The University of Guelph’s historic greenhouse is now approved for demolition. City council unanimously voted in favour of the university’s request for permission to take it down on Tuesday.
The demolition included a condition to have the salvageable steel be retained for use in a commemorative garden. A motion was added to encourage the U of G to retain as much other salvageable material as possible so it could be used in its commemorative garden.
To repair the D.M. Rutherford Family Conservatory at 37 Christie Ln. would cost $5 million. The cost for demolition is estimated at $250,000 and for its commemorative garden, $750,000.
Delegate Betsy Puthon pointed out alumni established an endowment fund for upkeep of the greenhouse so she questioned how the building was permitted to fall into disrepair. The fund is at $800,000 and people who contacted her have offered to write cheques, she said.
There is an intention for the salvageable steel to be repurposed and reused in a design competition for the university’s landscape architecture students, said Harry Bakker, associate vice-president of physical resource at U of G, in his delegation via audio.
When asked if he could speak to the endowment, he sahid he understands it could be used for minor routine maintenance. Annually, $200,000 would be the cost and he said the endowment couldn’t cover maintaining the building at “pristine condition” over its life cycle.
City staff recognized the site meets eight of nine provincially set criteria for heritage designation and only two are needed to meet designation requirements.
“If council won't protect a heritage building matching eight of nine provincial criteria, I really wonder, what will this council protect?” said Puthon.
She urged council “to protect a treasured asset of our community by denying the university's demolition application.”
A couple councillors wondered if other materials like limestone and glass could be saved and used for the structure. Coun. Dominique O’Rourke asked staff why it can’t be required for the limestone to be preserved and move an amendment to require instead of having to “respectfully request.”
As staff explained, tt can only require what is listed as a heritage attribute in the designation bylaw approved in November, unless that intent to designate is withdrawn and re-crafted. A new one would be reissued and the 30-day objection period would restart, said Jack Mallon, city heritage planner.
The last notice of the city’s intent to designate was posted Nov. 21.
Coun. Carly Klassen put forward a motion with a request of the university. This is her motion: “That council encourage the University of Guelph to retain to the best of their ability as much of the salvaged material from 37 Christie Ln. and include and incorporate both limestone and glass into the redeveloped commemorative garden.”
Coun. Linda Busuttil, who was not at the Nov. 13 planning meeting, finds it disappointing the building allowed to fall into disrepair. She doesn’t have a lot of confidence in commemorative structures.
“So I would just like to say I take no pleasure in tabling the motion. It's a gorgeous building. Everyone would love to save it if we could. And I know there are lots of people who are of the opinion that we could. The university's report says that even if they were to restore it, it would have a relatively short life cycle of 25 to 30 years,” said O’Rourke, in her comments before the vote.
There is no guarantee how much of the steel, limestone, glass or any other materials can be salvaged or used for the commemoration of the 1930 greenhouse.
Coun. Leanne Caron didn't participate in this part of the meeting, as she declared a conflict of interest because she works for the university.
