The Shannondale (née Electrohome, 152 Shanley St) | 8 fl | U/C

[cherrypark]

The developer is planning on reusing some of the salvaged materials from the old building in the construction of the new one.

I always like to hear this! Most people don't have any idea just how environmentally destructive it is to demolish and construct new buildings. There are colossal amounts of resources and energy being used from everything from trees being cut down, manufacturing of windows, material transportation, the concrete etc. Even if this developer is only using a small selection of materials, that's better than sending it all to a dump and ordering new stuff.

Armchair urbanists will harp on about stuff like getting people out of cars, building bike lanes and building dense towers. But few seem to consider what the cost of new infrastructure and density actually is.

It is a pity that adaptive reuse is such an uphill climb on feasibility, especially in the current splits of CRE vacancies to residential that seem to be some manner of new normal with smaller office footprints.