Smelly setback for Sony Centre restoration: contamination?

By Ken Smith —

Trucks began appearing again at the loading docks of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts Oct. 19—but not to bring in sets for some new pre-Broadway show.

This time they were liquid bulk carriers, there to pump sanitary wastes out of parts of the theatre complex ravaged by a sewage system failure that left areas of the historic interior spaces within the auditorium complex not only dirty but possibly contaminated.

The sewage mishap occurred at some point during the prior two weeks at the grand theatre site, which is a favorite with 20th-Century architectural conservationists.

One thing appears certain, after the empty complex is properly decontaminated, restoration may be limited simply to doing some work on the grand murals in the lobby. The auditorium (whose stair wells were graced by the photos of stars who shone there)—together with some of its fittings, and its banks of seats, and its period public spaces and washrooms—will be ripped out and replaced.

On another note, the official ground breaking on the L-Tower condominium project may be only weeks away.

The objective of the city approving the condominium project (which will occupy the west side of the cultural site) was to have been to fund the restoration and renovation of the historic theatre. By year end, the Sony Centre will have been closed a year and a half.

Renovation and restoration of the not-for-profit Sony Centre for the Performing Arts and its grounds had scarcely begun before the sewers backed up.