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Forwarded message:
From:   [log in to unmask] (Helen Edwards)
Sender: [log in to unmask]
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To:     [log in to unmask]
Date: 97-11-15 12:27:27 EST

Boy, does this strike a chord with me.Here in Victoria, B.C. we lost the
centre of our downtown to a massive indoor shopping mall a few years ago. A
total of 10 listed heritage buildings were lost.

To make matters worse, the developers assured everyone that they would
recreate the facades of a number of the buildings so that the streetscape
stayed the same. What a joke, They ran a bulldozer into the walls and
totally destroyed the original masonry then pleaded innocent when asked why
they did not re-use the original material. The joke around here was a
building which had been built to houe newspaper presses. It was supposed to
me so weak that it couldn't stand for long. Did they ever have trouble
tearing it down.

The final indignity is that the city designated two of the totally false
facades as heritage sites. At least they made the developer take down the
plaque which gave the original completion date, rather than the date of the
rebuild. We now have a Disneylandesque centre of town.  Two blocks to the
north, we have Old Town which has miraculously escaped demolition. What a
difference a couple of blocks makes.

I would not trust anyone to rebuild a facade. They will think of all sorts
of reasons why it cannot be done and you will be left with a fake. Good
luck with your campaign. If you need any further information, we have many
files on the process and are willing to share information