curry, the manager who oversees the city’s heritage program, said the city will hire an engineering firm to visit the other 23 vacant heritage buildings on its watch list.
The city will also give staff more training so they know what to look for when assessing the structures during regular checks, Curry said.
Sbrissa hopes to somehow save the Magee House.
“That was my castle in the city,” Sbrissa said.
“It was lovely living there. I would hope to be able to restore it. It depends on the funding. It depends on a lot of things.”