I'm glad you checked it out and commented. There's more to address your points in the links below, and to my knowledge the heritage links (I see two actually) were never addressed, or if they were, not publicly. Alar Kongats is/was involved in work with Jaan Meri on the Tartu College residence, as I recall reading in EWR or EE, and he declined to comment on the EM in the Q & A after his lecture there. But he did show slides of restorative work he'd done, and it was not on the large scale shown below on the historic schoolhouse in Yorkville. The Chester Schoolhouse in EM dates from 1891 and if you scroll to the "Ex-Montrealer Girl, Feb. 20, 2015" in the forum there's a "photo" that describes the still existing and valued properties of "the oldest school structure in East York". Romanesque architecture, of which the EM Chester Schoolhouse is an instance, abounds in the Annex area around Tartu College if you want to see what it looks like spruced up. e.g. the York Club.

In EM in East York the Romanesque style is special and the thing is, a double case could be made to extend the concept of heritage preservation, if it hasn't been already, to structures that double as heritage sites for Toronto's fabled ethnocultural communities. As it happened EM preserved much of the Schoolhouse and added the now "vintage" fifties "modern" large hall etc to house the activities (musical etc) of the post-war immigrant wave. As you say these need work to function and show well.

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/t...

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/20...