Magee House not yet an ‘emergency,’ city says
The rest of Magee House looks like it’s going to fall down at any moment, but the city’s engineering intel suggests there’s no emergency, leaving the future of Hintonburg’s crippled heritage building in limbo.
According to Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, the latest expert opinion from John G. Cooke and Associates says the crumpled stone building at 1119 Wellington St. W. isn’t a threat to public safety.
“At this point, the city has had engineers out to assess the state of the building and they have not drawn the conclusion that the building is in any imminent danger of collapse,” Leiper said Thursday.
“The statutory authority that the city has is very clear. The chief building official can order demolition of a building if there’s a public emergency, and a public emergency in this case is if the building was in danger of collapse. For the time being, the chief building official is unable to order that demolition.”
The latest Cooke report has not been made public.
The city said it’s monitoring the property and is expecting to provide an update on the file soon.
The property owner, Ovidio Sbrissa, doesn’t want the rest of his stone building to be demolished. He believes the ruins could be worked into a redevelopment of the property.
Sbrissa wasn’t home on July 24 when the western wall of the old building suddenly collapsed, exposing the interior to the elements. No one was injured. The sidewalk in front of the building has been closed since then.
“We’re punching back and they’re deflecting the punches,” Sbrissa said of his battle with city hall.
Sbrissa maintains his belief that vibrations from traffic and nearby construction caused the wall to collapse, not the lack of mortar in between the stones as alleged in Cooke’s initial review of the building shortly after the mishap.
Sbrissa is still peeved that the city ordered the southwestern corner of the building to be torn down as part of the public safety response to the collapse.
“They’re hanging it all on public safety. That’s fair. However, they came in there and they demolished and they shouldn’t have demolished that corner. They destabilized an important stabilizing element,” Sbrissa said.
Sbrissa has received an analysis from an Oshawa-based engineering consultant and said he has also asked engineering firm Read Jones Christoffersen to assess the building next week.
Magee House dates back to 1874. It’s considered to be the last building that truly illustrates the beginning of Hintonburg.
Sbrissa, who is an architect, talked up the building’s impressive stone architecture, which he described as a non-engineered building.
Today, it’s a mainstreet eyesore because of the collapse. Residents are having trouble believing the building is safe, Leiper said.
“It is a difficult determination for laypeople to make. If there’s anybody in the city or maybe the province that’s able to form an accurate opinion of whether or not the building is going to fall down, it’s probably (Cooke),” Leiper said. “That gives me some confidence that we don’t have that public safety emergency on our hands, but simply looking at it, many residents are having difficulties accepting that.”
Leiper said the city has peerreviewed Cooke’s engineering analysis on Magee House.
Discussions are happening between city staff, the chief building official and the property owner about what should happen next, Leiper said.
“At this point, I don’t know when this situation is going to be resolved. I know the city is taking every action it can to try to bring it to a successful outcome, which either is the building gets shored up and the sidewalk gets opened, or the building gets demolished,” Leiper said.
Only the chief building official can direct a building to be demolished and he has to act according to the provincial building code, he noted.
Leiper said he thought that after a Nov. 15 built-heritage subcommittee meeting, at which members heard the city was re-engaging Cooke to assess the risk to the public, the building would need immediate demolition.
“I was surprised that the building is deemed to be not in any imminent danger of collapse,” Leiper said. “I’m much more discouraged today than I was a couple of weeks ago.”