The city of Windsor got more than it bargained for when it let go of a big piece of its vibrant and colourful past.
Demolition recently ended on the Old City Hall, which saw its last city council meeting in May 2018. With the building now a part of that history, the city said it exceeded its target as far as recycling material is concerned.
According to Wadah Al-Yassiri, the city engineer in charge of the demolition, crews knocked that recycling figure out of the ballpark.
"Our set goal originally was 85 per cent, and we managed to surpass that and achieve 96.5 per cent diversion of non-hazardous material from the landfill," said Al-Yassiri in a video produced by the city of Windsor.
The concrete from Old City Hall played a significant role in that diversion. It was crushed on the spot, and then reused as backfill after the building's old foundation was ripped out. The city said out of 8,301 metric tonnes of waste extracted from the building, only 283 metric tonnes were taken to a landfill.
Preliminary demolition work began on Old City Hall this past winter and involved the stripping of the interior design and the removal of asbestos. Hazardous waste was then removed before the actual tear-down process began in late June.
The same downtown Windsor site had been the focal point for city government since 1904 when the old Central High School was bought by the city to serve as a city hall. The previous building was built in 1956, and mayors from Michael Patrick to Drew Dilkens presided over meetings in it.
A clean area of green space now sits next to the current City Hall.
A timelapse video of the demolition and the cleanup is shown below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=1eHFdCwFcH0&feature=emb_logo