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The breathing wall, one of this city’s most revered hidden ecological gems, is no more.
Great Western Life, the insurance company that recently purchased the Canada Life building on University where the botanical ventilation system is located, has decided to do away with the floral feature.
The wall, composed of hundreds of plants and animal species, was designed to improve air quality and ease symptoms of sick-building syndrome.
Turns out plans are afoot to locate the government of Ontario archives, or at least part of them, in the ground-floor boardroom where the Breathing Wall lives. In which case, the moisture the mini-rainforest generates would be highly inappropriate.
NOW made the discovery after the company wouldn’t allow a photographer in to shoot the wall for a feature on city eco treasures.
Canada Life spokesperson Libby Jennings inadvertently spilled the beans that “long-term plans for future occupation of the building (namely, the archives plan) make it inappropriate for the Breathing Wall to exist.”
news@nowtoronto.com
